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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I’d have to agree more with Joe Campbell on this one.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Donovan Writes:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>“To me, it is obvious that evolution took place, and is taking
place, just as it is obvious that it was done with intention and
purpose.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>But it is obvious to many that evolution did not take place. The issue
of basic “intuition” regarding ‘origins’ has always
been fascinating to me. Even Darwin himself thought design by kinds was
obvious before he made his ‘discovery.’ Personally, it’s hard
to understand why someone would, in a common sense fashion, think that people
came from fish, or that my great grandfather was some slime on a rock (so to
speak). There is also an enormous problem intuitively accepting the kind of
probability involved with life coming about from chaos—-or however it is
one must describe it these days. (Although this last point might be mute for
Donovan’s theistic-evolution). <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Secondly, not only is it not obvious to current scientific institutions
that evolution was “done with intention and purpose,” it seems
obvious to most that the non-intentional and purposeless nature of natural
selection is the very glory of evolutionary theory. If evolution did in fact
take place the way current scientific institutions claim, then there is no need
for God to explain anything. It runs by itself, with no purpose, design, or
teleology; ‘humans’ might be ugly brains in vats flying space ships
100,000 years from now. Donovan would apparently agree with this, considering
that God wants “us to change with the environment.” <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> Donovan Writes:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>“ Most Christians that I know, do not take Genesis as literal. I
do not see how anyone could take it that way. To me is symbolic and put in
terms so that anyone, from anytime, can read it.” <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I can understand attempts to take the bible symbolically where a
literal reading would seem to conflict with accepted science. I don’t
think this is a good approach, but I can at least understand why this would be
done. However, I do not understand how one could read Genesis from beginning
to end and conclude that a fully symbolic reading of Chapters 1 through 3 is
the most natural. The genre of direct statement of historical fact is seamless,
from creation, through the family lineage of Adam and Eve, to the history of
the pre-flood world. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Donovan Writes:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>“It is meant as a spiritual guide to help us toward building a
personal relationship with God.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Again, I am perplexed. Does the bible itself anywhere speak of its own
nature as limited to or in precisely these terms? Is this how the prophets,
God, Mary, Jesus, or Paul speak of biblical revelation? If not, then by what
kind of authority do we decide “how to take the bible,” when the
bible itself claims a very particular kind of authority?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I did like Donovan’s take on the sufficiency of scientific explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Thanks<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Michael Metzler<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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