Ken Ham is the fundamentalist Christian who founded Answers in Genesis. He is lambasted because he espouses Creationism over evolutionary theory, but then Ham is a religious man whose primary concern is not for the physical sciences. He says:
"If Christian leaders have told the next generation that one can accept the world’s teachings in geology, biology, astronomy, etc., and use these to (re)interpret God’s Word, then the door has been opened for this to happen in every area, including morality." From: A Young Earth – It’s not the Issue! (AiG-USA Newsletter) January 1998
Ham's concern is morality, the sexual morality of the Levitical prohibitions 18:19-24, the behavioral guarantors of Abraham's pronatalist covenant that raise the total fertility rate of a community that observes them.
It is not an accident that AiG spotlights Noah. The first creation failed and Noah is tasked with recovering from the Deluge and beginning the 2nd creation.
The first creation was destroyed because God did not want the sons of God taking the daughters of men. That would prevent Mankind from practicing strict endogamy. In the first creation the sons of God want to take the daughters of men for intercourse. In Sodom we find the men of Sodom wanting to take the angels visiting Lot for intercourse. It is the same situation in reverse. God does not want mixing. He wants angels to be angels and men to be men, the way he made them. He wants Man to be: endogamous. When Ezra reestablishes the Torah in Jerusalem, he tells the people “…Do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not marry your sons to their daughters…” Ezra 9:12
“Mixing” is forbidden. Interestingly, and rarely if ever under discussion, the power and unrestrained sexual desire of the corporeally endowed sons of the gods prevents mankind from practicing strict endogamy, a principle of the Torah if not its behavioral centerpiece.
In the Book of Jubilees, a non canonical work well known to Christians and Jews, Abraham gathers his sons to instruct them. He tells his sons to teach their sons the ways of Yahweh:“[L]et them not take to themselves wives from the daughters of Canaan; for the seed of Canaan will be rooted out of the land. And he told them of the judgment of the giants, and the judgment of the Sodomites, how they had been judged on account of their wickedness, and had died on account of their fornication, and uncleanness, and mutual corruption through fornication.” The Book of Jubilees 20:4-5
"The maintenance of strict endogamy is the primary concern of the text. The sons and grandsons of Abraham are taught not to take the daughters of Canaan for wives and the cautionary tales of the fallen angels and Sodom and Gomorrah are shared with them. The consequences of exogamy are portrayed in the judgment of the giants whose fathers’ God-given spirit sinfully surrendered to the human flesh they donned in God’s behalf."
The Ark in Kentucky is not a simulation. It is a grounding element for people who do not have the education of Biblical minimalists and don't understand the allegories, just as the written gospels were a grounding element for people who did not have the education of a Jesus who had the intelligence to write the oral tradition of Judaism on his heart.
The Christian fundamentalists cannot abandon their morality as Marxist progressive sexual ideology demands, so, with no one to help them, they are propping their morality up, (Ken Ham says as much above) giving it as much reality as they can muster. Observing the Levitical prohibitions and maintaining their traditional sexual mores keeps them from being "rooted out of the land" which is a metaphor for a plummeting total fertilty rate, population decline and eventual extinction.
The fundamentalists are not alone in their marginalization which is not in their imagination. Biblical studies is dying. Davies' Sheffield Biblical studies department was down sized/reorganized after the threat of being closed altogether, wasn't it?
Christian fundamentalism and biblical studies are both at paradigm shifts to be navigated.
Both challenges are real with real consequences if no one raises an anchor to leave the port where they have lingered much too long.
Ken Ham is the fundamentalist Christian who founded Answers in Genesis. He is lambasted because he espouses Creationism over evolutionary theory, but then Ham is a religious man whose primary concern is not for the physical sciences. He says:
"If Christian leaders have told the next generation that one can accept the world’s teachings in geology, biology, astronomy, etc., and use these to (re)interpret God’s Word, then the door has been opened for this to happen in every area, including morality." From: A Young Earth – It’s not the Issue! (AiG-USA Newsletter) January 1998
Ham's concern is morality, the sexual morality of the Levitical prohibitions 18:19-24, the behavioral guarantors of Abraham's pronatalist covenant that raise the total fertility rate of a community that observes them.
It is not an accident that AiG spotlights Noah. The first creation failed and Noah is tasked with recovering from the Deluge and beginning the 2nd creation.
The first creation was destroyed because God did not want the sons of God taking the daughters of men. That would prevent Mankind from practicing strict endogamy. In the first creation the sons of God want to take the daughters of men for intercourse. In Sodom we find the men of Sodom wanting to take the angels visiting Lot for intercourse. It is the same situation in reverse. God does not want mixing. He wants angels to be angels and men to be men, the way he made them. He wants Man to be: endogamous. When Ezra reestablishes the Torah in Jerusalem, he tells the people “…Do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not marry your sons to their daughters…” Ezra 9:12
“Mixing” is forbidden. Interestingly, and rarely if ever under discussion, the power and unrestrained sexual desire of the corporeally endowed sons of the gods prevents mankind from practicing strict endogamy, a principle of the Torah if not its behavioral centerpiece.
In the Book of Jubilees, a non canonical work well known to Christians and Jews, Abraham gathers his sons to instruct them. He tells his sons to teach their sons the ways of Yahweh:“[L]et them not take to themselves wives from the daughters of Canaan; for the seed of Canaan will be rooted out of the land. And he told them of the judgment of the giants, and the judgment of the Sodomites, how they had been judged on account of their wickedness, and had died on account of their fornication, and uncleanness, and mutual corruption through fornication.” The Book of Jubilees 20:4-5
"The maintenance of strict endogamy is the primary concern of the text. The sons and grandsons of Abraham are taught not to take the daughters of Canaan for wives and the cautionary tales of the fallen angels and Sodom and Gomorrah are shared with them. The consequences of exogamy are portrayed in the judgment of the giants whose fathers’ God-given spirit sinfully surrendered to the human flesh they donned in God’s behalf."
The Ark in Kentucky is not a simulation. It is a grounding element for people who do not have the education of Biblical minimalists and don't understand the allegories, just as the written gospels were a grounding element for people who did not have the education of a Jesus who had the intelligence to write the oral tradition of Judaism on his heart.
The Christian fundamentalists cannot abandon their morality as Marxist progressive sexual ideology demands, so, with no one to help them, they are propping their morality up, (Ken Ham says as much above) giving it as much reality as they can muster. Observing the Levitical prohibitions and maintaining their traditional sexual mores keeps them from being "rooted out of the land" which is a metaphor for a plummeting total fertilty rate, population decline and eventual extinction.
The fundamentalists are not alone in their marginalization which is not in their imagination. Biblical studies is dying. Davies' Sheffield Biblical studies department was down sized/reorganized after the threat of being closed altogether, wasn't it?
Christian fundamentalism and biblical studies are both at paradigm shifts to be navigated.
Both challenges are real with real consequences if no one raises an anchor to leave the port where they have lingered much too long.