The following essay is a response to an opinion column by Bob Stewart which was published in the Greeley Tribune. The purpose of his column was to discredit a pro-creationism article that had previously been published on the “faith” page. I submitted this response, but it was not published in the newspaper. A number of other rather silly items have been published, however. But in typical mainstream media fashion, the Tribune is much more interested in generating heat than light.
September 18
To the Greeley Tribune
by Teri Ong
In his Sept. 15 column, Bob Stewart asserts ”the theory of evolution is essential to our understanding of the biological world.” How could that be true when great strides were made in biology by men like Linnaeus (biological classification), Leeuwenhoek (bacteria), Blundell (blood transfusion), and Hooke (cell biology), a century before Darwin?
He further asserts “the Christian religion has opposed every single advance in knowledge that it viewed as a threat to its orthodoxy.” While certain “religionists” may have held the erroneous views he suggests, the Bible itself revealed the “scientific” truths Stewart cites long before modern science “discovered” them. For example:
1) “The Earth is round and not flat.” The prophet Isaiah wrote almost 3 millenia ago that from the vantage point of the heavens, the earth appeared as a circle.
2) “The Earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa.” While the Bible does not specifically address this, it is not scientifically inconsistent for writers to describe things as they appear. Newspapers daily give “dangerously unscientific” information about “sunset” and “sunrise.”
3) “Disease is caused by viruses, bacteria, and other natural factors rather than by sin.” The Old Testament clearly identified the health risks associated with touching dead bodies, the toxicity of bloody wastes and human excrement, the communicability of certain diseases, and the benefits of personal hygiene. Christians since the discovery of the microscope do not dispute the relationship of pathogens and disease, but that does not negate the fact that many forms of disease are brought on or spread by bad behavior. If people were entirely monogamous, refrained from substance abuse and gluttony, and obeyed Biblical hygiene laws, many diseases could be practically eradicated.
4) “Weather is a natural event and not a weapon of a god.” Jesus himself stated that the sun shines on good and bad people and rain falls on the just and the unjust.
Stewart asserts that “clinging rigidly to religious dogma stops inquiry and the advance of scientific knowledge.” For centuries, what stopped scientific inquiry was an unwholesome defense of the pagan Greek philosophers. Doctors were afraid to challenge the human anatomical descriptions of Galen, even though his work was based on the dissection of animals. And it wasn’t Christians who came up with the notion of “earth, wind, water, and fire”! On the other hand, the Apostle Paul wrote that “the things which are seen are made from things that are not seen,” giving us a basic description of atomic theory long before physics was even a science.
Stewart asserts “faith means believing something without evidence.” By this he seeks to cast doubt on the validity of religious faith. Unlike those in that shaky epistemological condition, he states “Scientists don’t have faith in an unproven theory.” However, “science” has no established laws that can get randomly from non-living elements to living, reproducing, thinking beings. There has to be a little blind faith there somewhere.
Criticizing science isn’t as dangerous as circular reasoning. Stewart says, “A theory is considered scientific truth when all reasonable people agree on it…” The problem is that many in the scientific community define “reasonable” as agreeing with them, thus excluding all disagreement by branding it “unreasonable.” This to me is the real danger to open-minded inquiry.
Scientists do not have a corner on knowing what can be known. They can only operate in the material realm. But most of what makes us most human is outside of that realm; think where we would be as a human race without ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics, let alone theology!
