Comment on Creationist students find little support from LSU by Lorelei.
@Bob:
You are right – I made a typo – I meant to type “LSU” rather than “LLU.” I apologize for the confusion.
Wikipedia defines creationism this way: “Creationism is the religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural agency.” Therefore, if I believe that God used evolution as a means to create life, I am by this definition a creationist. However, if you define a creationist as one who believes in a literal interpretation of the Genesis account, then you’re right – I’m not a creationist. It all depends on your definition of the word.
Similarly, in interpreting the Bible, it comes down to your hermeneutic. If you try to interpret everything in the Bible literally, you will run into trouble very quickly. In my opinion, the key to interpretation is to seek to understand the intent of the author. I believe that the intent of the creation story is to convey that we were purposed and designed by one all-powerful God, who saw what He had made and declared it good. Whether He created the world in 6 days or over billions of years doesn’t change the beauty of that message – that He exists, that He created us, that He delights in us. But if you insist on a literal interpretation, Genesis 2:4 states “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created,” – why did the author use the word “generations” if he was speaking of literal days?
If you are willing to take 5 minutes to read something yourself, go to: http://www.theisticevolution.org/lit_genre.html and read the very interesting and enlightening article there.
I am curious – have you ever rigorously researched the evidence for evolution? You casually refer to it as “blunder, junk science and myth” – but can you prove it to be so? Evolution is provable by science; creation is not. By completely discounting established scientific fact as rubbish, you betray that your head is entirely buried in sand.
It is ridiculous to assert that by teaching students evolution that they will thereby lose their faith in God – unless you force them to make a choice between believing in scientific fact and believing in God. If the professors you and others have labeled (and in many cases, libeled) are indeed evolutionists and are also Christians (as all of them are), then it’s obvious that belief in evolution and faith in God are not wholly incompatible.
I am completely baffled as to how the texts you cited establish that creationism vs. evolution is a salvation issue. The fourth commandment does not mention salvation, and neither does the passage in Spiritual Gifts. Can you provide any Biblical evidence that my salvation is somehow threatened by my belief in a God-designed and God-driven evolution? My interpretation of the Bible leads me to believe that I am saved by Christ – not by what I believe about how long it might have taken God to create the earth.
@Denver
The difference between you and I is that I am comfortable allowing you to believe what you wish to believe about creation/evolution without implying that you are by the very act of expressing your opinion somehow being inconsiderate to those who disagree with you. I am simply trying to suggest that we not “hold captive” our students by withholding information from them (even if it competes with the traditional stance of our church) – but that we instead give them the very best information available within a supportive Christian environment, and allow them the freedom to make up their own minds about what to believe. I believe that this is what LSU has done, and I appreciate that they respect the intellect and faith of their students enough to entrust them with this information. I fear that if our schools do not teach evolution at all, more and more young people will leave the church as they become disillusioned when faced with the overwhelming evidence in support of evolution.
@Ron
The tone of nearly every one of your comments is spiteful. The majority of the comments on this site are derisive and mean-spirited towards the professors and administrators of LSU. I don’t see any evidence of constructive criticism being offered in a spirit of humility and love – I see a bunch of pharisees plumped up with self-righteousness crying “Crucify him! Crucify him!” If that’s not hate, I don’t know what is.
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Creationist students find little support from LSU
I applaud the professors at LLU for giving students the scientific knowledge they need in order to function in the real world. Conservative Christians may not like it, but need to understand that evolution is accepted as fact by the rest of the world – and many Creationists (including myself) do not see why evolution could not have been God’s means to create. I happen to know several LSU students who in the past were NOT taught about evolution, and after leaving school and being confronted with the overwhelming scientific evidence for it, they felt they had been deliberately deceived and betrayed by the school and by the church, and actually lost their faith in God as a result. How sad that we have forced students to choose between faith in God and scientific fact!
Creation vs. evolution is NOT a salvation issue. One would think from some of the hate-filled comments on this site that many here believe it is. You might want to spend some more time reading what the Bible says about taking the log from your own eye before trying to remove the speck from someone else’s.
