On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 11:16:36 +0000 (UTC), in talk.origins
"Uncle Davey" <noway@jose.com> wrote in <bub5qe$uh9$0@pita.alt.net>:
>
>"Michelle" <mwestgeest@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:ee7cdfa3.0401161552.68bfbfc7@posting.google.com...
>> Louann wrote:
>> <To them, a Presbyterian or Anglican or Catholic or (name
>> a franchise) who doesn't have trouble with evolution is simply showing
>> his/her true colors as Not A Real Christian.>
>
>I'll tell you what, a Presbyterian who doesn't believe in Creation may at a
>pinch be a real Christian, but by no stretch of the imagination are they a
>real Presbyterian.
I doubt that there are many Presbyterians who accept Young Earth
Creation in the US, though most accept the idea that God created the
universe in some way.
>> Believing in evolution is not equilvalent to being "not a real
>> Christian." Christianity is more than a book with directives and
>> stories. It is a philosophy of life which holds as one of its main
>> components the ideal of free will. As such, it is in agreement with
>> evolution in a fundamental way. If creationism was to be taken
>> literally, this would effectively negate freewill. A life in which all
>> of our actions were determined by God would not be meaningful, and our
>> actions are ours and ours freely only if the world is not manipulated
>> by an outside force.
>>
>> Being Christian does not mean buying into interpretations. The
>> consistency in stories between different religious groups is quite
>> high, yet each of these groups has different interpretations.
>> Unfortunately, the church is another institution and as such it is
>> susceptible to every sort of corruption. As a result, interpretations
>> are given to suit the period and purpose of others.
>> Thus, religion must be an extremely personal thing, and should not be
>> derived exclusively from external sources such as the church. As a
>> result, individual Christians grow and change in their concepts of God
>> and the nature of existence, but being rational has never been a sin.
>>
>
>It's because of that subjective element that we need some objective
>benchmark to stop us all going away with the fairies in religion.
>
>This objective benchmark is scripture. The closer our views are to a literal
>take on scripture, the closer they are to this objective benchmark.
>
>May I ask whether you believe in the Virgin Birth, a bodily resurrection,
>heaven and hell and the end of the world and a New Creation? Each of these
>things demands as much suspension of disbelief as the six day creation does,
>but these are pretty much central lynch-pins of any Christian theology.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Uncle Davey
>
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