Ken was asked:

How about you just briefly state what the Evangelical view of creationism is, or is that not possible?

Ken:

I can offer you a view from one evangelical – if you want more you could try looking at the Web sites of:

Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology (Australian);

Christians in Science (England);

American Scientific Affiliation (USA).

The last time I looked all these had their statements of belief somewhere on their pages.

As for me, I do not accept that the ideas of Ellen G. White, the “prophetess” of Seventh-day Adventism, filtered through George McCready Price, and popularised by Henry M. Morris, are the only interpretation of Genesis which should eb acceptable to Evangelicals today.

In fact, you should go back to the series of books “The Fundamentals”, written aropund 1910-1915, and read the essay on science and religion – if my memory is correct it was by James Orr.

Or you could read what Charles Hodge, eminent evangelical 19th century theologian, wrote about the “days” of Genesis in his “Systematic Theology”.

Or almost any commentary on Genesis by an evangelical theologian written during the 20th century

~~~

Another:

Ken, I had not heard of Lysenko before the your own comment. I have looked up two wesites:-

Ken:

Any scientist who has made even a modicum study of the history of science is aware of just three attempts by politicians to try legislating what should be regarded as science – until creationists tried to use the law to force their ideas on schools in USA in the 1970s and later.

Tennessee, in the 1920s with the law which led to the prosecution of John Scopes.

Germany, in the 1930s, which tried to ban “Jewish science”, by which was meant relativity and quantum mechanics, and led to disaster for the use of science during WW II.

Russia, in the 1940s, where Lysenko got the ear of Stalin by concocting results, and made a complete mess of agriculture in USSR for a couple of decades; banning evolution was his main idea.

There were moments during the Arkansas creationism law trial in 1981 when the State was made to look ridiculous – first by being accused of acting like Nazi Germany, and then of behaving like Stalinist Russia.

The other:

Trofim Lysenko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim Lysenko

The second one I can only access through Search I entered the word Lysenko and the following ‘Who was Lysenko’ and by clicking on ‘http://www.comms.dcu.ie’ I had access to the article.

He was able to impress some people, even Stalin. I can only assess that he was seeking answers, as many more were doing from the 1800’s onwards, even it may be said from the 15th and 16th Centuries as Europe and England moved out of the Middle Ages.

Ken:

Lysenko wasn’t after answers – he was after power.

The other:

There were experiments that were successful; others were not. But they showed where to direct future experiements; where not to go for some of them.

Ken:

His claimed successes were shown to be fabrications.

The other:

It is still the situation today. In some instances a society will ‘hide’ those who make incorrect judgements; it will expose others. The moral is, ‘Make sure you have friends in high office/media etc!”.

Ken:

This isn’t a moral stance I support – cronyism is immoral, whether practised by Nazis, Stalinists or Republicans in USA.

Salaam

Ken Smith

— Dr Ken Smith – Christian, husband, unpaid mathematician, skeptic, … `So I became convinced that humans and aliens are bound to be good friends if they have only half a chance. You see, sir, we spent those two hours telling dirty jokes.’ Tommy Dort, in “First Contact”