Comment on Reformulate Fundamental Belief on Creation? Yes! by Ron.
The statement: “On the special creation model alone, God does not create through death over millions of years involving suffering, extinction, disease, famine, fear, trauma and so on. In human flesh the Author of life and love died to eradicate these phenomena showing that the divine nature rejects such things.” seems to be a fallacy.
We believe that God loves, and yet He has found a way to tolerate death, even the death of his own son. I believe that life is valuable, even for the developmentally disabled, and even for victims of famine and genocide.
If Jesus doesn’t come, I expect to die. According to our doctrine on death, death is like sleep. Actually, I think it is more like what I experienced for the billions of years before my birth. I don’t complain about not being alive before I was born, why should I complain about not being alive after I die? If God can tolerate the death of Adam and Eve, Jesus, and me, then why not the dinosaurs?
And if my kids are smarter and better adapted to their environment that I am, then how is that a curse? Isn’t that what you would expect from a loving God who loves change and diversity? Wouldn’t you expect the eternal creator to create eternally?
I can’t see how evolution is a problem for Adventists. In fact it appears to me to be a fundamental principle of the Universe, and by extension, God’s character. Helping his creation get better and better over time seems to me to be a loving act, and part of what the gospel is all about.
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Recent Comments by Ron
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”?
