In Colorado this week, ten miles from the Continental Divide, Seventh-day Adventist theologians, scientists, and administrators will consider the topic of creation. Whether the two hundred people gathered will be divided like the geographical spot in the Indian Peaks Wilderness in which the meeting will be held remains to be seen. Certainly the organizers have gone to great effort to make sure that each day each of the sessions will include balanced views.

The balancing act began almost a year ago. With the Geoscience Research Institute leading the way for this North American Division conference, Ben Clausen, conference coordinator, created a Web site and e-mail listserve that turned into a creation news daily. On the site (which had limited access) and in the e-mail messages an intriguing discussion emerged, with material and opinions from many sources. Not restricting himself to Adventist comments and articles, Clausen found an amazing amount of material to post.

The site has included notices of articles from the scientific and popular press on creation topics with Web links, as well as information about various educational, theological, and scientific conferences. Books have been another regular feature, both in the form of reviews and notices of publication of noteworthy volumes. Many articles from the Adventist press have been republished as postings. Clausen even posted a complete bibliography of creation material published in the pages of Spectrum from the first issue in 1969 until the current one.

With all that background information, listserve participants naturally had comments. All who responded had their messages posted—there was no censorship. However, comments were kept anonymous. Of the two hundred participants, sixty contributed at least once. About twenty regulars wrote frequently, according to Clausen.

After one posting on creationism and naturalism, one respondent wrote:

The issues are not so black and white, nor as simple as this dichotomy. I don’t have an interest in accepting theistic evolution, but I don’t think the current creationist approach is acceptable either. It would be nice to have an open environment to think and discuss various options, e.g., alternatives to the orthodox SDA origins model, without immediately being labeled as accepting theistic evolution. . . . Are we really willing to listen to each other and try to understand what others are thinking?

That question still awaits the events of August 13-20. It is clearly one that the conference organizers have asked, as well. In his comments about goals for the conference, Clausen says,

There are two possible goals for the Glacier View conference—process and product—using a constructive process to talk and developing a useful produce (e.g., summarizing the collective wisdom of the attendees and incorporating it into a report). Both goals are but this conference may want to emphasize process over product—getting acquainted and trying to understand each other over getting some specific report written. The conference is not just an academic exercise of problem solving. To be helpful for the life of the Church it should emphasize trust and confidence building. Talking face-to-face is so much more beneficial than just reading someone’s article. Arriving at some statement may be premature. The goal should be really talking, not just a document.

This is good news for those who feared that producing statements that could be used to test the orthodoxy of teachers was the primary goal of these faith-science meetings. Last year’s international conference in Ogden, Utah, set in motion a three-year process. In this, the second year’s, church divisions are convening their own meetings, which explains the gathering at Glacier View. Next year, another international conference will bring together the participants and information gathered this year.

Issue groups are being organized at Glacier View to foster discussion of specific topics. Three evenings will be given over for these groups to listen to each other and compile a list of issues representative of the entire group. The six groups are: (1) theology: creation, evolution, time, flood; (2) inspiration and time; (3) philosophy of science; (4) geology: time, flood; (5) biology: evolution, creation; and (6) cosmology/physics.

More than forty papers will be presented during the conference, as will panel discussions and geology field trips. Thus, participants are looking at a busy schedule.

We will provide daily reports via the Association of Adventist Forum’s free e-mail newsletter. Articles that appear in the newsletter will also be posted on the Web site the following day, so readers can check there for regular updates.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE