SCIENCE AND BELIEF 
Monday, October 24, 2011, 07:17 AM
Posted by Administrator
Our understanding of the world changes and develops all the time. Until relatively recent times in human history, the vast majority of people believed that the world was flat and that the Sun, Moon and stars oscillated above us. Basic individual observation even today would suggest that might be the case. We can’t easily see the curvature of the Earth. A couple of the ancient Greeks theorised that the world might not be flat but their theories did not last. Even as late as 1600 the idea that Earth was not the centre of the universe was controversial. Galileo’s fate is mentioned above. By the way, his predecessor, Copernicus, was first to publish a book theorising that the Sun was the centre of the Universe and not Earth. His book was initially accepted even by the church. Fortunately for him perhaps, he died before the priests decided such ideas were against holy scripture and set out to “correct” his work.

Today, it is generally accepted in scientific circles and in much of the wider community that, not only do the Earth and other planets in our solar system rotate around the Sun, our solar system is a small part of a massive galaxy which is just one of many galaxies across the universe. No doubt our understanding will expand even further over time. That is the nature of science. So let us not suggest putting scientists under house arrest or worse!

Any discussion of climate change must surely be undertaken in an environment of general acceptance of the advancement of science. Those who hold to the Biblical view would, I assume, also hold that the world climate is controlled by God. After all, he created it in seven days and He is not about to let humans mess it up. And let us not think he built it and then stood back and let man/woman go to it. His interventionism is demonstrated in the first Book of the Bible, Genesis. First He cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden for disobeying an instruction. Then He cast out Cain for knocking off his brother. After watching many generations grow and develop, God became so frustrated by the “wickedness” of man that he decided to wipe all living things off the face of the Earth and start again with one carefully selected family – Noah, his wife and children and their wives. And all the animals and plants they would carry in the Ark. If He wants to, it seems, God has no issue with intervention.



Certainly there are a few scientists who hold to a Creationist belief. I prefer my scientists to be agnostic on most things: seeking proof – without prejudice. If one holds that Darwinian evolution is the ONLY possibility, then all subsequent work is likely to be bent toward supporting that held belief. Equally so with Creationism or any other entrenched belief.


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