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Tips for Discussion with Evolutionists
By A.T. Ross
As Young-Earth Creationists (see YEC: A Definition), we all want to
discuss/debate evolutionists on the topic of Scripture, science, and
origins. These are some general tips to help make the discussion
fruitful, enlightening, and worthwhile. Having extensive experience
debating with sceptics over the internet or email, and in person, I can
recommend the following tips:
1. Probably most importantly, do your research!
If all you’ve done is watch a few Kent Hovind/Ken Ham seminar tapes,
you’re probably not going to make much headway and discussion is likely
to degenerate into useless namecalling because these presentations are
meant to give overviews of broad subjects. Suggestion: Read as many online
articles and published books (start at Resources) you are able to on
Creation and Evolution.
Recommended Reading Online:
Answers
In Genesis's Q&A Section
The TrueOrigin Website
The Institute for Creation Research
2. Understand your opponent’s position and
arguments. If your opponent is a punctuated equilibrian and
you’re convinced that Punctuated Equilibria is a theory that believes a
reptile lays an egg that when hatched turns out to be a bird, think
again. You will probably be laughed at. Punctuated Equilibria states
that there will be long ages of relatively minor change punctuated by
geologically rapid evolutionary change. Punctuated Equilibria is an
off-shoot of the Hopeful Monster theory, which does state that a
reptile will lay an egg that hatches a bird. Few to no scientists hold
to the original Hopeful Monster theory any longer.
Suggestion: Read up on your
opponent’s views. A good place to start understanding their
arguments is the TalkOrigins website. If
your desire to understand actual scientific truth, talkorigins is not
recommended, as they have been proven time and again to be more
interested in propoganda and pseudo-scientific deception and
misrepresentation rather than free and objective scientific inquiry.
(See ‘New
Definition of Evolution?’; and ‘Major
Misrepresentation’ and the True.Origin
site)
3. Don’t be hostile. Too many
Christians are hard-hearted and soft-headed. We’re called to be
hard-headed and soft-hearted. Whoever you’re talking with is not the
enemy. We don’t want to utterly crush their spirit, we want to lead
them back down the ladder of their presuppositions and help them up our
ladder to be on our side. We’re called to cast down arguments, not
people (2
Cor. 10: 4-5). Suggestion: Try to always be conscious of the Fruit
of the Spirit when in discussions, peace, love, patience, etc; not
sarcasm, frustration and impatience. This doesn’t mean, however, that
you have to be weak. (See Point 4, below)
4. Be strong. State your points clearly and
firmly. Deal with the issues at hand; don’t nitpick over
misspelled words, or other errors in emails, posts, or other written
dialogue mediums unless they are continually attacking your wrting
style or nitpicking over misspelled words or problematic grammar
themselves, and only then to point out that you could nitpick their
posts apart as well, but that it would be petty to do so and doesn’t
deal with the issues. You could also recommend that they start dealing
with the issues themselves instead of avoiding them.
5. Be prepared to defend yourself. Use
logical arguments, try to guess what objections your opponent will use
and deal with those as well. Be well informed and use references. This
shows that you’ve done your homework and that you aren’t just making
things up out of the clear blue. Sceptics will try to use any and every
possible opportunity to question you and undermine your certainty and
credibility. Don’t stoop to their level, but also don’t be afraid to
point out the errors they will in all likelyhood use against you, and
state your corrections firmly and absolutely, hitting the points they
bring up hard, but with kindness to them personally.
6. Question your opponent’s
claims. When your opponent tells you that you are wrong or that
something you have said has been proven wrong, request that they
document their claims through the legitemate use of sources or retract
the claim. Secondly, after stating the above, use documented sources to
demonstrate that their claims are false anyway, if possible. This is a
double-strike to their position.
7. Don’t give your opponent, or any sceptic,
the benefit of the doubt; they have to earn their trust. Most
of them are not scientists but regular people like you or me and are
prone to merely parroting what they’ve been told in school and by
militant evolutionists and atheists such as Stephen Jay Gould, Richard
Dawkins, or Ian Palmer. Many of the books by these intellectual
secularists have been reviewed by creationists and their claims refuted
(and most of their claims are the ususal canards anyway), so be sure to
read the book reviews as well.
8. Don’t accept or use evolutionary
assumptions when discussing creation with them. All facts are
interpreted through a framework and all frameworks have an ultimate
commitment that they must hold to by faith alone. There are only two
camps for ultimate commitments: you believe in God, or you do not
believe in God. Therefore, by arguing from or accepting evolutionary
assumptions, you are using the presupposition that ‘there is no God,’
meaning that you have conceded the argument from before you began.
9. Don’t expect science alone to convince your
opponent. Because we understand that all facts are interpreted
through a framework of presuppositions, merely using the scientific
evidence for a Young Earth will not convince them because they must
make sense of these anomalous facts within their framework, thus are
integrated and interpreted through their presuppositions, causing the
facts to be rejected or dismissed. Many creationists feel that merely
quoting scientific facts at evolutionists will somehow cause them to
lie down, defeated. We need to establish that out Biblical
presupposition is the more logical, indeed, the only logical
presupposition and demonstrate their own presupposition’s inadequacy.
Suggestion: Read some
Presuppositional Apologetics. I personally have
greatly benefited from the brilliant apologist Cornelius Van Til and
his follower Greg L. Bahnsen.
10. Don’t destroy relationships or friendships
over the issue of origins. If the subject comes up, you can
state your view and why you believe it to be correct. If they seem
interested, you can continue the discussion. If they don’t, leave it at
that. Don’t push them or beat them over the head on the subject, that
just causes them to put up mental walls of resistance. If you go easy
and keep a light-hearted, calm, friendly manner, you may find yourself
able to talk with them about it frequently, giving little tidbits and
interesting dialogue every once in a while, and you will find their
resistance level goes down.
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