Ron&#032D&#032Henderson: And of course we resort to faith not blindly, …

Comment on Beyond the Creation Story – Why the Controversy Matters by Professor Kent.

Ron&#032D&#032Henderson: And of course we resort to faith not blindly, but due to our prior reasoning experience with God as we experience Him in humanity, and through the written Word. So when the Good Book says that no man can find out God unto perfection, and that His ways are past finding out, it means that our reasoning ability is limited, due to sin. And even without sin we still cannot find out God completely because he is Creator and we the created. If we were able to find out God completely we would be His equal. And we are certainly not. So we are only pitting ourselves against ourselves when we discuss ‘reason’ the way we do.

Beautiful. Nicely articulated.

Professor Kent Also Commented

Beyond the Creation Story – Why the Controversy Matters
Dr. Leonard Brand of Loma Linda University has published an interesting perspective on science and faith at Spectrum (http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2011/08/16/insights-hindsight-resolving-seeming-conflicts-science-and-scripture).

Of course, he (along with virtually every SDA scientist in the Church) acknowledges the many conflicts between science and religion that remain to be resolved. Many here do not appreciate this perspective.


Beyond the Creation Story – Why the Controversy Matters

Sean&#032Pitman: @Ron D Henderson:
The very fact that you’re trying to present arguments to support your perspective shows that you’re trying to appeal to the reasoning abilities of another person in order to support your own perspective, your own particular interpretation, of the Bible as being true or valid. Are you not, therefore, talking out of both sides of your mouth? – using reasoning to support the Bible while claiming that reason is not needed to support the Bible?

Wow…give us all a break, Sean.


Beyond the Creation Story – Why the Controversy Matters

Shane&#032Hilde: If our reason is not in submission to the Holy Spirit, in other words if we’re not truly seeking truth, not being honest and candid in our pursuit, we endanger ourselves, and our search for truth will end up leading to irrationality.

Amen! (But I don’t think this is Sean Pitman’s position)


Recent Comments by Professor Kent

Gary Gilbert, Spectrum, and Pseudogenes
Nic&#032Samojluk: No wonder most creationist writers do not even try to submit their papers to such organizations.
Who wants to waste his/her time trying to enter through a door that is closed to him/her a priori?

You have no idea what you’re writing about, Nic. As it turns out, there are in fact many of us Adventists who “waste” our time publishing articles through doors that open to us a priori. Even Leonard Brand at Loma Linda, a widely recognized creationist, has published in the top geology journals. I mean the top journals in the discipline.

The myth that creationists cannot publish in mainstream science is perpetuated by people who simply do not understand the culture of science–and will remain clueless that they do not understand it even when confronted with their misunderstandings. Such is human nature.


Southern Adventist University opens Origins Exhibit
Pauluc,

Your questions about conservation genetics are very insightful. I don’t understand how all these life forms were able to greatly increase in genetic diversity while simultaneously winding down and losing genetic information to mutations. Sean seems to insist that both processes happen simultaneously. I had the impression he has insisted all along that the former cannot overcome the latter. But I think you must be right: God had to intervene to alter the course of nature. However, we can probably test this empirically because there must be a signature of evidence available in the DNA. I’ll bet Sean can find the evidence for this.

I’m also glad the predators (just 2 of most such species) in the ark had enough clean animals (14 of each such species) to eat during the deluge and in the months and years after they emerged from the ark that they didn’t wipe out the vast majority of animal species through predation. Maybe they all consumed manna while in the ark and during the first few months or years afterward. Perhaps Sean can find in the literature a gene for a single digestive enzyme that is common to all predatory animals, from the lowest invertebrate to the highest vertebrate. Now that would be amazing.

Wait a minute–I remember once being told that SDA biologists like Art Chadwick believe that some animals survived on floating vegetation outside the ark. Now that would solve some of these very real problems! I wonder whether readers here would allow for this possibility. Multiple arks without walls, roof, and human caretakers.


Southern Adventist University opens Origins Exhibit

Ellen White said, “In the days of Noah, men…many times larger than now exist, were buried, and thus preserved as an evidence to later generations that the antediluvians [presumably referring to humans] perished by a flood. God designed that the discovery of these things should establish faith in inspired history…”

Sean Pitman said, “All human fossils discovered so far are Tertiary or post-Flood fossils. There are no known antediluvian human fossils.”

Ellen White tells us that humans and dinosaurs (presumably referred to in the statement, “a class of very large animals which perished at the flood… mammoth animals”) lived together before the flood. Evolutionary biologists tell us that dinosaurs and humans never lived together. You’re telling us, Sean, that the fossil record supports the conclusion of evolutionists rather than that of Ellen White and the SDA Church. Many of the “very large animals which perished at the flood” are found only in fossil deposits prior to or attributed to the flood, whereas hunans occur in fossil deposits only after the flood (when their numbers were most scarce).

Should the SDA biologists, who are supposed to teach “creation science,” be fired if they teach what you have just conceded?


La Sierra Univeristy Fires Dr. Lee Greer; Signs anti-Creation Bond
For those aghast about the LSU situation and wondering what other SDA institutions have taken out bonds, hold on to your britches. You’ll be stunned when you learn (soon) how many of our other schools, and which ones in particular, have taken out these bonds. You will be amazed to learn just how many other administrators have deliberately secularized their institutions besides Randal Wisbey, presumably because they too hate the SDA Church (as David Read has put it so tactfully).

Be sure to protest equally loudly.


Gary Gilbert, Spectrum, and Pseudogenes
@Sean Pitman:

So clearly you believe that science can explain supernatural events. Congratulations on that.