This Week's Essay: Why do some christians insist that science trumps scripture? What are the dangers of this thought process according to God'sWord?
“The reason that many liberal theologians see religion and evolution as harmonious is that they espouse a theology not only alien but unrecognizable as religion to most Americans.” ~Jerry Coyne: a fervent atheist and scientist. What he means by this is that the reason some “christians” think that creationism and evolutionism can coexist, and also that science trumps scripture, is that they have opened their minds to a twisted form of christianity that is so corrupt, it can hardly be called christianity anymore.
He also uses the words “liberal christian,” which according to Mr. Franklin, a Bible teacher at the Triad High School, means christians that have allowed worldly views to cloud their thinking. Because society thinks something is acceptable, though God may say it isn’t in the Bible, they allow society’s way of life to be their own. Even Coyne, who is not even a christian, can see this. He is, as many non-liberal christians are, also frustrated by scientists who think that they can make evolution and Scripture harmonize. Coyne says, “Attempts to reconcile God and evolution keep rolling off the intellectual assembly line. It never stops, because the reconciliation never works.”
He is absolutely right in that respect. Karl W. Giberson, a professor of physics at Massachusetts Eastern Nazarene College who publicly holds a Christian belief in God and also has an open acceptance of evolution, tries to argue with Coyne by saying that theology will slowly lead to technological advance. Yet he says in a published article, “I am happy to concede that science does indeed trump religious truth about the natural world. Galileo and Darwin showed this only too clearly.”
This way of thinking is dangerous because it allows our society to be full of lazy, pliable, self contradicting people. They are lazy because they don’t want to take to time to decide between evolution and creation, they either want to drift between the two or let a strong minded person decide for them through persuasion. They are pliable because of their weak will to decide for themselves, they’d rather just do whatever society tells them to. That can lead to situations like World War 2, where people just went with whatever Hitler said, although some of that was out of fear, most of it was just pliability.
With pliability comes self-contradiction. One day they have one view and the next they have a different view. It’s almost like people can’t choose between someone else’s opinion and their own, so they just alternate between several views. That is a human point of view and it is dangerous because not only can you be tricked into thinking what’s wrong is right, but you can be easily manipulated. “The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.” (Genesis 3:6) That is one example of people being easily manipulated.
So how do you keep from being manipulated by being told what is wrong? You must know where to find what is right: the Bible. People who do not live by the Bible are being manipulated. To keep from making wrong choices, you let the Bible outline your decisions. The Bible says this of people who do not live by the Bible.“For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
If we are to avoid such people, we cannot become such people. Those are the people who are in danger of becoming corrupt. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15) These “false prophets” place you in danger of being corrupted, because they too have been corrupted by incorrect views. They might think they are correct, but in the end they lead to sin, and sin leads to death.
Jesus said to Peter, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's.” (Matthew 16:23) What we call “man’s perspective” really means anything that differs from God’s perspective, but the ideas had to be introduced somehow, man’s ability to accept wrongs as truth derive from Satan himself. “Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray.” (2 Peter 2:15) When people who deny God’s involvement in creation to be true go to heaven, they will have to admit to their wrong beliefs.
“So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.”(Romans 14:12-13) If your weak mindedness on the topic of scripture and science caused another to be mislead, God will see that. God said to Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7)
You were not there, so you can have no understanding other than the Bible. If your faith in the Bible is not convincing to others, you place them in danger of believing in nothing at all. Then they are in danger of eternal death, they will be gone from this existence forever, when we had a chance to show them otherwise. That is the most dangerous of all the dangers that can be caused by thinking that science trumps scripture.
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Works Cited
"BibleGateway." .com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 100 Versions and 50 Languages.Web. 23 Oct. 2014. <https://www.biblegateway.com/>.
"Jesus' References to Old Testament Scriptures - Jews for Jesus." Jesus' References to Old Testament Scriptures - Jews for Jesus. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/newsletter/september-2008/05>.
Lloyd, Robin. "God and Evolution Can Co-exist, Scientist Says."LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 18 Nov. 2008. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://www.livescience.com/5195-god-evolution-exist-scientist.html>.
"Can Creationism and Evolution Co-Exist? A Christian Perspective." What Christians Want To Know RSS. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/can-creationism-and-evolution-co-exist-a-christian-perspective/#ixzz3GR8ig64e>.
Mr. Franklin's Class. Narr. Jacob Franklin. The Triad School, Klamath Falls, OR. Oct. 2014. Performance.
"Science Trumps the Bible? — An Amazingly Candid (and Disastrous) Argument."AlbertMohler.com. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/10/27/science-trumps-the-bible-an-amazingly-candid-and-disastrous-argument/>.
"Evolution Bible Verses."BibleStudyTools.com. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. <http://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/evolution-bible-verses/>.