that Brandon and I have been mulling over.
"Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts—not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’. It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them. Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt."
Timothy Keller - The Reason for God
“When it comes to the origin of life, we have only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God. Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved 100 years ago by Louise Pasteur, Spallanzani, Redi and others. That leads us scientifically to only one possible conclusion, that life arose from a supernatural creative act of God. I will not except that philosophically, because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation leading to evolution.”
George Wald (Nobel prize for Medicine in 1967) -"Frontiers of Modern Biology on Theories of Origin of Life" (New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1972), p. 187.
6/2/10 Note: After reading one of the comments, it does appear that there is a controversy over whether this was actually said by George Wald. I have not been able to find copies of the primary sources. From what I have read on the internet it does seem that this is a misquote. Sadly, many have continued to publish this quote without realizing this. Thanks to the comment that pointed this out. It is hard to verify all quotes that one reads. When putting them on a blog or website you should check to make sure they are correct. Lesson learned. I am now ordering George Wald's article from Scientific America : Origin of Species to see what it actually says.
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George Wald (1906 - 1997) Professor of Biology at Harvard University Nobel Laureate Web Amazon GBS AV
The reasonable view was to believe in spontaneous generation; the only alternative, to believe in a single, primary act of supernatural creation. There is no third position. For this reason many scientists a century ago chose to regard the belief in spontaneous generation as a "philosophical necessity." It is a symptom of the philosophical poverty of our time that this necessity is no longer appreciated. Most modern biologists, having reviewed with satisfaction the downfall of the spontaneous generation hypothesis, yet unwilling to accept the alternative belief in special creation, are left with nothing. "The origin of life" Scientific American August 1954 p.46
check out http://bevets.com/equotesw.htm
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