Flagged as just another S4. No response necessary.
Well, this might prompt a response.
You keep asking for proof that Ripperger is a creationist. Despite you linking him to an article on a creationist site. Despite his endorsment of a creationist paper. Despite all the evidence that he spends a large proportion of his time writing and lecturing on the impossibility of evolution and the need for us all to accept Genesis literally (but of course, only from a philosophical point of view don’t you know).
I have poked around the dusty corners of the interweb and checked out the good father. And now I know why he concentrates on the philosophical aspects of the theological conviction that Genesis trumps evolution. It’s because his knowledge of evolution is simply appalling. He really has very little idea whatsoever as to how the process works. And it can’t be because he is stupid. He seems quite an intelligent guy. So either he hasn’t bothered to educate himself on a matter which he spends his life denying (par for the course for so many on this forum) or he knows how it works but
deliberately puts forward that which he knows to be false in order to try to convince others that it’s impossible. Personally I think it’s a mixture of the two (just as we find in this forum).
As to his creationists beliefs, he is extraordinarily careful not to admit to anything concrete that will allow others an opportunity to question the validity of his beliefs. Let’s face it, as you exhibit so well, it’s a lot easier to attempt to dismantle someone else’s position than it is to defend one’s own.
But…he let’s it slip now and then.
In a talk given a year or so back, explaining his belief as to how creation came about:
‘St. Thomas says that God created the world, he creates all the various animals. But they’re in a state where they’re not feeding yet - they’re not doing anything yet’.
Presumably because death hadn’t entered the world. So we have a lot of hungry animals. But Adam and Eve needed to eat and they were. They were eating plants but even
they don’t die. They don’t? Nope, because:
‘They (the plants) are brought into a higher state by being brought into a higher being’.
Well, that makes sense to the good father. But are we talking geological ages here? Are we talking about time at all? Isn’t this a metaphor that contains theological truths but which cannot be taken literally? Ripperger is always careful to avoid being specific. But you can’t keep avoiding revealing what you actually believe all the time (as you found out). So he tells us how long all this actually took:
‘And this happens in a
very short period of time - a week or so, which scripture points out’.
And there was an emphasis on ‘very’. I didn’t add that for effect.
So…he’s a creationist. He states unequivocably that God created all the animlas and Adam and Eve in seven days. And he’s your go-to guy for the alternative to evolution.
Enjoy the video.
