Quotable

" Many hold political or religious opinions not because they have examined them or have any reason to believe they are true, but just because they like the associations."

I randomly came across this quote in a book I picked up this morning. I don't even always agree with the author - but his observations often cut through a lot of fog. We discussed this some in our book study of world religions. Many religions have such gaping flaws in their belief systems that one is left wondering how they have any adherents. It must because people like the associations they have when they are part of the group.

Often during my recent studies I have wondered why the young-earth Creationist beliefs are still prospering in our modern scientific culture. Clearly YE 'scientists' do their science backwards with an agenda of proving something they want to be true, sift evidence for the few crumbs that might be construed to support the position they hold, and are generally thought fools by the greater scientific community when - very sadly - this doesn't have to be the case and Christians do not have to compromise to find that the Bible and God's natural creation can be found in a high state of agreement.

I have several clues to why this happens; one being that since Darwin, Christians have come to distrust science so have come to trust and believe in many things that are bad ideas scientifically because they are postulated by Holy Men. Another is this one - we like to associate with these people, so we'd better just buy into what they are selling. A third is because God isn't supposed to change so we don't like to have to re-examine our faith beliefs when new data comes around - if it was "good for the Hebrew Children, it's good enough for me!" Many new things (ideas) are bad, so anything new could be bad, so lets just not let anything new polute us.

I heartily recommend David Snoke's "A Biblical Case for an Old Earth". It is clear, well researched and he builds good arguements for his views - including those places where I still disagree with him. I have one more book to read. This one is from a pure scientific viewpoint on the most recent thoughts on the age of the universe and of the earth.

More on Minneapolis follows... ~M.E.