The Bible and the dismissive attitude:A question

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist)]

@jbabraham88

Does a YEC position actually do any harm?

It effectively contradicts the heart of the petitioner in the first request in the Lord’s Prayer, “Hallowed be your name…”, “I want you to be famous”, “I am interested in your renown.”

When YECism makes a mockery of the faith (and in practice actually ejects many young people already in churches and turns others away), yes, it does harm. There are numbers of faithful and modest YECs who quietly worship without making a stir, but they can be and many have been sucked into participating in the militant noise that is so obnoxious and public.

Augustine always comes to mind in this regard:

In regards to things about the earth, the sky, other elements of this world, the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, the definite eclipses of the sun and moon, the passage of years and seasons, the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, it should not be surprising that such things can be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian.

Therefore, it is an utterly disgraceful and ruinous thing – and something that should be greatly avoided – if [a non-Christian] hears a Christian speaking like an idiot on these matters and trying to make them accord with Christian writings. When that happens, [the non-Christian] will say that he can’t keep from laughing when he sees how totally in error they are. In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some singular meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation.