Given that you are a ______________________ (your particular informative specialty, background &\/or theological\/worldview approach to the topic), what would be the first question(s) you’d like to ask to start a discussion on the topic of the origins of life and the origins of human beings if you could ask:<\/p>\n
1) A person who is confused about why people use their precious free time to join websites & forums (such as this one), chat sites, groups, on-line meetings rooms, and listserves, who attend conferences, workshops, presentations and talks delivered about origins & processes of natural & human history, including monumental & meaningful topics involving science, philosophy & theology\/worldview discourse.<\/p>\n
2) An atheist or agnostic who thinks evolutionary biology, the ‘Evolutionary Epic’ (as in E.O. Wilson, D.S. Wilson, Connie Barlow, et al.) &\/or evolutionism as an ideology that buttresses their personal worldview, makes it very difficult if not impossible to believe in the Creator-God attested to in Abrahamic monotheistic scriptures and institutions.<\/p>\n
3) A person who accepts a ‘normal’ age of the Earth and believes there is more than just a natural, physical, material layer to existence, but also a spiritual dimension and who believes that evolution is something that the Creator is concurrently doing in the world, including in\/with the hearts & minds of human beings (i.e. a person who accepts ‘theistic evolution’ or ‘evolutionary creation’).<\/p>\n
4) Someone who shares (relatively or quite nearly) the same theology\/worldview as you do, but who disagrees significantly with evolutionary natural science as it is currently understood, particularly with the views of those who still hold to a ‘Darwinian’ or ‘neo-Darwinian’ paradigm that came before the Third Way and ‘extended evolutionary synthesis’ were formed.<\/p>\n
5) A young earth creationist, evangelical fundamentalist Protestant who demonstrates anti-science proclivities in their ways of communicating especially with non-Christians and a lack of responsibility towards their fellow religious who are ashamed of them for their ideological distortions of Christian teachings and their lack of compassion for atheists who are simply defending ‘good science’ without a religious axe to grind.<\/p>\n
The point of these 5 examples is that it can make a significant difference ‘who’ one is speaking with when starting a discussion regarding ‘how’ one starts it. Welcome your feedback on how you’d start these conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Given that you are a ______________________ (your particular informative specialty, background &\/or theological\/worldview approach to the topic), what would be the first question(s) you’d like to ask to start a discussion on the topic of the origins of life and … Continue reading