Bill Powers 2008-06-05
From Summa Bergania
Date: Thu Jun 5, 2008 1:35 pm
From: David Bergan
To: Bill Powers
Subject: Re: Christianity and Conflict
"Let me end with yet another question. Why should we care that science and Christianity are in conflict? Obviously we do for then there would be no conflict. But why do we?"
Hi Bill,
The only people who should care are those interested in seeking and discovering truth. Now that sounds like a powerful statement, but it actually isn't as haughty as it seems. For example, (I believe) discovering the ultimate truth on many of these issues is not essential for salvation. Furthermore, discovering truth on many of these issues isn't even interesting for a lot of Christians.
Consider whether the question about the age of the Earth (or authenticity of Noah story) has any practical/salvational value... In my opinion, discussions on those subjects (and many like them) orbit around one issue: the authority and literal interpretation of Scripture. Many Christians (and many in my family) assert that it is fundamental to the Christian faith to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Doubting the historicity of stories from Genesis means you think God is a liar.
That certainly is not my position... Christian fundamentalism (taking the Bible to be inerrant and literal) is a recent fad in the history of Christianity coming about toward the end of the 19th century. I openly question the claim that the Bible is fully inspired by God, and I think that putting too much emphasis on its text is akin to idolatry (raising the Bible above Jesus).
See discussion here for details:
http://www.davidbergan.com/Summa/Bob_Thune_2004-03-09
Yet what is important about the Bible is that it tells us about our redeemer from those who personally knew Him and His teachings. We do run into a conflict of sorts with science when we get to Christ's miracles... because science says that a person can't walk on water. But precisely the nature of a miracle is that it is supposed to be something supernatural, or unscientific.
More on that here:
http://www.davidbergan.com/Summa/Miracles
Kind regards,
David
