Compare the attitude of the dogmatists at Emory with this …

Comment on Emory University “Welcomes” Commencement Speaker Dr. Ben Carson by Art Chadwick.

Compare the attitude of the dogmatists at Emory with this quotation in a lesson on “Science and Pseudoscience” from an interactive educational program by Steven K. Lower:

“Psuedosciences are based largely on dogma and uncritical belief, and hence tend to resist change once they have been developed. Their advocates and practitioners generally regard attempts to alter them as hostile.

In contrast, skepticism is the very lifeblood of science; it is only by questioning and testing its ideas and theories that new questions are revealed and the science can advance.

Pseudosciences tend to be fairly static in this regard; the small amount of research and experimentation that is carried out is generally done more to “justify” the belief than to extend it.

Sciences advance by accommodating themselves to change as new information is obtained.

“In the pseudosciences, a challenge to accepted dogma is often considered a hostile act if not heresy, and leads to bitter disputes or even schisms. In science, the person who shows that a generally accepted belief is wrong or incomplete is more likely to be considered a hero than a heretic.”

If evolution were a good theory, its promoters would not want it called a “fact”, since theories are far nobler things than “facts”. The attempts by some faculty at Emory and others to dogmatize evolution as a “fact” are indicators that evolution is closer to a religious belief than many of its promoters would wish to acknowledge.

Richard Feynman in “The Meaning of it All” (p. 28) discusses the importance of understanding the tentative nature of science.

“This freedom to doubt is an important matter in the sciences and, I believe, in other fields. It was born of a struggle. It was a struggle to be permitted to doubt, to be unsure. And I do not want us to forget the importance of the struggle and, by default, to let the thing fall away. I feel a responsibility as a scientist who knows the great value of a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, and the progress made possible by such a philosophy, progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought. I feel a responsibility to proclaim the value of this freedom and to teach that doubt is not to be feared, but that it is to be welcomed as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations.

Doubt is clearly a value in the sciences. Whether it is in other fields is an open question and an uncertain matter. […D]oubt is not a fearful thing, but a thing of very great value.”

Recent Comments by Art Chadwick

Common Arguments Against a 7-Day Creation Week
Note added in proof:
https://gumc.georgetown.edu/news/Review-Finds-Fathers-Age-Lifestyle-Associated-With-Birth-Defects


Common Arguments Against a 7-Day Creation Week
This passage from the book Patriarchs and Prophets might have been seen as abject nonsense ten years ago. But trusting and waiting has enabled us to begin to see the mechanisms of the processes by which the influence of the parents, both father and mother are transmitted to the offspring. We have much more to learn, but no informed individual can question that the processes described here can occur and can affect the offspring (see, for example http://www.adventistreview.org/1601-19 ).

“God had an important work for the promised child of Manoah to do, and it was to secure for him the qualifications necessary for this work that the habits of both the mother and the child were to be carefully regulated. “Neither let her drink wine or strong drink,” was the Angel’s instruction for the wife of Manoah, “nor eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.” The child will be affected for good or for evil by the habits of the mother. She must herself be controlled by principle and must practice temperance and self-denial, if she would seek the welfare of her child. Unwise advisers will urge upon the mother the necessity of gratifying every wish and impulse, but such teaching is false and mischievous. The mother is by the command of God Himself placed under the most solemn obligation to exercise self-control.

And fathers as well as mothers are involved in this responsibility. Both parents transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites, to their children. As the result of parental intemperance children often lack physical strength and mental and moral power. Liquor drinkers and tobacco users may, and do, transmit their insatiable craving, their inflamed blood and irritable nerves, to their children. The licentious often bequeath their unholy desires, and even loathsome diseases, as a legacy to their offspring. And as the children have less power to resist temptation than had the parents, the tendency is for each generation to fall lower and lower. To a great degree parents are responsible not only for the violent passions and perverted appetites of their children but for the infirmities of the thousands born deaf, blind, diseased, or idiotic.”


Common Arguments Against a 7-Day Creation Week
Nicely done, Sean. Gracious, and very thorough. Thank you.


The Full History of La Sierra University vs. Louie Bishop
How ironic that this scholar, graduate of one of the great campuses of UC, distinguished as possibly the greatest golfer in the history of the Davis campus (my brother in law was one of his coaches), also widely recognized there for his high morals and his spiritual integrity, chooses to continue his education at a school of his own faith and is assaulted and stigmatized when he discovers that the college is not living up to those principles of faith and attempts to tactfully remind them of the problems. How sad. How terribly sad. Take comfort.Jesus was himself rejected and was finally crucified when he warned the pharisees and saducees of their errors and tried to reach them.


LSU Responds to Issues Regarding Dr. Diaz and WASC
I am fearful that we may not see the awful consequences of failing to act when there is blatant disregard for the truth of the Scriptures being promoted by an agency of our church. Nor can we, individually or as a church, just ignore this. The whole church suffers when we fail to act to deal with sin in our midst. I pray that our leaders may be courageous to face this problem at La Sierra and elsewhere. The following quotation supports the contention that all of us should be very concerned:

“I was shown that the manner of Achan’s confession was similar to the confessions that some among us have made and will make. They hide their wrongs and refuse to make a voluntary confession until God searches them out, and then they acknowledge their sins. A few persons pass on in a course of wrong until they become hardened. They may even know that the church is burdened, as Achan knew that Israel were made weak before their enemies because of his guilt. Yet their consciences do not condemn them. They will not relieve the church by humbling their proud, rebellious hearts before God and putting away their wrongs. God’s displeasure is upon His people, and He will not manifest His power in the midst of them while sins exist among them and are fostered by those in responsible positions.”

— Testimonies for the Church Volume Three, page 270