“ “Where are the leaders who “are not afraid to …

Comment on Readers respond to Adventist Review article by Ron Nielsen.

“ “Where are the leaders who “are not afraid to call sin by its right name?” Where are those who “will stand for truth though the heavens fall?” Where are those who “will not be bought or sold.” ”

Lydian,
That’s me. I am standing for the truth though the heavens, or even though my church falls. It may be a sin to teach evolution, but it is even a graver sin to advance the truth through coercion of the conscience.
Sean, it is not true that you are simply opening up the topic for discussion. You are not presenting a cogent argument for or against evolution, you are accusing the teachers and staff of La Sierra of being disingenuous, and you are advocating that the teachers be fired. If you have evidence for creation and against evolution, then by all means enter the discussion and present it in a way that will convince the intellect and convict the conscience, but everyone, teacher and student alike, must be free to decide without coercion. God cannot accept a forced allegiance.

Lydian, our students are not at risk from one or even many of our Adventist teachers teaching evolution. Evolution pervades the world we live in and it is impossible to shield them from it. What threatens our students the most is the refusal of the church to deal with the issue, to enter the discussion in an open, even handed way and to present convincing arguments. If our generation, meaning the generation of the teachers, is lost to the theory of evolution, it was lost because our fathers failed to confront the issue head on with intellectual honesty and integrity.

The very foundation of our church is openness to truth. We are here because our forefathers were willing to risk being heretics and to be excommunicated from their churches in order to ask difficult and disturbing questions. And they were willing to tolerate the painful dissonance of opposing opinions within the church and to stay engaged in the discussion until everyone was convinced, not by force, but by reason and conscience. Our church may be lost in this battle over evolution, but it won’t be lost by tolerating heresy, it will be lost by not tolerating heresy. The heresy of Present Truth brought to us through the Holy Spirit in the form of heretics. We will lose it because we fail to heed the advice of Jesus to let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest.

Pastor McComb, Please also note that Mrs. White never attacked Dr. Kellogg and she never demanded his resignation. To do so is sin of the most violent kind.

Recent Comments by Ron Nielsen

Changing the Wording of Adventist Fundamental Belief #6 on Creation

Sean Pitman: No one is demanding that they “get out of the church”. . . . . anti-Adventist views on such a fundamental level.

You don’t see how characterizing a dedicated believer’s understanding of truth as “fundamentally anti-Adventist” would drive them out of the church?

I guess that explains why you don’t see that what you are doing here is fundamentally wrong.


Changing the Wording of Adventist Fundamental Belief #6 on Creation

Professor Kent: Nothing saddens me more than the droves who leave the Church when they learn that many of their cherished beliefs regarding this evidence don’t hold up so well to scrutiny.

I agree. I am sure that Sean and Bob don’t mean to undermine faith in God, but every time they say that it is impossible to believe in God and in science at the same time, I feel like they are telling me that any rational person must give up their belief in God, because belief in God and rationality can’t exist in the same space. Who would want to belong to that kind of a church?


Changing the Wording of Adventist Fundamental Belief #6 on Creation

Sean Pitman: and have little if anything to do with the main point of their prophetic claims

And by analogy, this appears to be a weak point in the creation argument. Who is to decide what the main point is?

It seems entirely possible that in trying to make Gen. 1 too literal, that we are missing the whole point of the story.


Changing the Wording of Adventist Fundamental Belief #6 on Creation
Regarding falsifying the existence of God through the miraculous:

While it is true that one can’t falsify the existance of God and the Biblical miracles at a philosophical level, it seems to me that it is possible to falsify it at a practical level. For instance prayer for healing. How many families who pray for a miracle for a loved one in the Intensive Care Unit receive a miracle?

While the answer to that question doesn’t answer the question of the existence of God at a philosophical level, it does answer the question at a practical level. After 36 years of medical practice I can say definitively that at a practical level when it comes to miracles in the ICU, God does not exist. Even if a miracle happens latter today, it wouldn’t be enough to establish an expectation for the future. So at a practicle level it seems it is possible level to falsify the existence od God, or at least prove His nonintervention which seems to me to be pretty much the same thing at a functional level.


Changing the Wording of Adventist Fundamental Belief #6 on Creation
@Sean Pitman:
Sean, what is your definition of “Neo-darwinism” as opposed to “Darwinism” as opposed to “evolution”?