G'day Ian,

It is sad that the ABC too often play their games with loaded dice.

Dr Richard Dawkins and Senator Fielding both approach the topic with preconceived bias, with no intention of entering into rational debate. Dawkins it seems despises irrational religious theory that cannot provide scientific proof and says so with the religious zeal of one that proffers evolution theories that have no scientific proof.

Theories, speculation and carbon dated bones do not make proofs for science, no more than if one castrated my uncle, he would then be my aunt.

Is it a coincidence that the doctor has "dawk" in his name? (dawk = to commit an egregious error which causes you to be the butt of all jokes). I know some lads that would have a field day with someone with a name like "Dick Dawkins".

Senator Fielding will change his mind when the AOG takes up evolution as a fad ... based on my hypothesis that they must be running out of "spirit" fads. Behold! ......"Evolution in the spirit!" .... "The Lyme Regis blessing!"

Blessings,

John

Hi Ian,

AOG ignorance will always be around and I come against it all the time. Ignorance in the Pentecostal circle is all fed by conformance, I 'm afraid. For example the issue of "tithing" as a church tax.  Here I came up against an AOG PHD holder who insists that the Malachi 3 is "illustrative" (would you believe) in order to coerce "parishioner folk" into thinking 10% is a New Testament requirement... And there are many other issues  such as tongues being the initial evidence of Spirit Baptism for which an AOG Pastor must be signed and agree to in order to hold pastoral credentials... the list just goes on and on. So it becomes a case of who is pulling Steve Fieldings strings I suppose.
For a man who is educated at Masters degree level you would expect more but instead it is a regime of remaining within the bounds institutionalized AOG boundaries. I would rather stay with my local Baptists these days Ian and I enjoy great satisfaction in the encouragement I receive from them to pursue my studies and explore as much as I like. For example I am a fan of Doctor Tom Wright and at present am in the midst of reading "Surprised by Hope" which is absolutely outstanding mind you and yet I know that among the many AOG students that I mingle with, are very secretive in their views of Tom Wright and are fearful of discussing  any of TW's exegesis among "parishioners".. You are right Ian and it is time pentecostal Christians stopped behaving like "christionettes" and grow up.

(Tell you what though Ianos. When I finish my own pursuit of MTh, I might divorce my associations with the pentecostal world altogether..  )

blessings

Eric