Please scroll down to the bottom for links to the live blog coverage of the 2011 Christian Scholar’s Conference. It’s not a direct transcript but I’m sure we should eventually get the undiluted version of what each speaker had to say on the day. (Update 20.6.2011) Plus a recent update 18.11.2011.
Christianity Today’s ~ “No Adam, No Eve, No Gospel” , witnessed them gently stepping out of the shadows yesterday (6.6. 2011), with phrases like ‘B. B. Warfield tells that tale: The Princeton theology professor (d. 1921) taught in the wake of the Darwinian revolution. He and fellow evangelical leaders saw good reasons to believe that humanity’s physical form was descended from other animals. However, two key biblical teachings kept these theologians from eating the whole Darwinian apple.‘, ending with some words of tolerance for those who might seize this as an opportunity to go Medieval on those who cling to their creeds, catechisms and confessions with words like, ‘At this juncture, we counsel patience. We don’t need another fundamentalist reaction against science. We need instead a positive interdisciplinary engagement that recognizes the good will of all involved and that creative thinking takes time. In the long run, it may be the humility of our scholars as much as their technical expertise that will bring us to deeper knowledge of the truth.’
The following video, which I originally recorded on ‘Devil’s Island’ “Narrow Minded” (2005) and again on “Peace Dove” (2007) sums up my own attempt at dealing with my fundamentalist views, which have been “evolving” considerably over the last 5 years: 
Refer to my previous blog entry: Once upon a time ….
Refer also an earlier blog entry: Back To School ~ Biology ~ Professor Kenneth Miller
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Additional Viewing:
God, Darwin and Designer by Professor Kenneth Miller
Some additional articles, which are related to the hot topic about Adam & Eve:
1. No Adam, No Eve, No Gospel? @ Christianity Today ( the subject of this blog )
2. The Search For The Historical Adam @ Christianity Today (3.6.2011)
3. Adam Where Are You? @ Christianity Today (3.6.2011)
4. Search For The Historical Adam @ Christianity Today (video preview below)
5. Biologos Forum : Christianity Today Cover Story ( 31 May 2011 )
6. Theology of Celebration II Workshop
7. The Path of Discovery: Science, Theology, and the Academy ~ June 16-18, 2011 ~ Pepperdine University, Malibu, California
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Question:
So what two key biblical teachings kept these theologians from eating the whole Darwinian apple?
Answer:
According to Christianity Today (No Adam, No Eve, No Gospel? – 6.6.2011):
First, in Darwinian thought, pure randomness was the engine of evolution. But randomness denies the divine Reason (the Logos in the language of John’s Gospel) behind the creative process. Christians must root for intelligence over chance.
Second, Darwinian evolution challenged the belief that human beings were created in the image of God. This doctrine was a hedge against racist theories that would be used to subjugate, exploit, and eradicate undesirable people. Warfield rightly saw the dangers in Darwin, while trying to learn from the biological science of his time.
As I explored the second key biblical teaching in my previous blog post, I’m going to leave you to think about the first key, which was covered in Professor Kenneth Miller’s video series. CT, still rooting for Intelligent Design (or would that be Creationism in a new suit?). I don’t have time to do a full on study on John 1:1-18 ~ How Can We See God? , but I’d highly recommend Dr. DA Carson’s sermon series on John, as well as his physical commentary. ( Sermon Audio, also have a fairly current archive of his audio & video lectures. )
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Update: 20.6.2011
A.
Recent post by Ben Witherington (The Bible and Culture) where he refers to the image of God, and some thoughts about YEC and age of the earth.
1. The Oldest Temple in the World—- Part One
About young earth theory I have several points to make in passing as I don’t want to get off subject: 1) the dating of Gobeckli to 9,800 B.C. appears to be correct (more on this in a later post). This makes it enormously older than the stone monoliths at Stonehenge or on Easter Island, and thousands of years older than the pyramids as well and according to young earthers it would be older than the earth itself! Which of course is impossible. We have to rearrange the way we think about when actual civilization and religion per se began on earth. Most anthropologists have suggest a date around 10,000 for the beginning of human civilization. Gobeckli will almost certainly cause a recalculation on that. 2) the Bible tells us absolutely nothing about the age of the earth anyway. The genealogies in the OT are segments, selective, and in some cases are royal genealogies which leave out names and indeed whole generations of names. You can’t even judge the age of human civilization from the Bible, never mind the age of the earth; 3) I especially do not believe God purposely intended to give fossils and other aspects of the earth ‘the appearance of age’ without it really being that old. This is deception plain and simple, and God is not a deceiver. Period. Exclamation point; 4) the Bible is not a scientific textbook written in a pre-scientific era, and often we ask the wrong questions of it. It’s concerns are with history and theology and ethics. Not with geology and the like. We need to stop reading the Bible anachronistically, reading our own modern urgencies back into these sacred texts.
2. The Oldest Temple in the World— Part Two
3. The Oldest Temple in the World— Part Three
4. The Oldest Temple in the World—- Part Four
The reference to the image of God in the Genesis story suggests something about human nature— a unique capacity for relationship with God, a relationship which involves language and communication as the story of the Garden suggests. It is interesting that the Hebrew word ‘tselem’ is the word for both image and idol in the OT. In a sense humans were created to be God’s image, God’s representative on earth. This is why making an idol of, much less worshipping something less than human as a deity is idolatry. Humans are to be the ‘tselem’ not make ‘tselems’ of lesser things. But there is more. As the Bible moves along it becomes apparent that God intends for humans to reflect God’s character— God is holy, just, loving, kind, compassionate etc. and humans are expected to be so as well on a lesser scale. We are to reflect the moral character on earth. When we get to the NT and we are told that Christians are to be conformed to the image of Christ, again the issue is about character as well as other things. We are to be Christ-like in thought, word, and deed. Furthermore this all provides a clue for the relationship between theology and ethics in the Bible. God is holy and so should we be, and only humans have the capacity to reflect the moral character of God. Image of God concepts show us the connection between theology and ethics.
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B.
Live Blogging Commentary of the Christian Scholar’s Conference 2011 (while I’m listening to Cortez by Neil Young ) from Into All TheWWW Web.
1. Live Blogging John Polkinhorne Address at Christian Scholars’ Conference
2. Live Blogging Francis Collins Address at Christian Scholars’ Conference
3. Live Blogging Simran Sethi Address at Christian Scholars’ Conference
4. Live Blogging Ted Peters Address at Christian Scholars’ Conference
After reading most of both A & B, I’d refer readers back to an earlier post ‘Negotiating the Slippery Slope’
Have a great week, time to make tea and head off to practice.
Something I scribbled down a few posts ago:
‘I get asked about Genesis as if old Moses was a physicist, about the Psalms as if King David were a scientist and Romans as if the apostle Paul were a neuoscientist or a biologist, but these cats were all about the power of love toward us, in us, through us and pointing to a carpenter from a remote village who just happened to be our best option in a world of voices.
Peace, Love and Light.’
Update: 18 November 2011
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011
Christian Scholar’s Conference: Interview with Francis Collins
( This interview can be downloaded too )
I took the matter one step further and decided to ask my fellow Christian brothers and sisters who believed in Evolution, to gimme a run down on how the whole story plays out and this is what I discovered: http://aerycksmusic.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/evolution-under-the-microscope/
EJS
