Whoever said that I was a Christian-hating rabid atheist again? Christians are my favorite people as, er…at dinner.

I wonder what YE Creationists think of OE Creationists?

Not highly. I grew up in a YEC environment. Our spiritual leaders were all quite hostile towards Theistic Evolution, Gap Theory, Day-Age Theory, Allegory Theory and any other interpretation of Genesis that precluded Jesus creating the universe in exactly 6 terrestrial days. You can look those up if you want, I had to memorize them for Bible class. Suffice to say they never outright claimed, but strongly implied, that you were Hellbound if you accepted any of those “alternate” theories. Satan was vigilant and he was trying his utmost to smuggle Evolutionist pseudoscience into real Christian science in any way possible.

In my “personal testimony” (a prerequisite to my graduating from a Christian High School) I wrote that I believed the Bible was not meant to be taken 100% literally on matters of scientific or historical accuracy. My Bible teacher marked me down heavily for those comments, claiming it was a “dangerous view”.

I was also told by my Bible teacher that the Strong interaction and the Van Der Waal force were inventions of the devil and that Colossians 1:17 proves that it is Jesus pinching atoms together that prevents matter from flying apart. I only wish I were exaggerating.

Still, nothing wrong with some diversity in theism.

People CAN change!

Two-way street, I’m afraid.

My brother left for college a moderate Christian, pretty tolerant of other lifestyles and beliefs, then he joined a church and got involved pretty heavily in it, and eventually enough years of “God is a God of Black and White, not a God of Gray” and he buckled and went full-on fundie.

Now he routinely breaks plans and commitments with family, friends and work whenever his church calls him up and asks him to do something, and he openly tells the family of “the miracle that just happened” any time a complete stranger “becomes a brother” in his church. I’m pretty incredulous that he can consider people he barely knows more of a brother to him than, ya know, his own brother.

Still cusses and drinks when I visit though. And his wife is pro-choice. I seriously do not get how he reconciles that with his uberconservative faith.

Thanks Hemant, you’re blog has become a regular read for me.

I’m so proud of him. Whenever I need hope for the world, I go back to the memory of him admitting that the Solar Nebular Theory is possible.