Subject: Henry Morris Explained - you should read this! |
Author:
Duane
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Date Posted: 08/27/04 4:11am
In reply to:
Pastor Moorao
's message, "THE BIBLE IS A TEXTBOOK OF SCIENCE" on 08/25/04 10:30pm
“It is salutary for anyone dealing with questions of
this sort to recognize the essential nature of faith
and presuppositions in his reasonings. "Science" (the
very meaning of which is knowledge) necessarily can
deal only with those things which exist at present.
The scientific method involves reproducibility, the
study of present natural processes. “
-Henry Morris
I want you, dear reader, to remember to refer to the above quote often during the reading of my paraphrase of excerpts of Henry Morris’s 1964 article in Biblothea Sacra. Here it is.
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Duane Accurately Paraphrases Henry Morris
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The Bible does not explain, in any verifiable way, the things that it asserts.
But just because it doesn't explain anything it asserts is not reason to question its accuracy.
So, who can we convince people we’re right and they’re wrong if the document we claim to be the crux of our faith, and the Word of God contains assertions that are either verifiably false or non-falsifiable?
Here’s how:
The primary tenet of “Science” is that, “If we can’t see it happening now, then we cannot know anything about it.” If we can’t see it happening now, then we have to make completely uneducated guesses, and choose to “believe” in something that we are not allowed, by the Henry Morris definition of “Science”, to even think about.
Let us explore the implications of Morrissian Scientifisism through the following example.
“Both of my parents died some time ago. Their bodies no longer move, their brains no longer carry any electrical current, their hearts do not beat, they do not breathe, and their cells do not perform any of the chemical reactions that we know living cells perform. I can, by no “PRESENT NATURAL PROCESS” (Morris, 1964) demonstrate that my parents are living organisms. Therefore, we cannot know if they ever lived. Though I seem to remember that they did, I cannot, through the tenets of Morrisian Scientifisism, say whether they did or not.
While Biblical Science seems to indicate that human beings can come from other human beings, through “relations” and “birth,” it also demonstrates that human life can arise because God creates it – directly (GOD, Bible:Genesis, 0)
Because I cannot know whether or not my parents existed, it is reasonable to assume that I was created by God “out of the dust of the earth” (GOD, Bible:Genesis, 0) 27 years ago.
I can also assume, then, that any currently living human who cannot prove through a “PRESENT NATURAL PROCESS” that their parents exist, must have been created in the same way.”
Or, perhaps, even more illustrative is the following example:
“I just walked out to my mailbox and found that there were letters in it. Yesterday, I happened to objectively observe that there was a man in a uniform putting letters in my mailbox, but I did not see him do it today. Since I removed the object he put into my mailbox yesterday, I cannot explain, through a “PRESENT NATURAL PROCESS” how these objects came to exist within my mailbox.
Biblical science clearly states that God can make things appear and disappear at His Whim. Therefore, I must assume that today that God delivered my mail.”
Clearly, the predictive and explanatory power of Morrisian Scientifisism is superior to any existing method of explaining the nature of our reality.
The fundamental tenets of Morrisian Scientifisism are illustrated in the following statements:
1) What we cannot demonstrate, through current natural processes, we cannot prove or offer justification for belief in.
2) Anything other than what is right in front of us this very second may or may not exist.
3) Therefore, the only things that exist are those that exist before our very eyes, this very instant.
4) When you take your eyes off of the above sentence to read this one, you can no longer know if it ever existed.
And, from Morris’s writings, we can clearly state the crux of Morrisian Scientifisism as the following:
MORRIS TENET ONE:
If you choose to believe in anything at all, other than what’s right in front of your eyes this very instant (i.e., if you choose to believe that the sentences you’ve just read exist, or that you just scratched your ear, or that your car exists (unless, of course you’re reading this IN your car) you’re deluding yourself.
MORRIS TENET TWO:
If you have decided to delude yourself, let me offer a very attractive delusion.
MORRIS TENET THREE:
CHRISTIANITY!!! You get to hang out on earth, live your life, be a nice guy or gal, spend thirty-five minutes a week someplace doing some ritual, and then when you die, you get presents, and wings, and trumpets, and there are angels that fly around, spooning frosting into your mouth, and it’s all because GOD LOVES YOU!!! But only if you believed in him.
MORRIS TENET FOUR (stolen from Pascal’s Wager, and dressed up in intellectually empty phraseology):
If you don’t believe in the above, you will suffer eternally.
-END of PART ONE – Part 2 coming soon!!!-
Moorao, shame on you. You couldn’t even spend the time to read what your dude Morris wrote, let alone comment on it.
Did you read it at all?
Hope you all enjoyed this.
Duane
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