Vorkosigan

http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2000/PSCF3-00Dodson.html

Abstract:

In his autobiography, Darwin mentioned an essay in Hebrew which showed that his theory of evolution "is contained in the Old Testament." Naphtali Halevi (or Lewy) argued in Toldot Adam that Hebrew word choices in the Torah favored evolution, as did some passages in the Midrash Rabbah and the Talmud. Although his argument is not entirely convincing, he proposed interesting alternative interpretations of many biblical texts. Collectively, they suggest that the supposed irreconcilable contradictions between evolution and biblical creation are exaggerated because of an inadequate understanding of the Hebrew text.

BTW, the wwwasa3.org site is an excellent site on rational Christian (not wacko fundie) takes on science. You might find good stuff there to throw at the wackos from time to time, like this article on radiometric dating I'm sure some of you have seen.

http://www.asa3.org/ASA/resources/Wiens.html

Vorkosigan

Sauron

So Vork - maybe you can educate me here. The ASA, and the people who are members - you indicate that they're not wackos, like the YEC crowd.

Here's an interesting quote from the Wien paper you just referenced:

You have more experience with the ASA, so I'm curious - generally speaking, how do they resolve the scientific, historical and archaeological discrepancies, while maintaining the label of "bible-believing"?

Do they

* practice creative interpretation?
* spiritualize everything away (i.e., "this wasn't meant to be taken literally")?
* compartmentalize it by saying something fluffy like "it's not a contradiction, but man wasn't meant to know the true meaning; we'll find out when we get to heaven"?

In my own personal experience, I've never met a scientist (or read of one) who was both true to geology, biology, etc. and true to bible literalism. At some point, they had to do some fancy handwaving on the bible part, in order to keep their heads from exploding.

Is the scope of experience simply too narrow?

Vorkosigan

LOL. I have no idea. I just read the papers. Some are good, some are extremely awful. Real scientists post there, and pikers. I just think it is useful for squelching "Christians are all _____" comments from the Fundie crowd.

Vorkosigan