It is unwanted because one of the goals of this forum is to provide support for people who accept evolution and are negotiating questions about faith. So essentially telling someone that the reason they are having questions about their faith is because they have wrongly accepted evolution runs counter to the mission of this website. So, yes, it is unwelcome and unhelpful. I think it’s fair to say that the OP in no way desired confrontational advice from YECs who think evolution is damaging when he posted.
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Hello Christy,
I’m much delighted to engage in discussions in this forum where people are able to freely discuss issues. Thank you! As I said previously, I will lay aside the evolution issue. But I still need a little help.
We only know that scripture admonishes us to do all unto the glory of God and to be watchful both for ourselves and for one another against anything that may subtly peel us away from the path that God would have us travel.
Shouldn’t we thus warn one another of subtle dangers that await us when detected? How do we call ourselves caring for our brothers if otherwise?
Although true that a person should be allowed to freely discuss whatever path he is taking, shouldn’t we also freely help one another stay on the straight and narrow path of which there’s no other?
I say to you and MarkD that I did not obey Biblical scripture only to compartmentalize myself into any labeled faction only to despise outsiders. But I cannot help it if I’m compartmentalized by another. Do I or any other in my camp find it our duty to give you or anyone any commandment with hostility that Jesus did not already graciously plant in your heart? Of course not! I only know that we Christians as a whole (all of us, that is) tend to be compartmentalized on the rogue political front as the “religious right” that supposedly love to do “unconstitutional” things.
Were the Christians in Acts 2 split into YEC versus OEC factions or how were they described? Isn’t our Lord Jesus’ church non-factional? I guarantee that I speak nothing with hostility.
Earl
Here’s how I see it. This forum is used by different people for different reasons. There are certainly threads where people are looking to consider questions from all different sides and to engage in debates and you would be quite welcome to present your views. There are other threads where people are looking for encouragement and support from the Christian community. On those threads it would be inappropriate for some of our atheist friends here to try to use that thread as a platform to promote non-belief. There are threads like this one, where people are looking for specific information from the scientific community or EC community. So it would be inappropriate for people who have no training or expertise to turn the discussion into a discussion about pseudo-science or cult beliefs. In this case, it is not appropriate for someone to use this thread as a platform to promote things antithetical to science or EC.
We can’t make hard and fast rules about all this stuff, we can only ask people to remember they are guests here, BioLogos is hosting the conversation, and it’s not a free-for-all. This particular thread is not an appropriate place to “freely discuss” the alleged damage evolution has done to Austin. If you can’t use your own social skills to come to that conclusion yourself, then you just need to take my word for it. You are free to start your own thread to comment on how damaging you think evolution is and people can debate you to their hearts’ content. But to turn this thread into such a debate is off-topic and inappropriate. 
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OK. I understand.
Earl
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