Lots of thoughts going back and forth. It seems reasonable …

Comment on La Sierra University Hires Another Darwinist by Steve.

Lots of thoughts going back and forth. It seems reasonable that if you are a Toyota Salesman hired to sell Toyotas then is the dealership out of line when they find said salesman pushing Hondas to let that salesman go? There are plenty of Honda dealerships to work at. My biggest question in all of this is: “How does the problem of sin fit in with the theory of evolution?” Again this is pretty basic. At what point does mankind become sinful enough in the evolutionary process to be in need of a savior? The scriptures from Genesis to Revelation speak to our totally being lost and brokenness. LSU is a school that I understand deals with the whole person. LSU is not a union shop where one department has no bearing on the other. These are core questions that need to be addressed first I feel. No amount of intelligence or letters behind a person’s name will take away the fact that Christ came to save broken,lost people not “evolving people”. At what point am I a sinner in this process? Honest question.

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La Sierra University Hires Another Darwinist
@pualuc

I have been considering your response to the points I raised back on the 24th of Jan. and I appreciate your responding in an attitude of openness. I am not a full-blown scientist coming to the table in this discussion but I do have a Biology minor and taught Biology in our Adventist schools for a number of years to high school sophomores and have a decent grasp of the big picture. The text-book used was evolutionary at its core but over all the text was well written and I decided to use it. We did not skirt around the theory of evolution but took it as it read and looked at it from as many sides as possible. Interestingly enough my students begin to form their own opinions based on what we had already studied from cell structures to genetics. Most of them begin to observe a disconnect between the amazing complexity of life at it smallest and the possibilities of even that happening by chance or even over long periods of time in systems left to themselves. I’m sharing this to not argue the rightness or wrongness of evolution from a purely scientific view as I am not articulate enough to do so in this forum. What I did want to come back to was “Evolution and the Sin Problem?” Here was your response to that: “In terms of the nature of sin in a world of long ages for the animate and inanimate, this is not a problem we as Adventists uniquely confront. I know it does hurt our pride to ask how other Christians have confronted this question. We should not be so insular as to pretend we cannot learn from theologians outside our community.In terms of the nature of sin in a world of long ages for the animate and inanimate, this is not a problem we as Adventists uniquely confront. I know it does hurt our pride to ask how other Christians have confronted this question. We should not be so insular as to pretend we cannot learn from theologians outside our community.”
As a teacher who also taught high school Bible for many years I begin to see a very strong connect between science and theology (notice I did not say religion) And this was where I raised the question last week. I have read fairly widely and have not found how “other Christians” have confronted this question very deeply. We studied the plan of salvation in Bible class where man had a perfect beginning and chose to follow his own way and sinned. At that point mankind was in need of a solution to that sin problem or face eternal separation from God forever. God steps in with a plan for mankind’s total restoration through the person of Jesus. While on earth he healed diseases 100%, brought dead people back to life 100%, and assured people that their sins were 100% forgiven. None of these seemed to be a big deal for Jesus/God to do. Then I have the same students in Biology class looking at different ideas about man’s origins. You tell me as a teacher who has just shared that a God who can call dead people back to life is now in the “scientific realm” suddenly having to tell my students that He is handicapped and hobbled to create something from nothing? When Jesus healed did it take long periods of time? When He offered forgiveness did He tell the sinner it might not totally happen in this lifetime? I don’t have to look at the all the specific arguments as much as I look at what those arguments seem to be telling about the God of the Cosmos. I also look at many of the teachings from theistic evolutionists who by the very nature of the basis of evolutionary theories will eventually have to, it seems, write God completely out of the script.
If you think we can have it both ways I’m all ears and truly would like to understand the relationship that “Adventist Evolutionists” have for God in their scientific paradigm. Just some additional thoughts from an open-minded Adventist who has to see where a teaching is leading him in his relationship to God, closer or further apart.