Perception of conflict between Scientific Consensus and the Bible

Many people believe the scientific consensus and the Bible must be at odds.  This has been documented in many surveys and polls. I used to think that the two must be at odds. I thought that science must be missing a few things and that I could trust my reading of the Biblical account. While it is true that I can trust the Bible, and that science has currently not explained everything, that does not mean that I was seeing the whole picture. Nor did it mean that ignoring some good information that has been discovered through scientific inquiry is a wise course of action.

What I, and many who see the Bible at odds with the scientific consensus, was missing was that both science and the Bible are gifts from God for us to grow in understanding of the creation that He created. The Bible is the older divinely inspired revelation that God orchestrated through many human authors over a long period of time. Science is a relatively recent discipline that has empowered man to grow in our understanding of the physical universe that we see, touch, smell and hear. The Bible is God revealing Himself to man. Science is man describing the universe that we are a part of.

Does this mean that it is easy to reconcile the two? No and Yes, one needs to do some thinking, but the thinking is not rocket science.  One needs to move beyond being a passive person.

The Christian must not just read the Bible and listen to the occasional teaching about the Bible. The Christian should meditate on theBible.  The Christian should look up the cross-references, and other study aides. Christians should read books by theologians talking about the Bible and see if what the theologian is telling them is true.

If a Christian is called to teach or research in the sciences then they should study well what the scientific consensus is saying and contribute to the scientific process as best they can. Being a good scientist will open doors to discovery and possibly to evangelism. All Christians should faithfully answer their calling in life, that is what it means to follow Jesus the Messiah.

Did Christian fundamentalist always hold to young earth creationism interpretation of Genesis?

In short, no. Christian fundamentalist did not always embrace young earth creationism.

George Frederick Wright wrote a commentary on evolution in his work “The Fundamentals.” Many Christians accepted evolution holding to either a day-age interpretation of Genesis or to a “Gap theory.” Only in the latter half of the Twentieth Century did creationism gain traction in the United States.

The origin of creationism can by tied to Seventh Day Adventist founder Ellen G White.

She had a vision that revealed to her that natural geological phenomenon were created during the global flood of Noah. This idea was tied closely to the Seventh Day Adventist movement until 1959, the one-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origins of Species. Many Christians did not feel comfortable holding to a Seventh Day Adventist teaching.

In 1959, however there was a push to make the public more aware of Evolutionary Theory, as many public schools did not teach much on the subject. As a result of this push new textbooks were written that unapologetically taught evolution a central organizing principle in Biology. This curriculum change leads many conservative Christians of that time to see this move as an attempt to shove evolution down the throats American of children.

Prior to this a self-taught amateur geologist, George McCready Price wrote a series of convincing books that repackaged White’s vision as science. By the early 1960s Price’s work was updated by Whitcomb and Morris. So when conservative Christians felt they were having evolution shoved down their children’s throats Whitcomb and Morris were ready to offer then an alternative explanation for origins that was both scientific and agreed with a literal reading of Genesis.

Thus the Creation Science movement was born and began gaining traction though the 1970s. Along the way they dropped references to the Bible to make the argument more palatable for teaching in an American public school classroom. Creationist claims about the nature of fossilization have not been proven.  Many of the arguments that they make in support of their ideas do not hold up to scientific scrutiny.

Debate over what to teach in the Classroom

The debate over what should be taught in the classroom seems to be an emotional competition between Atheistic/Agnostic Scientific worldview and the Creation Science world view, with all other parties some where in the middle.  Of note is that all parties view themselves as being faithful to the truth.  That is why many people get very emotionally invested in any debates about the relationship between scientific discovery and Biblical Revelation.

Some people view the Bible as fiction and say that it should be discarded or used for only literary purposes.

Muslims view the Bible as formerly true until the Christians and Jews corrupted it, which lead to Muhammad and the Koran.

Jews view the Bible in many different ways as long as the good Jew excludes the New Testament.

Christians view the Bible as the inspired revelation of God to man, and have many different ways of interpreting it.

Interestingly enough only Muslims and Creationist (some Jews some Christians) insist on rejecting the current scientific narrative of origins. Granted there are some folks that are just out there who reject the scientific narrative for reasons ranging from UFO siting’s to saying it just does not sound plausible. Please note these folks usually keep to themselves not insisting on forcing their worldview on the rest of humanity. Creationist on the other hand would like to see their worldview represented in Science textbooks.

Interestingly enough this is only a really big issue in the United States. Only recently has this spilled over to England and Europe, and it is still not as big an issue as it is in the States.

Perspectives on Bible's relationship to Science

When one reads the Bible, specifically Genesis, it reads with a different narrative of origins than that of the current scientific consensus. For this reason many people seek to reconcile the two.

There are three popular ways that people do this:

The first way is to say that Genesis must be wrong and science must be true. BillNye and others like him have their reasons for believing this.

The second way is to say say that Genesis must be true and the scientific consensus narrative must be wrong. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, and others like him have their reason for believing this approach to be true.

The third way is to say that Genesis tells the story of origins from a different perspective than that of scientific consensus. This is the approach of individuals like, Geneticist Dr. Francis S Collins who directed the Human Genome Project and then the BioLogos organization, before moving on to be the Director of the National Institutes of Health, under President Obama.

On February 4^th 2014 Bill Nye debated Ken Ham at the Creation Science Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. This debate pitted view number one against view number two. If you are interested you can view this debate in its entirety here.

Of note in this debate was that Mr. Nye referenced the third view. He pointed out that there are many Christians who believe in evolution and an old Earth.

This observation, that there are Christians who believe in evolution, seems to be somewhat missed in current educational debates over what should be taught in science class rooms around the nation. The general perception of this issue seems to be that you have to choose between view number one and view number two. You must be either Steven, “I believe in science!” or Nacho “I believe in God!” I would argue that this too is unfortunate.

In the Beginning...

The Gospel of John opens up with these words:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome" John 1:1-5 ESV

This statement ties Jesus to: the beginning, His divine nature, His job as creator, His job as life giver, His job as light, and his job as overcomer.

This statement is believed to draw on both Greek and Jewish thought.
(Ancient Greek stoic philosophers viewed the idea of word (logos) as the divine animating principle of the universe. Aristotle viewed the logos as reasoned discourse.
In the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible phrase "word of the Lord" was often translated using the Greek word logos. Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo incorporated the term into Jewish Philosophy. If you wish to read about this in more detail please click here)

The book of Genesis opens up with these words:
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" Genesis 1:1 ESV

The Revelation to John opens up with these words:
"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants, the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw." Revelation 1:1-2 ESV

I would therefore submit to you that Genesis through Revelation is God revealing Himself to humanity. This revelation was incarnated in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It was God and Jesus who decided to whom and how this revelation would take place.

The first to write down a record of God's revelation to humanity was Moses. He penned Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Moses in Genesis depicts God as creator, who seeks a relationship with humanity. Humanity messes up that intended relationship and is in need of reconciliation. God then working through two attempts at reconciliation followed by judgments (sons of God mating with women, judged with the flood; building the tower of Babel, judged with the dispersal of the nations). He then calls Abraham and starts building his own people, eventually the nation of Israel.

The interpretation of Genesis, the Jewish and Christian book of Origins, has lead to great debate among people who desire to be faithful to the text they view as divinely inspired revelation of God.

Studies have been conducted to find out why so many young people are leaving church. You can read more about one such study here. One of the identified reasons people leave the church is that, they perceive a conflict between Science and a Judeo-Christian world view. This is very unfortunate.

In my next blog I will begin to explore the perceived conflict between science and faith.