In article <lkuehner.675.3234318D at hookup.net>,
Leonard F. Kuehner <lkuehner at hookup.net> wrote:
>My wife (Ph.D.
>biologist) has just begun teaching at a Christian private school (developing
>their science program). [...]
[instruction of creationism vs. evolution, age of earth issues elided]
>In any event, what I would like to pose here, is where has the magical number
>of 6K been derived from.
Um... Hmmm... The (in)famous Bishop Usher, in the 1700s if I'm not
mistaken, arrived at the universe having come into being at a particular
time, on a particular day, in 4004 B.C. through a "careful" reading of
Scriptures (presumably Old & New Testaments). 4004+1996 = 6000 years,
precisely.
>My wife is thinking of cautiously challenging some
>of this doctrine, and would like to have some useful ammutition.
Your wife is, IMO, incautiously playing with fire. The smaller,
more-religiously focussed Christian colleges, in the United States at
least, seek to hire science faculty "able to teach within the context
of a <insert denomination> Christian environment." Their faculty
recruitment advertisements in journals such as _Science_ often use
similar phrases along those lines. I always interpreted the wording as
meaning "Evolutionists, Old-Earthers and Jews need not apply." It seems
to me that if she is not willing to toe the line on Scriptural interpretation
then it's only a matter of time before she is fired or resigns on principle.
Mark
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Mark D. Garfinkel (e-mail: mg16 at midway.uchicago.edu)
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