Monday, July 11, 2005

4004 BC?

Fred Clark at Slacktivist has three great articles about his experience with Christian fundamentalism and their interpretation of the age of the Earth and the Universe:

Creationism: Snapshot No. 1: Mr. Caruthers and Dawn Summers - About his middle school science teacher, who taught that the earth was only 10,000 years old. Also a little bit comparing a plot point from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to Earth Creation theory.
Mr. C. believed that the universe was only 10,000 or so years old, but that this was not its "apparent age." Adam and Eve, he said, were created as full-grown adults and the entire universe, likewise, was created ex nihilo as a full-grown, ancient-seeming thing.

Creationism: Snapshot No. 2: Stardust and the Glory of God - The friendly rivalry between two Christian college science professors, and how they used science as a means of better understanding and praising God:
For both men, both scientists, the study of creation -- including the amazing reality of evolution, whether biological or cosmological -- reinforced their appreciation for the power and majesty of the Creator.

Creationism: Snapshot No. 3: The walls came tumbling down - This is my favorite, as the author tells a story of how a fellow a student colleague who visited Jericho had a major crisis of faith concerning an 8,000 year old Jerichan wall. It includes one of the best descriptions of how blind literal belief in the Bible can cancel out all the meaning within:
The most dangerous thing about fundamentalism is not that it sometimes teaches wacky ideas, like that the world is barely 6,000 years old or that dancing is sinful. The most dangerous thing is that it insists that such ideas are all inviolably necessary components of the faith. Each such idea, every aspect of their faith, is regarded as a keystone without which everything else they believe -- the existence of a loving God, the assurance of pardon, the possibility of a moral or meaningful life -- crumbles into meaninglessness.

Go read them all.


UPDATE (07/13/05):

Creationism: Snapshot No. 4: Sunrise in Samaria

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