The Limits of Scripture
Parts of the Bible have been disproved by science. Before the age of science, the Bible was widely assumed to be literally true in everything it said. The idea of any part of the Bible being discredited was seen as a danger to the whole of the book. This is a real danger. If the Bible or any other holy book is not true in its entirety, it is legitimate to question every part of it. One part of the Bible being disproved does not disprove all of it, but it does lead to a legitimate testing of each and every assertion. It is largely because of this difficulty that Christian fundamentalists have reverted to a belief in the literal truth of the Bible. They have reverted to belief against evidence.
According to most biblical scholars, the Bible puts the age of the Earth at somewhere between six and eight thousand years old. According to science, the age of the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, with the Universe older still.
According to the Bible, the world and all its creatures were created in seven days. According to science, the evolution of species has taken millions of years to reach the point where man first appeared.
According to the Bible each species was created separately, according to science different species are related to each other and evolved from common roots.
The argument of the fundamentalists is that current evidence is no more than a progress report rather than a final truth. This is true of any scientific theory and in that respect they are right. However, it has to be seen as unlikely in the extreme that new discoveries will uncover the fact that the universe is no more than eight thousand years old. Scientific models can be wrong, but this would require so many individual pieces of evidence and findings to be wrong that it would probably have to be the result of a huge conspiracy spanning generations of scientists over hundreds of years.
Similarly, the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. The religious fundamentalists do try and present updated forms of creationism such as intelligent design as alternative theories to evolution. Again, it could be argued that evolution is only a theory and as such only a holding position, but science continues to support this theory with new evidence and discoveries. The latest of these being the study of genetics and the documented similarity in the genetic make up of different species. The existing and growing evidence for evolution makes the presentation of creationism as an alternative theory worthy of equal consideration simply not credible.
According to most biblical scholars, the Bible puts the age of the Earth at somewhere between six and eight thousand years old. According to science, the age of the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, with the Universe older still.
According to the Bible, the world and all its creatures were created in seven days. According to science, the evolution of species has taken millions of years to reach the point where man first appeared.
According to the Bible each species was created separately, according to science different species are related to each other and evolved from common roots.
The argument of the fundamentalists is that current evidence is no more than a progress report rather than a final truth. This is true of any scientific theory and in that respect they are right. However, it has to be seen as unlikely in the extreme that new discoveries will uncover the fact that the universe is no more than eight thousand years old. Scientific models can be wrong, but this would require so many individual pieces of evidence and findings to be wrong that it would probably have to be the result of a huge conspiracy spanning generations of scientists over hundreds of years.
Similarly, the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. The religious fundamentalists do try and present updated forms of creationism such as intelligent design as alternative theories to evolution. Again, it could be argued that evolution is only a theory and as such only a holding position, but science continues to support this theory with new evidence and discoveries. The latest of these being the study of genetics and the documented similarity in the genetic make up of different species. The existing and growing evidence for evolution makes the presentation of creationism as an alternative theory worthy of equal consideration simply not credible.
posted by craig fotheringham at 2:28 PM
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