a belief in a recent origin of life is not central to Christian doctrine.
There are plenty of Christians who would disagree (or, more precisely, would say that a belief in a recent origin of human life along the lines of the story in Genesis is central, on the grounds that the New Testament draws analogies between Adam and Christ that don’t work if there was not a historical Adam with the right characteristics).
More to the point—since in fact I agree with you that a recent origin of life is not central to Christian doctrine—I think an error can be serious without being central to Christian doctrine.
we already have lots of evidence that a lengthy tradition of belief in something does not imply that the thing is true.
We do. None the less, many Christians have trouble applying that evidence to their own religion :-).
There are plenty of Christians who would disagree (or, more precisely, would say that a belief in a recent origin of human life along the lines of the story in Genesis is central, on the grounds that the New Testament draws analogies between Adam and Christ that don’t work if there was not a historical Adam with the right characteristics).
Regarding Adam—yes I think that Catholics in particular are committed to a belief that there was an actual Adam and an actual Eve. However, as far as I know, they are not committed to any particular time-line as to when the actual Adam and the actual Eve lived (nor are they committed to all of Genesis being literal). So, I don’t think that this counts as modern Christians necessarily believing in a recent origin of human life, much less in a recent origin of life in general.
I think an error can be serious without being central to Christian doctrine
Fair enough—we can agree to disagree about that. I just don’t see how pre-modern Christians having an incorrect belief regarding a non-central (to Christianity) scientific fact in the absence of any significant evidence that their belief is wrong is particularly problematic.
many Christians have trouble applying that evidence to their own religion
I think that we have an area of agreement here—I think that the argument that we should believe in Christianity because there is a long tradition of people who believe in Christianity is, by itself, quite weak.
There are plenty of Christians who would disagree (or, more precisely, would say that a belief in a recent origin of human life along the lines of the story in Genesis is central, on the grounds that the New Testament draws analogies between Adam and Christ that don’t work if there was not a historical Adam with the right characteristics).
More to the point—since in fact I agree with you that a recent origin of life is not central to Christian doctrine—I think an error can be serious without being central to Christian doctrine.
We do. None the less, many Christians have trouble applying that evidence to their own religion :-).
Regarding Adam—yes I think that Catholics in particular are committed to a belief that there was an actual Adam and an actual Eve. However, as far as I know, they are not committed to any particular time-line as to when the actual Adam and the actual Eve lived (nor are they committed to all of Genesis being literal). So, I don’t think that this counts as modern Christians necessarily believing in a recent origin of human life, much less in a recent origin of life in general.
Fair enough—we can agree to disagree about that. I just don’t see how pre-modern Christians having an incorrect belief regarding a non-central (to Christianity) scientific fact in the absence of any significant evidence that their belief is wrong is particularly problematic.
I think that we have an area of agreement here—I think that the argument that we should believe in Christianity because there is a long tradition of people who believe in Christianity is, by itself, quite weak.