Hi all, hopefully this is an acceptable topic, and hopefully the intent is fine.
I am curious as to the experience of our YEC advocates here. Looking more at it from a human perspective than from the point of view of particular arguments, how has this board impacted you and your beliefs?
Examples of what I am wondering are the below
Has the interaction with others here changed your mind on some things?
If so, how? strengthened an existing belief, changed beliefs on something, added to etc?
What are some of the helpful things that you have found here that we could do with more?
Do you think that your contributions have been helpful to people?
I don’t want this to turn into an argument thread, more just a discussion without naming names or levelling particular criticisms.
What sparked this question is the impasse I often see in threads. It would be great to know your thoughts on the cause of these. That that be simply - people are wrong, the bible is correct etc. Just curious
Hasn’t changed my mind, but it has informed me on the types of arguments and responses being generated from the evolutionist & OEC crowd.
Any time the discussion is on-topic and non-confrontational.
That’s very hard to say. You’d have to ask them, but overall I don’t see much evidence of people here being open to adopting my point of view under any circumstances.
The cause of the impasse here is not significantly different than the cause of the impasse in the world at large. Peoples’ minds are made up.
Frankly I stop following threads when it gets confrontational (quite a number of threads I have stopped watching). I probably end up missing interesting points but can’t be bothered to watch spats develop
Are there any that you have found persuasive enough that they are hard to deal with? Not suggesting that you are persuaded by them, but that you would see them as stronger arguments than others?
I have not found any of their arguments persuasive. Some of them are very hard to deal with, however, by virtue of requiring a lot of hard work and research to delve into. It’s easy to engage in elephant hurling, but it’s much harder to give an adequate response to everything.
Particularly with regards to GE, I have found that even the experts 1) cannot often explain their objections clearly and openly and 2) they often contradict one another in attempting to refute GE.
Is it possible because they are trying to explain highly technical concepts here in a “normal” language or do you mean that with regards to the scientific primary literature underlying their views?
Elephant hurling is a great phrase! I may have to appropriate that at some point in my life
that has to apply to both sides, especially when more than one point is raised.
I don’t think you abandon a YEC view (or at least you shouldn’t) because of scientific evidence. At least in my case, I could only abandon a YEC view if I honestly believed that was not what the Bible taught.
This was the first place I encountered Christians who gave me good reason to reconsider a YEC interpretation. Previous encounters with Christian’s who believed in evolution had them abandoning theology because of science, not because they had change in how they understood the Bible.
I am happy to take recent YEC here - they were YEC when they came to the board so I am interested in their experience as well
So basically the quality could be improved with better citation of sources? Not sure how easily that is done when people have read literature that they don’t have immediately to hand but it is a fair comment if it hasn’t happened.
I think it is a bit harsh to say that they are being deliberately vague. I am not sure it is possible to tell that
A suggestion to improve moderator sanity. If there are comments made by others, a reply or will be taken as a vote the comment should stay. Otherwise ignore it or flag it for removal. Cleaning up a discussions in real time takes a lot of Mods effort, so please be patient and Mods will check in periodically.
If you want a comment should stay, you can always quote it (at least the relevant part) in your reply. so it will remain in the discussion even if the original comment gets moved. The same goes for comments from the Peanut Gallery; if you see something useful there, quote it, copy it, and move it to your comments in the curated thread.
Yes, Peaceful Science, the articles, but particularly the forum. There are a participants here who have made (to me a least) a good case for wide the Bible does not support a YEC interpretation. The key difference is that they made it, not by ignoring scripture, or by explaining scripture away because of science, but by making a strong positive case for a non-YEC interpretation as the correct interpretation.
I’m sure such folk exist elsewhere, but PS was simply the first place that I ran into them. It’s also not that they convinced me through great arguments, but that their statements forced me to step back and look at how my own hermeneutics, which in turn led to a different understanding on my part about what the Bible was teaching.
1&2. Strengthened them as I got to figure out fun and interesting science that helped me gain a picture of what is happening in Genesis 1. The criticism helped me realize some assumptions I had before weren’t scientifically correct. I have a better idea of how science comes up with the age of the universe and the earth as I’ve been learning things along the way.
3. Probably explaining science in a positive way both for Christians and people who are not. I think all scientists should think about how they could contribute. Perhaps my own bias, but I think I was taught science as a subject just to memorize with no discovery. Experiments came after learning. I hated high school labs. Science education needs a revamp. Maybe it has since the few decades I’ve been out of school.
4. I hope so. Hopefully I broke a few stereotypes of what a non-scientist YEC person is and why.
It’s much more fun to think about what God has done than what he hasn’t done. When we’re not thinking on the lovely, pure, noble, and just it leads to discouragement.
I think a good majority of any science curriculum especially at the youngest ages should have learning through experiment or observation. My kids are much more observant than me.
I liked all of school except science and choir. Can’t sing. At my liberal arts college, particularly enjoyed philosophy, political science, and psychology as classes outside my program and major. Probably would not be surprising to those I’ve responded to.
will be taken as a vote the comment should stay. Otherwise ignore it or flag it for removal. Cleaning up a discussions in real time takes a lot of Mods effort, so please be patient and Mods will check in periodically.
Can’t sing. At my liberal arts college, particularly enjoyed philosophy, political science, and psychology as classes outside my program and major. Probably would not be surprising to those I’ve responded to.