One of the most important things that christians need to get sorted out in their thinking is the issue of world-view. By this I mean, what is it that we use as the filter to understand the world and our lives?
At the time of the Reformation this was expressed in terms of authority. What do we look to as the final source of knowledge, revelation and instruction for life? ...
However it is never that straight forward. For example, some of the Reformers argued that churches could only do that which scripture explicitly allowed, while others said that churches were free to do anything in good conscience unless it was forbidden by Scripture.
How we interpret Scripture is a whole realm in itself. Do we give priority to the Old or the New Testament. When Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Holy Spirit later confirmed that christians were no longer bound by the Law, what does this say about the authority of the Old Testament? How much do we take literally and how much symbolically?
Notice how many issues arise before we even start to read the bible!
The Creation Science people raise another, far deeper issue. Where do we look for ultimate truth?
We aren't talking about just Genesis here but much of what is culturally conditioned. Evolution is a case in point, but only one such issue in my opinion. Do we believe the bible is true when it says the world was created in just six literal days? Or do we have to bow to science and say well obviously science knows better than the Bible? Or do we have to find some way of accommodating the Bible to the findings of science?
If we do the latter, what we are saying is that human knowledge (science) trumps divine revelation (the Bible) as a source of knowledge. If we allow science to intrude in the realm of belief at this point, where do we stop? Cosmologists and quantum physicists also wrestle with god questions... although they insist on calling their speculations science.
The fact is that theories about origins are all forms of a religious belief with particular presuppositions and theological assumptions. For example, science believes that the universe is a closed system which is described by physical laws which can never be contravened. It explicitly excludes miracles or divine intervention. Science also assumes that what we observe now can be extrapolated indefinitely into the future and the past.
This is called a world-view. The scientific world-view is OK as far as it goes, because it does allow us to find out lots of information about the world.
Where science fails though is where there are discontinuities between what we can observe now and what might happen in the future (or going backwards in the past). For example, predictions were made in the 19th century that London would be knee deep in horse manure by 1930 (that was changed by the transport revolution) and that man would run out of food also by that time (this was changed by the on-going agricultural revolutions which have vastly increased land productivity).
If those relatively short term future predictions were radically overturned within 100 years, then it's not surprising that science can not really trace back the past over millions of years with any great certainty- despite the often hysterical claims from scientists.
The climate change hysteria is another example of this process of how a wrong world-view can lead to wrong results. The green movement has increasingly embraced animism over the last few decades. Animism is the belief that there are spirits living in every object. Human spirits are no more important than tree spirits or rock spirits. So to the green movement, human beings are a plague on the planet because we destroy so many things to keep our lifestyle going.
Over the last 400 or so years, the world has been warming up, because it has been emerging from a mini- ice age. Associated with this has been an increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, largely from industrialisation over the last 50 years. Therefore, many people have jumped to the conclusion that it is the CO2 causing the increased temperatures. The fact is that in every other period of warming the CO2 in the air has increased even though human beings could in no way have been blamed for that. The CO2 seems to be a result of warming rather than the cause, but you will not hear this in the media.
The greens have jumped on this bandwagon because it seems to lend credence to their ideology. The Earth spirit Gaia is angry with us they will tell us (although not in so many words) and we have to shut down our economy to save the planet. Yay- let's all go back to subsistence agriculture.
In all of these cases a wrong set of presuppositions results in faulty belief and faulty actions.
Christians need to develop a consistent world-view that affects all of their behaviour and attitudes and which informs all of their attitudes. Such a world-view has to start with the following:
* Scripture is the basis of all belief
* God is in control
* God loves us
* God has a purpose for individuals and for humanity
What are the pre-suppositions behind your personal world-view? Do you consistently apply your world-view to every part of your life?
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I personally can't see what all the fuss about God and science is. When I went to school we learnt evolution and Newton's laws and a whole lot of other stuff. However, the very first thing we had drummed into us when we started Physics in year 11 that ALL SCIENCE is theory - none of it is fact. All science does is attempts to explain what we see - science is not God. In fact we still use Newton's Laws even though we know they are not true because they still give a good explanation of what is happening. In mathematics - which is usually accurate - we approximate the planets orbits as circles because they are so close to circle as to not make any noticeable difference. I think the problem comes when we take scientific theories as fact - no science is fact - it is just a way to explain things which may or may not be true. Truth is not really the issue. Who is to say that God didn't create the world in 6 days 400o years age with all the evidence of fossils built into it? I really don't think it is that big a deal, so long as God created it does it matter?
ReplyDeleteHi Rozina,I think the issues of world-view and authority are the real issues, not how did God create the world. As you say, the important thing for christians is that God did make the world, and that he continues to sustain it. As part of the christian understanding of creation is the calling of people to share in God's continuing world of creation in the world.Where evolution is absolutely WRONG is its belief in chance, random events etc. to actually improve things.If our existence is a random event in a random universe then life has no meaning and we have no purpose. In that case we might as well all go out and get drunk, have whatever form of sex turns us on and go and shoot up a high school. I guess that's why it's important in the end. I really don't care whether the world is 6000 years old or 6 gazillion years old - the real issue is what we are here for.The issue of authority comes in also at the point where some scientists are claiming an absolute authority to determine what we believe (in areas such as cosmology which is in the end very speculative) and in the theopries of origins of life. There is an attitude that if society wants to place limits on what scientists should do then we have no rights to do that.Keith
ReplyDeleteHi KeithI agree - I just think some where along the line we - the world has taken science out of context and attached to science an authority it was never suppose to have. When we stop looking at science as theory and accept it as fact we get into trouble. I think we have to teach our children that - that all science is just a theory and that the only certain truth we have is in God and his word. If we all take that approach we can stop getting hysterical when some science theory doesn't line up with what we believe.I believe the more important question people are asking and the issues they care about are not the "how did the world get her?" but how do I get somebody to love me? Not how do all those animals get on the ark - interesting as that is but how do I bring up my kids, not who is Abel's wife but how do I stop the abuse in my own situation. Where is God in today's world not where was he when the world was created. I think Christians get more upset about these issues than non christians. I think actually non christians are more trusting in this area than non ChristiansI think our world view needs to say that God's authority is absolute. I think the trouble comes - not when science hypothesis something that is against God but that when we do everybody accepts it as truth and doesn't question it. Science is not about proof but about constantly looking for a better solution, explanation for the problem - one that works not necessarily the right one. Science is not truthRozina
ReplyDeleteNow you guys are talking.Mind you, I do get upset over Creationism, primarily its formal arm. They behave very badly in both the what and the how of the stuff they present. And the very naughty behaviours around stacking curriculum boards in the USA is a scandal.But the real stuff is in the here and now and how that relates to our true Home.
ReplyDeleteThe stacking, the presumptuousness, lumping people with opposing views into a single basket.. these happen far too much on both sides of the argument.In terms of the "here and now", I've found some of the theology in Genesis 1-5 rather helpful in understanding my life, my salvation, and my attitudes; some things I picked up a number of years ago had a definite effect on my "here and now". Does the theology remain valid regardless of the historical accuracy? World-view and bible-view: when people disagree on these things they'll disagree on lots of things.
ReplyDeleteRe Rozina's comment earlier about science getting more authority than it should.I think folks had to look for something. The church has been losing its moral authority for the past few hundred years because of its own very public immorality and hypocracy.Not just the RC church but all of the branches have been firing away at their own feet.More than anything, the rise of the media has increased scrutiny.I cannot really say I blame people for walking away and staying away. Our own times have been full of church failures, whether of the TV evangelist or priestly paedophiles.Earlier it was potatoe famines, the destruction of indigenous cultures, enslavement of "inferior" races, the disgusting attitude towards the Irish esp. the Potatoe Famine and child labour.Earlier again was chuch inspired war on massive scales.Aaah, so much damage. How can the church create a "good infection" again?
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