I should mention at this point that just like any generalized group (such as young earth biblical creationists), flat earth believers are not monolithic in their views. I have also been accused of being non-biblical, a science denier, anti- God, Satan’s tool, spiritually deceived, and even a heretic. I’ve had several slurs sent my way from the flat-earth crowd the favorite of my wife and I is when one of my detractors called me “spinning ball boy.” As one can imagine, that really stings to this day. But I’ve dialogued with many who do, and let’s say it’s been an interesting experience over the past few years. I personally do not believe that either Scripture or science supports such a belief. Since then, I have witnessed the flat-earth beliefs grow in leaps and bounds I have been billeted by folks with such beliefs while on speaking tours, have chatted with people in my home church who held to it, and engaged in online discussions with flat-earthers as well. So, while my colleague and I chatted briefly about it at the time, we both quickly dismissed it as a weird anomaly, only to have the same type of experience occur for me just two weeks later! Becoming More Commonplace Though Shenton believes in evolution and global warming, he and his hundreds, if not thousands, of followers worldwide also believe that the Earth is a disc that you can fall off of. insist on teaching your children falsehoods-that the earth is flat, that “Man” is not a product of evolution by natural selection-then you must expect, at the very least, that those of us who have freedom of speech will feel free to describe your teachings as the spreading of falsehoods, and will attempt to demonstrate this to your children at our earliest opportunity.” 1Ī standard comeback to skeptics I used around this encounter was pointing out (according to a 2011 Live Science article) that the head of the Flat Earth Society was an evolutionist and believed in global (read discal) warming! The Flat Earth Society is an active organization currently led by a Virginian man named Daniel Shenton. A typical example and smearing of these beliefs came from staunch atheist Daniel Dennett: “. This was extremely surprising to me, as up to that point (over 10 years ago), I’d only heard Bible skeptics use the accusation of flat-earth belief as an anti-science slur towards creationists-I never thought there was any sort of identifiable group of Christians that held to such views.Įquating belief in a flat earth as similar to belief in biblical creation has been a favorite tactic for atheists as a cudgel to discredit and demean opposition to the story of evolution for quite a while. The question came years ago from a colleague of mine who’d recently returned from a speaking engagement where he encountered a fellow who had printed out a large stack of evidence he claimed proved the earth that God created was flat.Īsking for more details about the encounter, my colleague assured me the flat-earth believer was also a fellow young-earth creationist.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |