[Phys-L] Re: god friendly science

[Aaron Titus <titus@MAILAPS.ORG>]

On May 20, 2005, at 1:59 PM, Wes Davis wrote:

>      Oh, really?  I have always understood a Christian to be one
> who adheres to the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth.  To argue that
> a Christian must believe in the deity of Jesus is, in fact, a
> fundamentalist viewpoint because the statement rejects the validity
> of other Christian viepoints.

Though fundamentalists believe this viewpoint, it is not a
"fundamentalist viewpoint". It is the creed of the earliest followers
of Christ, even before the term Christian. The earliest written form
of this creed dates back to the first century.

Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet and adhere to many (most?)
of his teachings, though they do not believe in the deity of Christ.
But they are not considered Christians. Mormons adhere to the
teachings Jesus of Nazareth but are not considered Christians.
(Perhaps those more familiar with Mormon theology can enlighten me,
but I believe that Mormons believe that Jesus is "a son of God" but
not the Son of God.)

I agree that there are many people who call themselves Christians who
do not believe that Christ was the Son of God. They appreciate and
follow many of his teachings. They may revere him as a moral teacher
and maybe even a prophet. But this is not the standard "operational
definition" of a Christian dating back to the earliest followers of
Christ.

Perhaps this is the problem in having these discussions--people
generally do not use operational definitions but instead everyday
definitions. At least I defined how I use the term "Christian."
Nonetheless,  my point was not to argue about what a Christian is or
isn't. My point was to define a Christian (and the way that I'm using
the term) and lay out the fact that the educated Christian believes
in the credibility of the eyewitness testimony and that this is
different than "blind faith."

Aaron
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