The Quest Continues
Some have plunged into science and forgotten all about God. Others kept their faith by hiding out in a kind of spiritual bomb shelter and calling all scientists liars. A few have developed their gifts for science and still kept their faith, tested though it may have been. These last are the heroes of the quest.
From here on the quest begins for some and continues for others. Bible believers have nothing to fear. All of precision science is consistent with the Bible. Bible believers may reasonably expect that when other sciences approach precision they will confirm the Bible also. At that time Bible believers will have to retain some flexibility in their interpretations. It will still be possible to mix our adult, modern ways of thinking with the message of the Bible. The most reliable guide will still be to interpret the Bible as a small child understands it, because children are unhindered by a huge accumulation of conflicting ideas learned from adults who have this or that point to press, and because the God of the Bible makes Himself understandable to children.
We need not oppose science or the teaching of science. Some people who call themselves scientists will still promote unbridled speculation as if it were proven fact, provided it fits their own prejudices. However, Bible believers who know enough science will easily distinguish science from speculation, and they can alert others. We will continue to Test everything. Hold on to the good–I Thessalonians 5:21.
The number of prominent evolutionism promoters has been decreasing rapidly in recent years. Younger biologists realize that Darwinism is a dead end. Since the appearance of new species has never been observed, there is no experimental work to be done, and the plausibility arguments have been hashed over ad nauseum. Gene sequencing has opened up important new lines of biological research. It is certain to produce something much more complicated than the gradual evolution of one species from another. At present the great advances in biology are in the field of medicine, where Darwin hardly has anything to say. Talent goes where the action is.
Darwinists think that a lucky accident began life as we know it. Stephen Hawking comments on the similar proposal some make to explain the beginning of the universe. He says, “Was it all just a lucky chance? That would seem a counsel of despair, a negation of all our hopes of understanding the underlying order of the universe.”[i] Luck is incompatible with order. Our explanations should not mix the two.
Some people would stop doing research if they knew that origins are traceable back to divine intervention. They say, “In that case there is nothing to investigate.” There truly would be nothing to investigate if the capricious pagan gods started everything for arbitrary reasons. But that idea is also inconsistent with the “underlying order of the universe.” The God of the Bible is not like that. One of the proverbs of Solomon says, It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings–Proverbs 25:2. The God of the Bible works according to the laws He has made. He hasn’t revealed the laws of physics, but we can search them out. In the time of Solomon only kings had the resources to do research. It is still true in our days that the government sponsors research. When research finds laws and order, it is finding evidence of God’s good purposes and creative design.
Let us continue our quest. Much remains to be discovered, and some of it will be beneficial to humankind. We will know the truth, and the truth will set [us] free–John 8:32.
[i] Hawking, Stephen W., The Theory of Everything (Beverly Hills, California: New Millennium Press), p. 115.
From here on the quest begins for some and continues for others. Bible believers have nothing to fear. All of precision science is consistent with the Bible. Bible believers may reasonably expect that when other sciences approach precision they will confirm the Bible also. At that time Bible believers will have to retain some flexibility in their interpretations. It will still be possible to mix our adult, modern ways of thinking with the message of the Bible. The most reliable guide will still be to interpret the Bible as a small child understands it, because children are unhindered by a huge accumulation of conflicting ideas learned from adults who have this or that point to press, and because the God of the Bible makes Himself understandable to children.
We need not oppose science or the teaching of science. Some people who call themselves scientists will still promote unbridled speculation as if it were proven fact, provided it fits their own prejudices. However, Bible believers who know enough science will easily distinguish science from speculation, and they can alert others. We will continue to Test everything. Hold on to the good–I Thessalonians 5:21.
The number of prominent evolutionism promoters has been decreasing rapidly in recent years. Younger biologists realize that Darwinism is a dead end. Since the appearance of new species has never been observed, there is no experimental work to be done, and the plausibility arguments have been hashed over ad nauseum. Gene sequencing has opened up important new lines of biological research. It is certain to produce something much more complicated than the gradual evolution of one species from another. At present the great advances in biology are in the field of medicine, where Darwin hardly has anything to say. Talent goes where the action is.
Darwinists think that a lucky accident began life as we know it. Stephen Hawking comments on the similar proposal some make to explain the beginning of the universe. He says, “Was it all just a lucky chance? That would seem a counsel of despair, a negation of all our hopes of understanding the underlying order of the universe.”[i] Luck is incompatible with order. Our explanations should not mix the two.
Some people would stop doing research if they knew that origins are traceable back to divine intervention. They say, “In that case there is nothing to investigate.” There truly would be nothing to investigate if the capricious pagan gods started everything for arbitrary reasons. But that idea is also inconsistent with the “underlying order of the universe.” The God of the Bible is not like that. One of the proverbs of Solomon says, It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings–Proverbs 25:2. The God of the Bible works according to the laws He has made. He hasn’t revealed the laws of physics, but we can search them out. In the time of Solomon only kings had the resources to do research. It is still true in our days that the government sponsors research. When research finds laws and order, it is finding evidence of God’s good purposes and creative design.
Let us continue our quest. Much remains to be discovered, and some of it will be beneficial to humankind. We will know the truth, and the truth will set [us] free–John 8:32.
[i] Hawking, Stephen W., The Theory of Everything (Beverly Hills, California: New Millennium Press), p. 115.
