@beaglelady he mentioned a comment by Patrick here and said that because it wasn’t flagged, it must mean we all agree with him.
The frustrating thing about the way Jeanson set this up is that a dichotomy between “descent” vs. “design” sets metaphysical conclusions inside the scientific debate. What Christian wants to reject the idea of God’s design, if those are the options? What’s really being debated is two different understandings of God’s design. If it was framed that way, I feel it would be more helpful.
1 Like
Dennis Venema… Venema sounds like Venom… snakes have venom! Dennis is the devil!!!
/sarcasm
1 Like
Video livestream costs me too much by satellite so I eventually had to drop out. (I wish the host had implemented Facebook’s audio-only livestream option.) Yet, even though my expectations for Jeanson were not especially high, I found myself downright underwhelmed. Everything I heard sounded like it was geared toward the AIG faithful, not a seminary audience genuinely interested in hearing the best arguments from both sides. (And why waste time taking a potshot at Todd Wood for not being sufficiently faithful to the YEC cause when he could have used that time to talk about “Adam and genetics”, the actual event topic?)
The whining about Patrick’s post on the Biologos forum leads me to wonder how much time he spends on forums investigating what people say about him.
1 Like
So he’s that desperate?
Loving the language analogy.
1 Like
How long Is this debate supposed to last?
@beaglelady this sessions ends around 5, then it picks up again around 6, and goes to at least 9
1 Like
Great job so far, Dr. Venema. We’re so lucky to have you as a representative.
5 Likes
@beaglelady Well, your oft-asked question about how did the tigers eat with their sharp carnivore teeth before the fall was addressed. Sharp teeth are good for eating coconuts and watermelons. 
1 Like
And Eve was basically a clone of Adam (created from the rib and all), except for a brand new X chromosome of course. That is a new one for me.
1 Like
While I was busy whining over on another thread how I had missed the debate, I didn’t realize it was still going on! At least I saw the last hour or so here. Wow. What a marathon! The part that I saw seemed amicable enough.
Does that mean if Adam was made of dirt, we potentially then have earthworm DNA, maybe mixed with a little bacteria,fungal and plant DNA?
Missed most of the conference, but overall seemed well done and cordial from what I saw.
No, but it does mean, as Dennis was quick to point out, that the genetic variation of the couple was half what I’ve heard YEC people claim it was in the past.
It also kind of throws a new angle on the “Cain married his sister” ick factor. Adam married himself as a woman.
Ew, perish the thought. 
Jeanson really did throw Todd under the bus. I was very surprised.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers this evening.
1 Like
One thing that struck me from reading the questions, as well as some of the moderators comments, is how difficult it is to communicate relatively basic scientific concepts to people who have little training or background in science. I thought Dennis did a great job, but after the one presentation I heard, the moderator said something like, “I think I understood a little of that.” Tough to say if some of the Facebook comments were serious but there were quite a few that seemed to lack understanding of basic biology.
Nobody can say the creationists are not, well, creative.
Without the PowerPoint slides being visible to the Livestream audience, I found it hard to evaluate how the average non-scientist would have understood the presentations—but I will admit to not following many of Jeanson’s evening arguments at all. And some of his generalizations seemed outright leaps without any basis in what he’d just presented. I used to think that I was familiar with most Young Earth Creationist arguments but after hearing Jeanson, I’m not so sure. I found his arguments confusing.
Jeanson kept saying that “we aren’t here to bash anyone” but he seemed determined to take as many shots at Young Earth Creationist Todd Wood as he possibly could. He even brought up Dr. Wood in his initial remarks even though they seemed to be irrelevant to the event topic. I was shocked at this.
Jeanson strategy seems to be focused on convincing non-scientists that science (and scientists) don’t know much and just can’t be trusted.
1 Like
Yes, if you have winners in these sort of things, I have no doubt our Dr. Venema prevailed. I wish I could hear what the seminary students think about the talks. It shows progress that an event like this was hosted at a Baptist Seminary.
1 Like