May 8, 2023 11:21
1 yr ago
32 viewers *
English term

explains away

Non-PRO English Art/Literary Religion Creationism
But it really hit me one day how inconsistent the gap theory is. It is logically inconsistent. [...]. The gap theory actually ***explains away*** the very thing it is supposed to be accommodating. What do I mean by that? Well, [...] the gap theorist says, “I’ll accept the millions of years developed by those who claim the layers of fossils were laid down slowly over long ages, and place all this in a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, and then ***explain it away*** with a catastrophe called Lucifer’s flood.” And right there, he has just done away with the reason he wanted millions of years in the first place. If a catastrophe produced the fossils — then the reason for the millions of years in the first place has been destroyed! What an incredible inconsistency.


The term appears twice in the text. What is the sense in the first case? Does the second case just mean "explain"?
Change log

May 11, 2023 09:58: AllegroTrans changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): Lara Barnett, Yvonne Gallagher, AllegroTrans

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Discussion

Ana Juliá (asker) May 16, 2023:
Does this mean that the gap theory "dismisses/rules out" the millions of years which it is supposed to be accommodating into the biblical creation account?

Responses

+1
13 mins
Selected

explains in such a way as to make irrelevant/nonexistent

An explanation that shows how what it is meant to explain is irrelevant, wrong, nonexistent or trivial.

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Note added at 16 mins (2023-05-08 11:37:50 GMT)
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I should add that the term is often used disapprovingly – the explanation/explaining away is rarely a proper explanation.
Peer comment(s):

agree Lara Barnett : As in "to do away with " i.e. to kill something.
48 mins
neutral AllegroTrans : Yes but it's necessary to say exactly what the person is intending to make irrelevant, which you haven't done
1 hr
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks!"
22 hrs

explains and puts an end to (and solves)

The gap theory actually ***explains and puts an end to*** the very thing it is supposed to be accommodating.

... and place all this in a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, and then ***explains and puts an end to it*** with a catastrophe called Lucifer’s flood.

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