Comment on LSU forms faith in evolution by Eugene Shubert.
Sean Pitman M.D.
It is about time LSU comes clean and at least admits what its own faculty actually stand for and teach as the gospel truth in their own classrooms. Why the need for more slick PR compaigns that give a false impression about what LSU is all about? – when it comes to all that it clearly stands for? For me this very sort of false advertising is far more upsetting than LSU professors promoting mainstream evolutionary thinking in the classroom. Personally, I would far rather see LSU come clean about what it is in fact doing rather than to see these continued efforts to cover up or evade direct questions about what is truly going on.
I have the same feelings about the General Conference. Why don’t they come clean and openly acknowledge the danger that Seventh-day Adventists face in Seventh-day Adventist institutions and churches?
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has a reluctant prophet who believes that God gave him an inspired dream about the cover up going on at the General Conference, but he has no interest in putting his good standing with the Church in jeopardy. Isn’t his cowardice in the face of a terrible crisis typical of virtually all Church leaders?
The first half of his dream depicts the GC conspiracy in extraordinarily vivid terms. I understand the symbolic meaning of the entire dream but feel that I should wait for the reluctant prophet to interpret it.
Here is the opening scene and context to Steve Starman’s dream:
“As it began, I was driving on a beautiful, winding country road. There were magnificent green trees all along the way, and shafts of sunlight were permeating the greenery at intervals. It was exceedingly peaceful. I came to a street or long driveway intersecting upon my right, and pulled the car off the road to take a look. The road led quite a way to a rather large building that had an ominous feel to it. The building itself was not unusual—just a single-story, normal-looking office style. I often pulled over and looked at this building on my way home, just as I was then. There was just something about it that wasn’t quite right; at this time I can’t remember what set it apart from others. It seemed that there was an inordinate amount of security and secrecy there. I could never tell from my stops whether it was a government building or a research facility, but it certainly had that feel. My curiosity was natural; in the dream I was a newspaper reporter, perhaps an investigative journalist of some type. I pulled away, and continued to my home.
“(I arrived home, to a house that I don’t recognize now or then, but I remember many details of it.)
“After I arrived home, I received an unexpected phone call from a ‘whistle-blower’ from the institution that I had paused to look at. The person told me that he would come to my house later that evening with “undeniable proof†of a concealed, dangerous corporate or governmental cover-up: my suspicions were confirmed. He appeared at the house with a protective body suit, not unlike a suit for radiation or biohazard workers, and left it with me. The understanding that I had from the stranger’s visit was that if experts examined the suit, all mysteries regarding the strange activities at the plant would be blown wide open.”
Eugene Shubert Also Commented
Victor Marshall:
Eugene, since you are preeminently qualified in things scientific, I will also here post your self-proclaimed qualifications in another very important field: “…my credentials really are unbelievable. By faith and prophetic understanding, I suppose that I have been appointed to bring about the fulfillment of William Miller’s dream… The second half of the dream foretells an experience fulfilled largely by me…†“I believe that I had a revelatory experience somewhat comparable to the Apostle Paul and William Miller… At the end of those 3 incredible weeks I had all of Daniel and Revelation figured out… I was supernaturally driven to study the book of Daniel and was in a constant state of being continually overwhelmed by revelation. At the end of it I was a Bible scholar that had all of Daniel and Revelation figured out.â€
“I can not be accused of bias. For those who understand my notes I think it’s obvious that the conclusions I came to were given to me by God… God has given me incredible new light that answers the greatest theological riddles in Adventism:…†– Eugene Shubert ‘The New William Miller’
That’s a very clever way to condemn my opinion. You are imputing to me the empty boasts of the Intelligent Design movement, which is big on claims but has no results. When it comes to theology, science is the grammatical-historical method of interpretation. I have bookfulls of new results that agree with this science. Those are my qualifications. You should have cited those links.
BobRyan: On the contrary – Intelligent Design is a science that has not only been proven – it has been proven to the point of commercial viability. Consider the case of the “SCAN†function of your radio tuner in your car.
That’s a bad example Bob. All car radio tuners are built to focus in on signal strength, not intelligence. You are right though, such a radio could be built that could filter out loud noise but then the extremely annoying long screech that precedes public service alerts, which announce possible tornadoes, wouldn’t be heard. However, there is nothing new or special about intelligently designed filters that could detect intelligent signals for such a simple feat of engineering to be called a science all by itself.
Do you have a degree in a scientific field Bob?
JohnB:
@Eugene Shubert: “The real problem is that mainstream creationists completely misunderstand the definition of science.â€
Are you sure about that Eugene? Or is this just another over-generalization?
I’m sure and the only thing I’ve ever over-generalized is the Lorentz transformation. Consider how persons in the Intelligent Design community respond to criticisms that ID isn’t science:
On 12 February 2010, the blog uncommondescent.com quoted this criticism of the ID movement in their article, Darwinian Desperation: Petition to Re-Classify “Non-Science†Books:
“Science can be defined as the process of using empirical evidence to make predictions and test hypotheses in the effort to increase our understanding of the world around us. ID seeks to answer many of the same questions about life on Earth that science does. However, the two differ drastically in that ID invokes supernatural explanations to explain natural processes, while science explains natural processes using empirical data. As the study of ID does not involve the use of empirical evidence to make predictions and test hypotheses, it cannot be considered a science under any circumstances.â€
Here was their rebuttal:
“Someone needs to tell these guys that there simply is no widely accepted, widely agreed upon definition of what science is, so invoking a particular one to justify their animus against ID isn’t all that helpful.â€
As is plainly self-evident, that response is no defense unless the majority of noteworthy discoverers of the laws of nature disagree significantly on the definition of science.
Sadly, the Intelligent Design movement is in denial. There is a significant agreement on the definition of science among world-class scientists. It is absolutely shameful for informed Christians to not know this. There is nothing Christian or logical in refusing to accept An Irrefutable Definition of Science.
Recent Comments by Eugene Shubert
Perspectives from alleged LSU students
BobRyan:
… the LSU evolutionists are employing a “foxhole mentality†among their student devotees – convincing them that it is “us against the rest of the Adventist church and against Adventist administrators that simply pay lip service to Bible creationâ€.
That is essentially correct. There are two sides to every issue. The dispute here is between science and the Bible. The scientists believe that science should be taught in science class. The opinionated non-scientists that reject science and have no clue what it is, are content with either replacing science with pseudo-science or just getting rid of the teaching of science permanently.
Perspectives from alleged LSU students
BobRyan:
Since you have offerred no response to points raised – the point remains.in Christ,Bob
I already presented the mathematical response: “The odds for any particular sequence of 100 flips of a coin is 1/2^100, which is not zero.”
Do you agree or disagree with the mathematics?
The rest of your attempt to articulate a thought about science is barely intelligible. If you wish to be understood, please write with precision in a scientifically discernible form. I do not understand lowbrow diction. Please learn and use the universal language of science.
Perspectives from alleged LSU students
Stephen Vicaro:
Eugene, Now we know your true ambitions!
No, that part isn’t clear. But we do know your rank and the rank of your associates in The Seven Faces of Seventh-day Adventism.
Perspectives from alleged LSU students
BobRyan:
In the case of the coin flip we have 100 very likely events (50/50) in sequence and by adding the statistics of “sequence†to the probability – we get “NILâ€.
You’re speaking gibberish. “NIL†means “nothing; naught; zero.” The odds for any particular sequence of 100 flips of a coin is 1/2^100, which is not zero. And your expressed method of computation, “by adding the statistics of `sequence’ to the probability” is unabashed gibberish and demonstrates that you have absolutely no understanding of the science of probability theory.
You obviously feel great peace when unbelievers curse God because of your willful stupidity.
Are you proud of being a contributing influence that justifies unbelievers in their rejection of Christ?
Perspectives from alleged LSU students
Richard Sherwin:
Eugene so it is only scientists who can have the truth? Science is now superseding the Bible? Are you listening to what you are saying? You are saying that science is God!
It is as Steven Weinberg has said: “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
In other words, “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Ro 2:24).
So grow up and stop practicing deceit.
