Enough with this tread already!
I’d like to leave this thread with one last comment about this completely tiresome debate by first defining two simple terms and then discussing my views on each of them and how they apply to the current trends in this Country.
Dictionary Definitions
Main Entry: fun•da•men•tal•ism
Function: noun
1 a often capitalized: a movement in 20th century Protestantism emphasizing the literally interpreted Bible as fundamental to Christian life and teaching b : the beliefs of this movement c : adherence to such beliefs
2 : a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles
- fun•da•men•tal•ist - noun
- fundamentalist or fun•da•men•tal•is•tic - adjective
Main Entry: Evangelical
Function: noun
1 Belonging to or designating Christian churches that emphasize the teachings and authority of the scriptures, especially of the New Testament, in opposition to the institutional authority of the church itself, and the stress as paramount the tenet that salvation is achieved by personal conversion to faith in the atonement of Christ; or
2 Designation Christians, especially of the late 1970s, eschewing the designation of fundamentalist but holding to a conservative interpretation of the Bible.
True evangelicals are committed to be a strong global mission to share their Christian faith will all other people, without discrimination. They fulfill the mandate of Jesus Christ either by their own personal witnessing or through supporting others through believing in religious freedom, compassion for unbelievers, and respect for all persons as inherently equal before God. Baptists, for example, follow evangelical based Christian values such as autonomy for each local church, with decisions made by a vote of its baptized members. Evangelicals are empowered only to serve others, by alleviating suffering and espousing truth, forgiveness and love. They also uphold the values of this Country by acknowledging the separation of church and state.
By crossing this critical barrier with attempts to pass laws such as stopping gay marriage, stopping freedom of choice, attempting to enforce the teaching of one specific faith system such as applying Christian’s belief in Creationism, it's easy to apply the first definitions of fundamentalist to those who desire such laws to be passed.
Fundamentalists are typically very one sided on issues concerning Christianity especially when it comes to Old Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures. An example can be witnessed at their tendencies to break the barrier between the separation of church and state through the examples found at the beginning of this paragraph.
It is not an attack on a particular political party, but more of an easy application of the true definitions of evangelicals and fundamentalists. It is certain that not all people and Government officials of either political party to be one or the other, however the past 6 years have shown a growing trend of the current administration and those who follow it intently of tilting toward fundamentalist values defined in the definition above.
The original purpose of this thread was merely to discuss the fundamentalist’s belief of enforcing Creationism (with their sudo-term of "Intelligent Design") in public schools especially when considering most other religious faiths with their own Creationism beliefs are found in every public school across this country. This action clearly brakes to barrier of church and state and it also goes against God's clear scriptural desire for His people to be evangelicals and not Fundamentalists.
By desiring only one of the many Creation beliefs in a public school and ignoring all other faiths Creation beliefs, the people and elected government officials who are guided down this path can be defined as a fundamentalists and are therefore completely contradiction their own Christian values. Furthermore, all polls show that the majority of people in this country, ie, the voters, do NOT favor fundamentalists approaches to our freedom based society, therefore these very same elected officials are violating their voting and non-voting public who appointed them to office. Even many Republicans are against fundamentalism therefore the small minority of leaders who are attempting to enforce these values are not even following their own party.
This thread was NOT originally created to dispute or debunk Creationism and Evolution but it turned out that way sadly with Clint's attack on Evolution and his intolerance of allowing each and every Creationistic belief system to be taught in public schools, not as science, but through philosophical terms perhaps in elective classes. It is therefore clear that he and others who desire Christian’s Creationism and only Christian’s Creationism to be in public schools are following the accepted definition of fundamentalists thus the likely reason for the attacks made toward Christianity and Evolution.
This will be my very last post on this tread as I am completely sickened by the off track discussions and the one way or other way as being completely right or wrong. In reality, since no one has actually witnessed the creation of the earth and the universe, each of these beliefs albeit sciences or faith, require us all to uphold some sort of faith based belief. It is NOT wrong to put your faith in science or in Christ. What is wrong is the one sided thinking by both parties and especially the totally off track thinking of the fundamentalists who belief that Christian’s Creationism should be the only other system taught in science class.
Audioholics Management should consider closing this tread as most of the posts here have become repetitious and argument based and have not even stayed on the original comment of the first post. Clint, you should also consider backing off of your fundamentalist continued debate over Creationism, not because it's right or wrong, but because it seems that you are now jeopardizing your reputation of science and engineering based product reviews. Perhaps you should also focus back on being an Evangelical Christian and practice what you follow.
Good by to all on this tread and hopefully we can find another topic to discuss that is perhaps less controversial.
Peace Out.
Revelator
