Do you think dichotomies, especially false dichotomies, make it harder for people to come to Christ? Example: All those who accept Evolution are Atheists. All Christians are Creationists. Thoughts?
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False dichotomies, certainly. I sometimes get down on dichotomies generally, but then I remember that even coming to Christ is itself a dichotomy… either you’re a new creation in Him, or you’re not. At least I imagine that is how most Christians view it.
Those are not just false dichotomies. They are also “No True Scotsman” fallacies!
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I was a Christian until my early 20’s, and I accepted evolution. I didn’t leave the faith because of evolution or any other scientific theory since Christianity does not require you to abandon these things.
I would agree, however, that Christians who insist that one must disbelieve in modern science in order to be a Christian aren’t making things any easier for those who may want to become Christians.
“Professor Darrel Falk has recently pointed out that one should not take the view that young-earth creationism is simply tinkering around the edges of science. If the tenets of young earth creationism were true, basically all of the sciences of geology, cosmology, and biology would utterly collapse. It would be the same as saying 2 plus 2 is actually 5. The tragedy of young-earth creationism is that it takes a relatively recent and extreme view of Genesis, applies to it an unjustified scientific gloss, and then asks sincere and well-meaning seekers to swallow this whole, despite the massive discordance with decades of scientific evidence from multiple disciplines. Is it any wonder that many sadly turn away from faith concluding that they cannot believe in a God who asks for an abandonment of logic and reason?”–Francis Collins, “Faith and the Human Genome”