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This correspondence between John N. Clayton and me took place over a 2½ year period starting at the beginning of 1984. I had rejected my Christian fundamentalist beliefs regarding the Bible and God, as the culmination of an intensive personal study of creationism and evolution I had conducted over the spring, summer, and fall of 1983 (which itself was the climax of a keen interest in the creationism/evolution controversy for several years). A friend of mine from the church that I had been a member of, knowing both Clayton's work in the area of Christian apologetics and that Clayton had been an atheist who became a Christian, asked Clayton to write to me. (After several letters, Clayton deferred his side of the correspondence to Glenn Mansell.) Why have I made this available for your perusal? I have two reasons: First, I believe, just as much as I did then, that intellectual honesty drives a pursuit of the truth, and I believe that the truth leads us to a clear picture of reality that, by removing anthopocentrism, leads us far away from creationism and, additionally, biblical theism. Second, the issues have not changed over the years, and creationists are still using the same old arguments, despite the fact that they do not have a sound philosophical basis. In seeing the direct clash of ideas between a supernaturalistic perspective and naturalistic one, while agreement may not be reached, at least the ideas involved can be clarified. (Please note in reading these letters that neither Clayton nor Mansell are "young-earth" creationists.) Todd S. Greene |