@Michael Farris: Those who are teaching the infidelity of evolutionary …

Comment on EducateTruth.com promoted on 3ABN by Sean Pitman, M.D..

@Michael Farris:

Those who are teaching the infidelity of evolutionary theory in Adventism are evil workers, who are in the church teaching philosophy and vain deceit.

Such teachers may be wrong, clearly so from my own understanding of this issue, but that doesn’t mean that they are therefore “evil workers”. They may be teaching error, to be sure, but they may not know that they are in fact teaching error. I know that many of them seem very earnest, sincere and honest. From all outward appearances they seem like very good men and women who are doing their best to do what is right as they see it.

I therefore choose to give them this benefit – to acknowledge that they are likely doing what they think is right before God while they are doing contrary to what I think is right before God. Because of this, I feel it my duty to speak out against their actions as paid representatives of the SDA Church, but not against their motives – motives which may actually be pure before God (as far as I can tell).

Do I think they are going against clear biblical teachings? Yes, I do. But, many of them do not see it as I do – sincerely and honestly so. I respect their sincerity of heart and honesty of purpose as being holy while still recognizing their actions as being in error and resulting in grievous harm.

I know it is difficult for some to separate the person from the action, but this is in fact what we are asked to do. Sure, it is said that “by their fruit you will know them”, but this isn’t always the case when it comes to judging motive. Very bad fruit can be delivered with the best of intentions due to a lack of true knowledge on the part of the individual. Yet, it is the thought that counts in the judgment of God, not the result – good or bad. If the desire of the individual were to do good with respect to his/her neighbor, God accepts that desire as righteous even if the actions undertaken produced harmful or even “evil” results.

For me, I am so grateful to God for such mercy as he looks at me and my humble often erroneous efforts to serve him and my fellow man. I am so glad that He does accept my motive and desire to do right rather than the often far less than ideal result of my actions.

In short, especially when it comes to doctrinal issues like the literal nature of the Genesis account, please try to separate the person from the doctrinal error. We all fail, fairly often, without knowing or intending to err. And, when we do occasionally discover how badly we have failed, how sorry and embarrassed we are and how kindly we look upon those who dealt as gently as possible with us when we didn’t know the truth…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman, M.D. Also Commented

EducateTruth.com promoted on 3ABN
@Geanna Dane:

Um, I think the evolutionists are the ones who informed us about ice ages.

You’re mistaken. Evolutionists were not the first ones to propose ice age theories – theories which were around well before Darwin published Origins in 1859.

For example, Andrew Ure (1778-1857) was one of the top chemists of his day with an international reputation as a meticulous scientist, a prolific writer and an effective teacher. But he was also one of those brilliantly versatile men of science in the early 19th century. In 1829 he published A New System of Geology in which he proposed some new theoretical ideas for the reconstruction of earth history, one of which was one of the earliest conceptions of an ice age, which he speculated would have resulted from the Flood. One of the author’s he quoted was Jens Esmark (1763-1839)

Jens Esmark also argued a sequence of worldwide ice ages well before Darwin. In a paper published in 1824, Esmark proposed changes in climate as the cause of those glaciations. He attempted to show that they originated from changes in the Earth’s orbit. Adding to Esmark’s work, Bernhardi, in a 1932 paper, speculated about former polar ice caps reaching as far as the temperate zones around the globe.

http://creation.com/british-scriptural-geologists-in-the-first-half-of-the-nineteenth-century-part-4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Esmark

They have given us more information about ice ages than creationists have and nothing, I repeat nothing, is going to change that. They have no problem with ice ages whatsoever.

They have no problem with ice ages, true. But, they do have a definite problem with the idea of very rapid, even catastrophically sudden, formation and regression. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that scientists began to realize that glacial melts can happen many times more rapidly than they tought possible just 10 years ago – to include the melting of Greenland’s ice-cap as well as the Antarctic ice. No one thought that such rapid melting could ever happen as rapidly as it is taking place today.

www.DetectingDesign.com/AncientIce.html

What is it with Adventists suddenly talking a lot about Las Vegas, card games, houses of cards, gambling and betting? I’m bewildered.

It is often a very good way to get important statistical concepts across to those people who don’t usually deal with numbers and the scientific usefulness of statistical odds analysis… like you ; )

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


EducateTruth.com promoted on 3ABN
@Geanna Dane:

So…ice ages are scientifically impossible and therefore could only result from a global supernatural flood. The arctic seas became hot which caused very high precipitation. Then an extreme cold spell came along that made an iceberg out of high elevations and high altitudes, decreased the ocean sea level and dried out the Mediterranean basin. I assume these explanations fit within the 1000 gsaar threshold (geologically supportable argumentative age reasoning) of explanatory complexity

Ice ages are not scientifically impossible. They are certainly consistent with a global catastrophe that involved massive volcanic activity. And, massive meteor impacts may indeed have provided the sudden release of the huge quantities of energy needed to produce the initial catastrophe on a global scale. Also, it is well-known that ice ages would indeed reduce ocean levels quite dramatically – easily below the level needed to maintain water in the Mediterranean basin (which is known to have been dry during the last major ice age).

I fail to see what it is about this scenario that you find so “complex” and unbelievable given the starting premise of a sudden massive release of energy on this planet?… What would you expect to happen? Orderly weather as usual? The whole surface of the planet was broken up by the massive impact that set the whole catastrophe in motion… the aftershocks of which we are still feeling to this day.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


EducateTruth.com promoted on 3ABN
@Geanna Dane:

So did the mammoths dies of cold or starvation? Maybe it wasn’t the intolerable cold, perhaps it was too much snowfall that spoiled access to the vegetation they depended on. Unless most or all of the fossils had identifiable food in their mouths or stomachs (I have heard that some did), how could one possibly know?

It really doesn’t matter if they died directly because of the cold or indirectly because of starvation (though I favor the former idea). Either way, the evidence suggests that they, along with millions of other types of animals, died out very suddenly in line with a sudden global cold snap. That’s the key point here. The cold snap would result in a rapid decrease in the ocean’s water level, resulting in an opportunity to dry out the Mediterranean basin…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


Recent Comments by Sean Pitman, M.D.

After the Flood
Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!


The Flood
Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…


The Flood
Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…


Pacific Union College Encouraging Homosexual Marriage?
Where did I “gloss over it”?


Review of “The Naked Emperor” by Pastor Conrad Vine
I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.

Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).

Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.