Wednesday, February 16, 2005

 

Why Fundamentalists and Biblical Literalists Loathe Mainstream Christians

At school board hearings where the topic is evolution, you often hear ID proponents -- who in their overwhelming majority believe the Biblical account in Genesis is literally true -- say that science and evolution are part of an agenda by atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists.

What really sets them off though are the speakers who profess a strong belief in God, but remain convinced of the fact of evolution.

A case in point: Rachel Robson describes herself as a Christian, a microbiologist, and a Kansan. She spoke at the science standards hearing held in Kansas City, Kansas on Feb. 1st.

"As a Christian, I know that there is absolutely no conflict between Evolution and my faith, or between naturalistic science and the Christian religion," Robson told the crowd. "As a Christian, I believe that God wants us to understand the world, and that the naturalistic methods of science are one of the means He gives us to do so."

This sort of statement, simple, straight forward, and deeply felt, absolutely drives the ID-biblical literalist crowd wild.

In their heart of hearts, the fundamentalists believe they are the only authentic Christians. Only they can speak for God.

While ID proponents, such as John Calvert and Philip Johnson, use polite language in public to describe mainstream Christians who understand and support the teaching of evolution -- they have called the thinking of such Christians "incoherent."

Other fundamentalists are not so temperate. Pat Robertson had this to say about his fellow Christians on the 700 Club, on January 14, 1991:

"You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them."

Right now, biblical literalists have a lot of power in Kansas. Even so, they are a small minority of the population, even a minority among Christians.

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