How Creationism Hurts Chrsitian Colleges—And Their Students

[Sapiens]

Most evangelical colleges teach evolution, but churches don’t. So when unprepared Christian students begin to study science and lose their faith, it feeds deep distrust of academia.

The sky is falling! Fellow Christians, gather your children and seek shelter. Hold your hands over their ears while you flee. If you don’t they might hear about … evolution.

This was the reaction of Marvin Olasky, the editor of the evangelical magazine World, to my “revelation” in The Daily Beast a few weeks ago that most evangelical Christian colleges teach evolution to their students. “Teach evolution” was my phrase for what is happening. Olasky describes it instead as “insinuating evolution,” which sounds sinister. He suspects that my revelation will be the hot topic “in the hallways” at the meeting of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) which began Wednesday in Los Angeles.

That is the begining of a though provoking article by Karl W. Gibberson, read the rest here: How Creationism Hurts Christian Colleges—And Their Students - The Daily Beast

 

[Bunyip]

An interesting article indeed. I do not think that evolution is at all a problem for Christianity or faith in general - what is a huge problem is the children of creationist education realising that they have been decieved when they enter the broader educational or workplace community.
Essentially it is the discovery that they have been decieved which drives so many young evangelics away from faith - not anything about the ToE in itself.

 

[Dyvim Tvar]

According to creationism, the father god damned all of humankind for eating the fruit of knowledge. Most theists dismiss scientific facts because facts rip holes in fantasies.

 

[ebgebg]

by evolution

Most evangelical colleges teach evolution, but churches don’t. So when unprepared Christian students begin to study science and lose their faith, it feeds deep distrust of academia.

The sky is falling! Fellow Christians, gather your children and seek shelter. Hold your hands over their ears while you flee. If you don’t they might hear about … evolution.

This was the reaction of Marvin Olasky, the editor of the evangelical magazine World, to my “revelation” in The Daily Beast a few weeks ago that most evangelical Christian colleges teach evolution to their students. “Teach evolution” was my phrase for what is happening. Olasky describes it instead as “insinuating evolution,” which sounds sinister. He suspects that my revelation will be the hot topic “in the hallways” at the meeting of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) which began Wednesday in Los Angeles.

That is the begining of a though provoking article by Karl W. Gibberson, read the rest here: How Creationism Hurts Christian Colleges—And Their Students - The Daily Beast

There are old world creationist, and new world creationist. New world creationist believe the world is only 6000 years old. I am an old world creationist that believes new world creationism is a reckless attempt to provide any answer to reject scientific knowledge that seems to contradict Biblical teachings. Old world creationism embraces science and finds parallisms between scientific knowledge and scripture. But that doesn't mean necessarily all old world creationist are theological evolutionists too. Theological evolutionism bisects the word of God as to the creation of mankind. On the Fifth day of creation we find indirect reference to creation of animals by evolution...excluding man.

 

[Shad]

An issue with parallelism is that while one can use it to support the idea of old creationism it can be also used to topple the Christian basis of this view. There is also forced parallelism like that of linking Horus or Mithras with Christ which can be done by altering the interpretation of scripture, say literal Genesis versus various degrees of metaphorical Genesis.

 

[ebgebg]

An issue with parallelism is that while one can use it to support the idea of old creationism it can be also used to topple the Christian basis of this view. There is also forced parallelism like that of linking Horus or Mithras with Christ which can be done by altering the interpretation of scripture, say literal Genesis versus various degrees of metaphorical Genesis.

Well, it all depends on the context...doesn't it. For example, is Noah derived from an ancient Babylonian text about the Epic of Gilgamesh? Or is the Epic of Gilgamesh derived from an earlier Hebrew text? Or are both accounts derived from a third source? Does the simularities proves the fallacy of the Bible? Or, on the other hand, does the parallism of the time of Noah's existance and the end of the Holocene Wet Phase in climate history defend the biblical account of Noah? Was the flood local as per the parallism of the epic of Gilgamesh, or world wide as interpreted by new creationist?

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I must state quite clearly that in my near 80 years. I have never met any one claiming to be a creationist.
In the UK at least, and elsewhere I have lived, Creationists seem to have kept very quiet about their beliefs.

While it has certainly been a topic of conversation it seems to keep itself to a few closed sects here, and has not been taken seriously or promoted by mainstream christians since the early 19th century.

I do not understand the position of a substantial number of christians in the USA, who are brought up in a leading scientific country, holding on to such fundamentally primitive and unreasonable beliefs.

 

[Nietzsche]

I must state quite clearly that in my near 80 years. I have never met any one claiming to be a creationist.
In the UK at least, and elsewhere I have lived, Creationists seem to have kept very quiet about their beliefs.

While it has certainly been a topic of conversation it seems to keep itself to a few closed sects here, and has not been taken seriously or promoted by mainstream christians since the early 19th century.

I do not understand the position of a substantial number of christians in the USA, who are brought up in a leading scientific country, holding on to such fundamentally primitive and unreasonable beliefs.

I think it'd be fair to say that those who believe in Creationism, most especially Young-Earth Creationism, would be stupid regardless if they accepted how obvious evolution is.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I must state quite clearly that in my near 80 years. I have never met any one claiming to be a creationist.

I'm very jealous. Where I live, I've met a few people who believe Hitler was all messed up because he believed in evolution. My home schooling even taught that evolution is a lie. To many around here, to not believe in YEC, as exactly presented in Genesis and literally interpreted, is a serious offense against god. Around here, those who accept evolution are the ones who tend to keep quiet.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

God's Not Dead (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movies like this I suspect are also damning for students going into any college, evangelical or public, and further deepens that distrust of academia.

 

[Shad]

Well, it all depends on the context...doesn't it. For example, is Noah derived from an ancient Babylonian text about the Epic of Gilgamesh? Or is the Epic of Gilgamesh derived from an earlier Hebrew text? Or are both accounts derived from a third source? Does the simularities proves the fallacy of the Bible? Or, on the other hand, does the parallism of the time of Noah's existance and the end of the Holocene Wet Phase in climate history defend the biblical account of Noah? Was the flood local as per the parallism of the epic of Gilgamesh, or world wide as interpreted by new creationist?

You see my point. However religious conviction is separate from history which many often confuse with factually history.

 

[outhouse]

I must state quite clearly that in my near 80 years. I have never met any one claiming to be a creationist.
In the UK at least, and elsewhere I have lived, Creationists seem to have kept very quiet about their beliefs.

It is terrible here in the USA. There are many apologist who have no problem voicing their opinions.

 

[Ouroboros]

That is the begining of a though provoking article by Karl W. Gibberson, read the rest here: How Creationism Hurts Christian Colleges—And Their Students - The Daily Beast

Good article. It's a good point he's making. Christian kids are leaving faith because of this "conflict" that has been created by Kent Hovind, Ken Ham, Creation institute, et al. They're creating a schism between science and faith that shouldn't have to be there.

 

[Ouroboros]

I must state quite clearly that in my near 80 years. I have never met any one claiming to be a creationist.
In the UK at least, and elsewhere I have lived, Creationists seem to have kept very quiet about their beliefs.

I wasn't.

I was part of a church with a couple of thousand members. We all were anti-evolution or creationists. Believing in a literal 6,000 year old Earth. I remember it well, and the books I had to defend it.

Since you're from UK, you might have heard about the church. It's in Sweden. Uppsala. Livets Ord (Word of Life).

They might not be as outspoken about it anymore. I left 18 years ago, so I can't say what they preach today, but back in those days, evolution was evil.

While it has certainly been a topic of conversation it seems to keep itself to a few closed sects here, and has not been taken seriously or promoted by mainstream christians since the early 19th century.

It's hard to pinpoint "mainstream" Christian. There are 30,000 denominations. The largest community of believers (they rather not call themselves Christians) are Catholics, and it wasn't until recently that evolution was accepted by the RCC. But in general, I do agree, anti-evolution is slowly going underground, but there are a few loud voices (in America) that still fight for regulations in schools against evolution theory.

I do not understand the position of a substantial number of christians in the USA, who are brought up in a leading scientific country, holding on to such fundamentally primitive and unreasonable beliefs.

It's crazy. But I do understand them somewhat since I come from the anti-evolution camp myself. It's education that's missing. A lot of people just don't study evolution much in school, and when they do, it's overly simplified to a point that it's easy to find holes and problems with it. It's not until you take some higher level classes (college) where you really start digging into the details. And only few do this.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

I have touched on this already in an earlier thread about how it isn't the religious nature of an institution but its ability to be accredited. Religious institutions ar quickly becoming a joke because of creationist based moments that use the guise of religion to force bullcrap into "higher learning" facilities. I already take people's degrees with a grain of salt from accredited universities that are religious based because of this.

 

[Skwim]

God's Not Dead (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movies like this I suspect are also damning for students going into any college, evangelical or public, and further deepens that distrust of academia.

From your linked site.

"The film has been panned by critics, currently holding a score of 16 out of 100 on Metacritic indicating "overwhelming dislike", based on six critics,[8] and a rating of 17% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews as of May 2014"​

I'm very jealous. Where I live, I've met a few people who believe Hitler was all messed up because he believed in evolution. My home schooling even taught that evolution is a lie.

Around here, those who accept evolution are the ones who tend to keep quiet.

Care to tell us where you live?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

From your linked site.

"The film has been panned by critics, currently holding a score of 16 out of 100 on Metacritic indicating "overwhelming dislike", based on six critics,[8] and a rating of 17% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews as of May 2014"

The fact it's critically panned has nothing to do with the effect of the movie. Because Christian cinema is rare, there are groups that will eat the movie up just because it agrees with them. However, one of the very real problems with this movie is its portrayal of their stereotyped atheist college professor who wants to destroy the faith of the faithful and who really doesn't disbelieve in god but really does believe in him but he is just angry and bitter at god. And it's also one of the maybe thousand or so cultural misuses of the phrase "god is dead."

Care to tell us where you live?

North/Central Indiana, where the Jesus billboards begin and continually increase in frequency the further south you go, especially starting on the southern side of Indianapolis, clear all the way down to Florida. Where I live, I am perplexed by the number of churches in the rural area where there are churches all over the place, and a few particular stretches where need both hands and maybe toes to count all the churches within just a mile radius. It's also interesting because though there are more churches than anything, bars, banks, and strip clubs are just behind the churches.

 

[Skwim]

The fact it's critically panned has nothing to do with the effect of the movie. Because Christian cinema is rare, there are groups that will eat the movie up just because it agrees with them. However, one of the very real problems with this movie is its portrayal of their stereotyped atheist college professor who wants to destroy the faith of the faithful and who really doesn't disbelieve in god but really does believe in him but he is just angry and bitter at god. And it's also one of the maybe thousand or so cultural misuses of the phrase "god is dead."

Yeah, I know. It's rather a cheap shot, but one I couldn't refuse.

North/Central Indiana, where the Jesus billboards begin and continually increase in frequency the further south you go, especially starting on the southern side of Indianapolis, clear all the way down to Florida. Where I live, I am perplexed by the number of churches in the rural area where there are churches all over the place, and a few particular stretches where need both hands and maybe toes to count all the churches within just a mile radius. It's also interesting because though there are more churches than anything, bars, banks, and strip clubs are just behind the churches.

My condolences for having to live in such a place---I assume you would move out if you could.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

My condolences for having to live in such a place---I assume you would move out if you could.

I'm getting my bachelors degree this spring and then I'm going to Canada for grad school (two of my choices are in British Columbia). I don't foresee myself ever coming back for longer than the holidays.

 

[Skwim]

I'm getting my bachelors degree this spring and then I'm going to Canada for grad school (two of my choices are in British Columbia). I don't foresee myself ever coming back for longer than the holidays.

Good for you.