So...I’ve been dating a Christian woman. She is perfectly aware of my stance on the supernatural and has described herself as a more “liberal Christian”. The other night we had a discussion that prompted me to ask her views on evolution vs. creation. She conveyed the typical “its just a theory” argument, showing that she was unaware of the distinction between the common misuse of the word and what an actual scientific theory is. I explained the difference but she was still doubting me.
Does anyone have experience with these types of discussions? Any advice as to how to help her understand these distinctions, given her predisposed notion of creationism?
A creationism theory is base on stories, myth, legends and very weak historical facts. I think most Christians threw out the concept of hell because they did not think it was nice. Even though JESUS speaks about hell as much as heaven.
A Christian prepared their whole life to go to heaven, (a theory) Why? even the Pope says hell dose not exist, what is there to loose now.
I'm afraid there's not much you could do to convince a creationist the facts backing evolution. I've dealt with plenty of folks who had that mentality. My favorite kind of woman is one who wears a shirt with evolution fish symbol on it, as that version of the fish symbol really irritates christian creationists.
Well, I dated a Baptist for a short time. That went well!
Your relationship is doomed. Sorry to say...
Grand Canyon show her the layers and ask her if God built the earth in layers and layers like making a wax candle, in one day? And how does she think the age is brought into those layers? How their age is building up from deep down the Colorado River up to the highest level? Just an idea.
But, thinking about it, why do you date a Christian woman anyway. You must think that she has potency of becoming wiser. Christian parents don't like that their daughter is dating someone that doesn't take the Bible for granted. So in anyway there will be trouble on the way. But again, she can be worth it.
I moved in with a Catholic woman. Despite the meaning of the name, her world was very, very small. It was a trainwreck because I was treated like an intruder in it. OTOH, David Silverman, Mr. Deity, and Seth Andrews are all married to Christians, so what do I know?
For me, it is the difference between science and metaphysics.
Scientific theory is based on empirical, testable data. Evolution is like this.
Metaphysics uses faith other untestable logic.
Creationism is a perfectly valid metaphysics theory. There is no way to test it empirically, though.