During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama was asked about his opinions concerning evolution and this is what he had to say:
Q: York County was recently in the news for a lawsuit involving the teaching of intelligent design. What’s your attitude regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools?
A: I’m a Christian, and I believe in parents being able to provide children with religious instruction without interference from the state.
But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there’s a difference between science and faith. That doesn’t make faith any less important than science. It just means they’re two different things. And I think it’s a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don’t hold up to scientific inquiry.
John McCain has also gone on record saying that he, too, is a believer in evolution, but thinks that intelligent design may also be taught in public schools. McCain says that he is not “born again, but that he is “just a Christian” (Christian Science Monitor).
While admittedly there are various interpretations of the times mentioned in the Genesis account and the word “made,” both men appear to have failed to think through the ramifications of their beliefs about evolution. For instance, if man did evolve somehow from the primordial soup, what do we make of Genesis 2.7?
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (a “living soul”) (Genesis 2.7, NASB)
Under evolutionary biology, man is no more than a bunch of mud and water. Consequent to that theory, Romans 5.12 becomes not only meaningless, but nonsensical.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. (NASB)
And if Romans 5.12 has no real meaning, it follows that mankind really isn’t in need of a Savior or a mediator.
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. (1 Timothy 2.6, NASB)
Under evolutionary biology, Jesus is nothing more than an American cultural icon.
About fifty miles or so from my house, there is a “creation” museum where the “curator” talks of men saddling up their brontosauruses to ride into town. Frankly, I haven’t been too impressed with his take on the Genesis account or his “panel of experts” who look like they’ve been locked in a garage together since the 1950s.
You could ask me all day how in the world God made man’s body from the dust of the ground and I’d have to admit that I don’t have a clue as to the details (one day or over a period of time?). What I won’t do is cling to a consensual, but unproven theory that completely vitiates the scriptural facts that I do know. Jesus is much more than just an icon to me.
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Thanks for sharing that John McCain is an unborn again Christian. Isn’t that an oxymoron?
I’ve been looking into Gregory Boyd’s assertions of the Myth of a Christian Nation. For a primer YouTube hosts a three part clip from Charlie Rose’s Show on it. Very interesting and different from what other Christian leaders have proposed in the past like Pat Robertson and D. James Kennedy.
Vitiates: 1.) to contaminate, spoil, pollute, or corrupt 2.) to debase, or pervert 3.) to render ineffective in whole or in part, invalidate: as fraud vitiates a contract Which one should I use Peter?
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Brontosaurus, did you mean Apatasaurus Peter?
http://www.unmuseum.org/dinobront.htm
Jesus is much more than a cultural icon to me too Peter. I hate the way politicians and Christians too pander for votes for themselves or their candidates.
Without say too much politically….
Jesus for King of Kings and Lord of Lords 2008 and forever!
Just checked the playbook, in the end and now, He wins!
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I remember when I first began to understand the creationist viewpoint as an adult and realized that I had been lied to all growing up because I had been taught that evolution was fact. Were it not for some people who are passionate about opposing God and His word, these theories would have died off naturally because of their absurdity.
What is more concerning is that Christian families have allowed this to continue without much interference, not recognizing the impact it has as it casts doubt on the validity of the word of God. It grieves me to think of how many children’s destinies were derailed by this “small” thing.
It’s not so small.
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Peter,
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Evolution requires death to be the chief creative agent in the development of life, the Bible declares death to be the imposition of a curse upon the created order. To be a believer in Christ and an evolutionist is to embrace a nonsequitur. It’s either/or and never both. We must make up our minds whether or not the resurrection of Christ actually occured, why it was necessary, what it accomplished, and what it says about the one resurrected once and for all! Would to God that Christians would stop feeling the need to carry the water for those who are fools and have not even begun to find wisdom.
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nonsequitur “Lord I pray that I may interpret”, amen.
Latin for “it does not follow”. It is most often used to indicate something which does not follow logically, … en.wikipedia.org
Steve, thanks, now I know one latin word, however that is nosquitur to this thread. Like my previous post…. grin….
Born again in Lubbock Texas when I was five. My dad took me out to the caprock with him. He was looking at a horse and colt. As I was gazing off into the distance at the lower terrain, below the rim of the caprock, I stumbled into a hole. The depression was wide and deep encompassing not only my feet but my tennis shoes.
I was likely seven or eight years old, but I knew immediately what I was standing in, a footprint. It totally blew me away, and yes, I investigated the area and there were other footprints too. No one I talked to about the dinosaur tracks seemed to care, it was about 1960.
I had no idea, that my belief in God and my discovery of tracks had theological implications. No denying those big old guys were here. I get the same feeling of wonder when looking at a beautiful bird, or watching a new baby crawl, or hugging my wife.
And when Jesus returns every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, what, for today, some just don’t understand or refuse to believe, or just won’t admit. Sometimes I want to go out and save the world, but I’m just not sure how I’d get them all on that straight and narrow path prescribed.
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