@Kenneth Christman, M.D.: It is a grave mistake to question …

Comment on Emory University “Welcomes” Commencement Speaker Dr. Ben Carson by Sean Pitman.

@Kenneth Christman, M.D.:

It is a grave mistake to question evolutionists’ ethics.

Dr. Carson wasn’t questioning anyone’s morality/ethics – i.e., he wasn’t questioning the fact that even atheists can achieve a very high level of ethical and moral behavior (to the point of shaming most Christians on occasion). In fact, Dr. Carson specifically pointed out that many atheistic evolutionists are very ethical and morally upright.

What Dr. Carson questions is the rational basis for ethics/morality. What is the basis of morality if there is no God? no ultimate source of Authority who defines what is right and wrong? who defines absolute moral truth? Without such a reference point, morality is relative… relative to one’s own personal frame of reference and ideals.

What Dr. Carson is indirectly suggesting is that atheistic evolutionists unwittingly derive their morality, their ethical values, from the very God that they deny exists – that there is a universal morality that is known within each one (as if Someone wrote a common moral code on within every person). Otherwise, morality would be entirely relative. No one could really say that the actions of anyone else where truly “bad” or “evil” – only relatively so from their own personal perspective and not from some fixed external point of reference.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman Also Commented

Emory University “Welcomes” Commencement Speaker Dr. Ben Carson
@Ron:

Dr. Carson wasn’t invited to speak at Emory University on the topic of origins. He was invited to give a motivational commencement address. It seems strange, then, that his position on origins became an issue.

Of course, it is perfectly reasonable that an institution that has taken a stand on neo-Darwinism wouldn’t want anyone coming along to undermine that position. Certainly such a university would not hire a Creationist to promote creationism in its biology classes. That’s perfectly reasonable from the mainstream position.

Never mind that neo-Darwinism is supposed to have the support of so much “overwhelming” empirical evidence that it hardly needs defending. It seems strange, therefore, that neo-Darwinists are so concerned over the possibility that their students might become confused by those who support the creationist position with empirical arguments of their own.

As far as teachers in our schools are concerned, they have been specifically asked, by the Adventist Church, to actively promote the Adventist position on origins – something that hasn’t been done at LSU for a very long time. Obviously, it is counterproductive to actually hire someone to attack and actively undermine that which you’ve hired him/her to do.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


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