Christians & science The incessant and unnecessary conflict between science and religion continues, but we can and should learn from history. Beginning in 1534 when Copernicus published “On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies,” until at least 1633 with church decrees against Galileo, a battle raged which bore striking similarities to the evolution versus creationism war of today. Many good and wise men of science were exiled, tortured, and murdered because the best biblical scholars of their time agreed that a new theory, which brazenly suggested that the earth moved in the heavens (around the sun, no less), represented a grave contradiction to divine scripture which clearly stated then (as it still does today) that “The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.” (Psalm 93:1), and “He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.” (Psalm 104:5). Current Bible experts have come to grips with the well-established law of heliocentrism through a more flexible biblical interpretation necessitated by the overwhelming scientific evidence that the earth, no longer seen as the center of the universe, does indeed move. This belated accommodation unfortunately provides small comfort to those early and courageous scientists who remain murdered and tortured martyrs due to their strongly held and accurate convictions. May I suggest a more theistic view of evolution in which God, after creating matter and all of the natural laws which govern its physical and biological deployment, used organic evolution as a final step in His ongoing and miraculous creation. A divine creation whose beauty can be more completely appreciated and whose authenticity can be more clearly validated through the detailed and accurate observations of contemporary science. If Christian faith could survive a moving earth, it will certainly survive a more detailed understanding of a creation made no less divine, but all the more miraculous by increased scientific knowledge. Bob Ross • Pellston
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 02:42:37 +0000
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