Science and the Bible

The title of this blog is also the title of a series of seminars that we are having at Riverview on Wednesday nights this summer. Pastor Wick and I have split up the topics and are taking on this challenge by way of Francis Schaeffer's "No Final Conflict" explanation. If you're not familiar with it, Wayne Grudem sums it up nicely:

In his book, No Final Conflict, Francis Schaeffer makes the point that in both our understanding of the natural world and our understanding of Scripture, our knowledge is not perfect. But we can approach both scientific and biblical study with the confidence that when all the facts are correctly understood, and when we have understood scripture rightly, our findings will never be in conflict with each other: there will be “no final conflict.” This is because God, who speaks in scripture, knows all facts, and he has not spoken in a way that would contradict any true fact in the universe. We should not fear to investigate scientifically the facts of the created world but should do so eagerly and with complete honesty, confident that when the facts are rightly understood, they will always turn out to be consistent with God’s inerrant words in scripture. Similarly, we should approach the study of scripture eagerly and with confidence that, when rightly understood, scripture will never contradict facts in the natural world.

Thus, in the sessions that I have led, the above is the frame of mind I have been in: no dogmatic answers, being willing to be wrong, and being willing to let others be right (and admitting it). In most cases, it hasn't been too tough. For example, you don't need to think too long and hard about Darwinian evolution. That is to say that if it is true, then we have SEVERELY misunderstood scripture, and that's just not too likely. The same is true for theisitic evolution. The theory is just soooo different than what scripture says that we've either completely misunderstood scripture, which again isn't likely considering the emphatic statements in the Bible, or we've completely misunderstood nature (assuming that it's "telling" us that everything evolved).

Schaeffer's premise HAS tested me in what I'm currently studying, however. We're getting into "The Age Of The Earth" category this week, and there's a TON of disagreement out there. I tend to be a young-earth kind of guy, so it's been interesting to dive into the old-earth theories out there. If we use Schaeffer's premise as a starting point, I think it would be safe to say that old-earth creationists believe generally that we have correctly understood the revelation of nature, but have misunderstood the meaning of scripture (and the traditional young-earth conclusions from said meaning of scripture). That is, science is right, and so is scripture, but we're just not understanding scripture the way it needs to be understood in order to agree with science. And to be sure, there are definitely ways to look at scripture that make an old-earth scenario possible which I won't get into here (if you want to hear about them, you'll have to come to Science and the Bible this week!).

I can respect the old-earth view - after all, like I said, they've got some really good arguments from scripture. I can respect the fact that nobody knows the correct answer, and we're all on a journey to figure it out, and we only have two sources of evidence available to us: science and scripture. I can respect sincere beliefs in an old-earth from Bible believing Christians who love Jesus.

When I first read Schaeffer's comments on the "No Final Conflict" theory, my mind was blown. His words rang true to me in places I didn't know I had ears. It's a fantastic (and honest) way of looking at the evidence and the theories. I've come to approach the whole conversation with a much more open (and humble) frame of mind (however, it should be noted that I still hold to a young earth view, and I believe this is what the Bible teaches). I just wish everyone on both sides would adopt this line of thinking (the part about the open mind, not specifically the young earth view...althought that wouldn't be all bad either!).

Being on the young earth side of the aisle, I've had the opportunity to look at and read the young earth arguments. At times, I've been suprised at how scathing the arguments can get against old earth adherents. Sometimes it seems like we're ascribing evil motives to those who disagree, when in actuality, they're probably just searching for the truth of the matter like everyone else (even if they're wrong). I saw one article that really tears into an old earth guy and basically equates him with Hitler. Give me a break!

But during my research for the "Old Earth" session of the Science and the Bible seminars, I've come to realize that the animosity isn't, by any means, confined to the young earth camp. Old Earthers are just as rude as the rest! I found them calling young earth people idiots, ignorant, and people who don't like science (the last statement is just dumb - who would ever honestly say they don't appreciate science?), or even that they try to supress the "truth" of science in their reasoning. Come on. Let's all grow up a bit please.

So here's what it boils down to: the Bible has not specifically revealed to us how old the earth is (and, in fact, it doesn't really say that that's its purpose). The best anyone from any camp can do is form educated guesses (again, I would say that the best educated guess, examining both the scientific and biblical evidence - which we won't get into here - would lead one to believe that the earth is young). The point is, we don't know - and we're not going to know for sure. So in the meantime, let's all do our best to figure out what the answer is, while treating each other with dignity and respect. I like the way Wayne Grudem says it:

“…the possibility must be left open that God has chosen not to give us enough information to come to a clear decision on this question, and the real test of faithfulness to him may be the degree to which we can act charitably toward those who in good conscience and full belief in God’s Word hold to a different position on this matter.”