Comment on La Sierra University won’t neglect creation teaching, president, chairman vow by Professor Kent.
Personally, I would have liked to see Adventist in High School attend La Sierra, where s/he would have rubbed shoulders with truly spiritual people who might have had a more positive experience on him/her than what s/he is getting here, or would get a public university. Regardless of whether s/he graduated from La Sierra an Adventist or not, I would like to see him/her feel loved by the Church, appreciate the good in us, pardon the wrongs, and speak well of us the remainder of his/her life.
Adventist in High School: please know that many of us are truly sorry about the negative experiences you have had. If I knew you personally, I’d love to have you visit my home, and we would have much to talk about. I would treat your views with respect. You would be welcome to sit beside me in Church, and I would bristle if someone from the pew rubbed Bible verses in your face.
Professor Kent Also Commented
La Sierra University won’t neglect creation teaching, president, chairman vow
Sean, what is going on?
[Edit – I’m sorry, but your posts on the topic of the “faith vs. science” will no longer be posted unless you decide to seriously address the questions presented to you. Simply reposting the same types of statements on this issue, while refusing to seriously consider or comment on the counter points presented to you, is excessively redundant and does not serve the purposes of this site. – sp]
La Sierra University won’t neglect creation teaching, president, chairman vow
I do see what you mean. He chose to attend Adventist institutions that are, according to you, inferior in instruction of non-religious elements, because he values the religious aspect of Adventist education more than anything else.
I can’t speak for your education at Southern College, now Southern Adventist University, but I like the “To make man whole” motto at Loma Linda University, where I occasionally get medical treatment for myself and my family. I admire what they do there. I’m not convinced that a superior education can result when the spiritual aspect of wholeness is neglected.
I still don’t see your point for denigrating SDA education. If one values private education, La Sierra University is a less expensive option than some other nearby institutions, including Redlands University and the Clarement Colleges.
La Sierra University won’t neglect creation teaching, president, chairman vow
Sean, I agree with you that our schools should not give up on the primary reason why they were set up to begin with – i.e., to be truly SDA schools that actively promote SDA ideals in all of their classrooms.
Recent Comments by Professor Kent
Gary Gilbert, Spectrum, and Pseudogenes
Nic Samojluk: No wonder most creationist writers do not even try to submit their papers to such organizations.
Who wants to waste his/her time trying to enter through a door that is closed to him/her a priori?
You have no idea what you’re writing about, Nic. As it turns out, there are in fact many of us Adventists who “waste” our time publishing articles through doors that open to us a priori. Even Leonard Brand at Loma Linda, a widely recognized creationist, has published in the top geology journals. I mean the top journals in the discipline.
The myth that creationists cannot publish in mainstream science is perpetuated by people who simply do not understand the culture of science–and will remain clueless that they do not understand it even when confronted with their misunderstandings. Such is human nature.
Southern Adventist University opens Origins Exhibit
Pauluc,
Your questions about conservation genetics are very insightful. I don’t understand how all these life forms were able to greatly increase in genetic diversity while simultaneously winding down and losing genetic information to mutations. Sean seems to insist that both processes happen simultaneously. I had the impression he has insisted all along that the former cannot overcome the latter. But I think you must be right: God had to intervene to alter the course of nature. However, we can probably test this empirically because there must be a signature of evidence available in the DNA. I’ll bet Sean can find the evidence for this.
I’m also glad the predators (just 2 of most such species) in the ark had enough clean animals (14 of each such species) to eat during the deluge and in the months and years after they emerged from the ark that they didn’t wipe out the vast majority of animal species through predation. Maybe they all consumed manna while in the ark and during the first few months or years afterward. Perhaps Sean can find in the literature a gene for a single digestive enzyme that is common to all predatory animals, from the lowest invertebrate to the highest vertebrate. Now that would be amazing.
Wait a minute–I remember once being told that SDA biologists like Art Chadwick believe that some animals survived on floating vegetation outside the ark. Now that would solve some of these very real problems! I wonder whether readers here would allow for this possibility. Multiple arks without walls, roof, and human caretakers.
Southern Adventist University opens Origins Exhibit
Ellen White said, “In the days of Noah, men…many times larger than now exist, were buried, and thus preserved as an evidence to later generations that the antediluvians [presumably referring to humans] perished by a flood. God designed that the discovery of these things should establish faith in inspired history…”
Sean Pitman said, “All human fossils discovered so far are Tertiary or post-Flood fossils. There are no known antediluvian human fossils.”
Ellen White tells us that humans and dinosaurs (presumably referred to in the statement, “a class of very large animals which perished at the flood… mammoth animals”) lived together before the flood. Evolutionary biologists tell us that dinosaurs and humans never lived together. You’re telling us, Sean, that the fossil record supports the conclusion of evolutionists rather than that of Ellen White and the SDA Church. Many of the “very large animals which perished at the flood” are found only in fossil deposits prior to or attributed to the flood, whereas hunans occur in fossil deposits only after the flood (when their numbers were most scarce).
Should the SDA biologists, who are supposed to teach “creation science,” be fired if they teach what you have just conceded?
La Sierra Univeristy Fires Dr. Lee Greer; Signs anti-Creation Bond
For those aghast about the LSU situation and wondering what other SDA institutions have taken out bonds, hold on to your britches. You’ll be stunned when you learn (soon) how many of our other schools, and which ones in particular, have taken out these bonds. You will be amazed to learn just how many other administrators have deliberately secularized their institutions besides Randal Wisbey, presumably because they too hate the SDA Church (as David Read has put it so tactfully).
Be sure to protest equally loudly.
Gary Gilbert, Spectrum, and Pseudogenes
@Sean Pitman:
So clearly you believe that science can explain supernatural events. Congratulations on that.
