I am ashamed to read some of these comments and …

Comment on PUC Professor: The Noachian Flood was just a local flood? by Nicholas Drachenberg.

I am ashamed to read some of these comments and believe that these people hiding behind their computer screens call themselves Adventist. Understand the context of this religion colloquium before you make foolish comments.

Dr. Ness is lecturing to tenured theology students who have learned the ins and outs of the Bible, but for the most part have not been faced with daunting questions challenging their faith. Why else would a Biology professor be invited to speak at a theology seminar? It is evident he was invited to question, to ask questions, and to make his listeners think all in the realm of Biology. It is already understood what Adventists think about because he is speaking to minimum third year theology majors, he is simply stating the other side of the coin to these students. In no way does his presentation of these facts necessarily mean he believes them. He says himself in these very comments, “This “lecture” was an attempt to bring out the issues facing the church…”

To then conclude that the honors program and the school has a whole is some sort of evolution supporting institution is misguided. It angers me people on this forum can form an image of the man that Dr. Ness is from a 40 minute clip. Then to continue to question when students and alumni comment to the contrary is what personally makes me mad. People who have never met the man or been scared to go to his office because of the piles of papers everywhere, or loved to go to his labs and be taught by the man with the snakes around his arm. These same people who have never sat in Biology 112 and listened to his devotionals before class from his blackberry are the ones that need to stop – because they are the only ones criticizing. This is not La Sierra, and by no means does Dr. Ness teach evolution as truth.

If we cant ask questions that challenge our faith, how are we supposed to build and maintain it? Do we go back to Sabbath school and spit out the bible verses we had to memorize for the week and lean on our parents faith and understanding? Or do we go to college and learn to be educated critical thinkers of the world around us? It is not evil or against the Church to ask questions.

“It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thoughts. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen.”

-Ellen G. White

So before you cast judgment, make sure you know the context of the situation and understand the type of man you are criticizing. Dr. Ness is an extremely smart, and as evident by what I have seen in my three years of contact with him, God fearing man. People here like Sean Pitman and Shane Hilde who I assume are in someway affiliated with his website continue to attempt to fan the fire of criticism against Dr. Ness. This was not a Biology class, it was a theology seminar. He was invited to ask questions and present issues of the Church that come in conflict with Biology, not voice his opinion.

Nicholas Drachenberg
Environmental Studies Major

Nicholas Drachenberg Also Commented

PUC Professor: The Noachian Flood was just a local flood?
“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:15-18). – Church Manual, p. 185

Settlement of Differences Among Members—Every effort should be made to settle differences among church members and contain the controversy within the smallest possible sphere. “Contentions, strife, and lawsuits between brethren are a disgrace to the cause of truth. Those who take such a course expose the church to the ridicule of her enemies and cause the powers of darkness to triumph. They are piercing the wounds of Christ afresh and putting Him to an open shame. By ignoring the authority of the church they show contempt for God, who gave to the church its authority.”—Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 242, 243. – Church Manual, p. 191


Recent Comments by Nicholas Drachenberg

An apology to PUC
Nice pseudo apology. Don’t put too much sincerity into your next email. Keep thinking you are important enough to demand that video lectures and syllibi be sent to search for dirt because your first piece of illegal “evidence” didn’t pan out.

“they just don’t seem to get that Adventist students can handle a whole fifty minute lecture on science without a Bible study tacked on at the end.”