In this chapter we outline some of the discussion about creation that has taken place in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which. Price informs readers of Tidens Tegn that the column is only a "working hypothesis". Numbers (2006) shows how many of Price's ideas were to become the foundation of the 20th century Creation science movement, a movement built on a literal view of the Genesis record.
GRI with well-qualified scholars who could understand the depth of the challenges facing the Church. To some extent, Price determined the Church's position on geology and the Flood during the first sixty years of the twentieth century.
The Contributions of Leonard Brand
The example of the canyons of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming is given in this regard (Clark 1968, p. 55). Each of the other members of GRI has also contributed to GRI's research and publication output, as can be seen in the list of publications in academic and church-related journals that have come from the pens of Ben Clausen, Raúl Esperante, and Tim Standish (www.grisda. org/home-office-staff). Brand is aware of the potential criticism of his position from those who would argue that he falsely entertains the idea of.
A challenging question for Seventh-day Adventists regarding Table 24.3 is the following: Where do you think the weight of evidence is strongest; on the right or left side of the table. Addressing questions like this is essential to engaging students and teachers in an open, supportive discussion of the evidence on both sides of the argument. There appear to have been two broad responses to this question in the teacher survey.
Some, like Brand, favor short-age geology primarily because of their fundamental commitment to a belief in the historical reality of the Creation and Flood stories in Genesis and the metanarrative given by Ellen White on the Creation and Flood. The trend toward more catastrophic processes [in geology] is a move in the direction predicted by the short-age theory. They find the evidence on this side of Table 24.3 so profoundly compelling as practicing scientists that to deny the general legitimacy of the evidence would be to deny their profession.
The major sticking point for a Seventh-day Adventist in this category is the issue of Biblical interpretation and the legitimacy of Ellen White's writings.
The 1980 Statement of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
It is only a relative scale of isotopic ratios produced by a factor other than time and associated with geological events occurring in a much shorter period of real time. This factor will be a significant process affecting all radiometric processes and will not involve separate "corrections" for each dating method. To our knowledge, little or no progress has been made in this area.
Others, looking at the evidence in Table 24.3, are convinced that the weight of evidence is clearly on the side of conventional geology and biological evolution. The focus of the research among the members of this group is therefore on biblical studies, theology and Adventist history. This does not mean that scientific research is not important for this group and that Bible research is not important for the first group.
A second major revision of the Fundamental Beliefs was undertaken by an ad hoc committee consisting of C. It was not taken to the General Conference session for a vote (intentionally), but was published with minor revisions under the title, "Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists" in each of the editions of the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook between 1931 and 1979 (YB1931, pp. 377–80; YB1979, pp. 5–6). While the 1931 set of Fundamental Beliefs retained much of the wording of the first two paragraphs of Uriah Smith's creed, they pointed to Jesus Christ as the one "through whom all things were made."
This revision stated the Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 27 numbered paragraphs (subsequently changed to 28 Fundamental Beliefs in 2005; see Fundamental Beliefs, 2004). This particular paragraph was discussed on the floor of the General Conference Session at an afternoon business meeting on April 22, 1980. A comment from the floor of the business session asked whether Ellen White's visions might not contain authentic descriptions of Creation (GCB1980-06 , p. 20).
The answer given at the GC session was that the days of 24 hours were implied by the concatenation of the seventh day of creation and the Sabbath (GCB1980-06, p. 20). Based on the authority of the Bible, the statement asserts that God created the world in six days. Other Adventists have considered Genesis chapter 1 to describe the creation of the universe as well as our world, all of which took place in six days.
The word "last" was retained in the version brought back to the floor of the business meeting the next day.
Implications for Teachers in Adventist Schools in Australia
Teachers in Adventist schools have tended to respond by holding both the short-age chronology and the long-age chronology side by side in creative tension. This is an approach proposed by Hasok Chang (2012), philosopher of science at Cambridge University, to deal with changing ideas in chemistry. If nineteenth-century chemists had allowed the phlogiston theory of combustion (the trigger of the reaction lies within a substance) to remain alongside the oxygen theory (the trigger of the reaction lies outside the substance), the development of the thermodynamic concepts of internal energy and free energy, according to Chang, would have developed more quickly and been richer in content than it was after phlogiston was effectively removed from consideration when the French idea of oxidation appeared.
One way to encourage this creative tension approach is to consider the development of an Adventist version of the Test of Faith project developed in the UK around 2009 (www.testoffaith.com). The materials consist of a DVD (Does Science Threaten Belief in God?), a book entitled Spiritual Journeys with Scientists, a study guide entitled "Science and Christianity Unpacked", and a Leader's Guide to the Study Guide. Regarding the Creation story in Genesis 1, three common views (including the short- and long-age versions) are discussed in the DVD and students are asked to read Genesis 1 carefully and then discuss the following.
What role does time play in thinking about the main messages in Genesis? Can you give an example of a story used in the Bible to explain a real event? An Adventist version might focus on the significance of the Sabbath in the creation account.
An education that provides a range of options for teachers and students to openly discuss the range of views will be more effective in faith development than an education that forcibly silences discussion of any option outside of a belief system.
Survey Results
Solomon Islands = Teachers at Adventist schools in the Solomon Islands Seventh-day Adventist Mission. A separate statement was provided to assess whether teachers agreed that the world was created in exactly six days of 24 hours each. While a majority of teachers in both AUC and SIM agreed with Statement 62q: “I believe that God created the world in exactly six days of 24 hours each,” 24% of AUC teachers were unsure whether it disagree (see table 24.5).
Answers to the Statement, "I believe that God created the world in exactly six days of 24 hours each." The results recorded in Table 24.5 can be compared to the 2013 Global Survey of Church Members, in which 69% of participants from the SPD strongly agreed that the world was created in six 24-hour days. The teachers at AUC and SIM clearly tend to reflect the church's general understanding of the six-day Creation.
The answers to the questions in Table 24.4 revealed that almost all teachers in the AUC and SIM believe that the world was created by God. The responses in Table 24.6 show that a majority of teachers in the AUC believe in a short chronology for the age of the Earth. First, while some SIM teachers are well aware of the age of the earth debate taking place in Adventist circles, a significant number of them are not, especially given that
About the same proportion that strongly disagreed with statement 62r strongly agreed with the statement in question 62s that the world is millions of years old (Table 24.6).
Conclusions
A future research project is planned to include results from teachers from many different cultures around the world, and it will be interesting to see how many of them show a pattern of response similar to that seen among SIM teachers. Teaching Chemistry for All Its Values: The Interaction of Facts, Ideas and Language in Lavoisier's and Priestley's Chemistry Practice: The Case Study of Air Composition. Storm-related sedimentation influenced by coastal configuration in the stratigraphic record of a tectonically active shelf (Upper Pleistocene Le Castella Terrace, Italy).
The Fundamentals of Geology and Their Influence on the Doctrine of a Literal Creation Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association Schuchert, C. A review of “The New Geology” by George. “Making Room for Two Creationist Viewpoints”: The Origin and Evolution of Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief Number 6.
A descriptive inventory of documents in the archives of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, relating to the drafting and adoption of Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief no.
