This is a complaint we deal with quite a bit at the George Bush Presidential Library. Folks just don’t understand the mechanics of the Freedom of Information Act regarding presidential libraries nor the enormous amount of man hours required to meet the request. For example, the request I am currently working on (I’m almost finished!) is 38,500 pages—and I have to review each one of them. I am closing in on 11 months on this one project. Now, imagine how long it would take you to read 38,500 pages of something you read for pleasure, something that you do not have to carefully review for protected information (which must then be input into a computer database)--something that is not a government record. How long do you think it would take you to complete that task?
Sure, I'm wearing geeky glasses in the photograph below; but the house behind me is where Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up in Tal, Austria:
'It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create or make of nothing the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good.' ~ Westminster Confession of Faith (IV.1)
It would have done William Jennings Bryan good to hold fast to the truth of God's Word regarding the Creation during his cross-examination in the Scopes Monkey Trial. Bryan, described as a devout Presbyterian, fell victim to a malady that afflicts many sincere Christians to-day; in their attempts (as they see it) to reconcile scientific discovery--which is ever-changing, unlike God's Word--with the Bible, they unwittingly deal a self-inflicted (and mortal) wound to their argument. Bryan provided the opening by which Clarence Darrow rushed in and pierced his argument at its heart.
At its essence, the argument goes thus: Does God's Word mean what it says? and, should science and the Bible appear at odds with one another (true science, by definition, would reflect the truth of God's created order), to which do you assign the pre-eminent position?
Questions to consider:
1) What does Science have to say about a man walking on water?
2) Can resurrection from the dead be replicated under laboratory conditions?
3) Is it possible to empirically demonstrate how to feed 5,000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish?
The Bible tells us that the above all happened. 'Science' tells us they did not--they cannot--happen. Which will we believe?
Taking the Fifth Commandment seriously requires a great deal of attention and sacrifice.
I have never been able to determine whether the story about Mike the Headless Chicken is apocryphal or not. Either way, it's enthralling--and a little bit creepy.
'My chief concern is to try to be an humble, earnest Christian.' ~ Robert E. Lee
Rick Saenz on the simple life.
Jack Bull Chiles: 'The foundin' of that town was truly the beginnin' of the Yankee invasion.' Mr. Evans: 'I'm not speakin' of numbers, nor even abolitionist trouble makin'. It was the schoolhouse. Before they built their church, even, they built that schoolhouse. And they let in every tailor's son... and every farmer's daughter in that country.'
Jack Bull Chiles: 'Spellin' won't help you hold a plow any firmer. Or a gun either.'
Mr. Evans: 'No, it won't, Mr. Chiles. But my point is merely that they rounded every pup up into that schoolhouse because they fancied that everyone should think and talk the same free-thinkin' way they do with no regard to station, custom, propriety. And that is why they will win. Because they believe everyone should live and think just like them. And we shall lose because we don't care one way or another how they live. We just worry about ourselves.'
Jack Bull Chiles: 'Are you sayin', sir, that we fight for nothin'?'
Mr. Evans: 'Far from it, Mr. Chiles. You fight for everything that we ever had--as did my son. It's just that... we don't have it anymore.' ~ Ride With the Devil
'In addition to important and interesting historical work, the [Confessional Presbyterian] journal has published important articles critical of recent movements such as the Federal Vision and New Perspectives on Paul, ground breaking work on the manuscripts and documents of the Westminster Assembly, as well as substantial and illuminating material on Presbyterian polity and worship.'
'Are we going to take the hands of the federal government completely off any effort to adjust the growing of national crops, and go right straight back to the old principle that every farmer is a lord of his own farm and can do anything he wants, raise anything, any old time, in any quantity, and sell any time he wants?' ~ President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
'We hope this site sharpens and renews your mind and creates a desire to study and obey the Word of God. Soli Deo Gloria!'
So, you want to rob a liquor store but can't afford a ski mask? Do the next best thing--wrap your head in duct tape.
'Supposedly intelligent talk becomes the emotionally-based regurgitations one hears on Oprah or the rude shoutfests of AM talk radio. It’s no wonder that mainstream media look upon the intelligent, thoughtful, calm, and rational Ron Paul as a dinosaur. The argumentative logic of Aristotle has been replaced by the emotional pleas of a Britney Spears song.'
'Although not all reunions are happy ones, our reunion is going very well. Even though my mother and I have spent 34 years apart I am amazed by how comfortable I am with her, how much we are alike. There is almost a psychic connection that I can only explain as being in the magic of genes, in the mystery of our DNA.'
'During this process, I discovered a concept, if allowed to be widely used, that has the potential to change the auto insurance industry as we know it.'
6 comments:
The science issue is tough, for even though I would hold the Biblical authority over science, I do not always hold my understanding (or others) to be perfect on either subject. Put another way: the only way that in which the Bible and science should come into conflict is in our misinterpretation of either of them or (as you pointed out) when God chooses to supersede natural law. The latter is really a different situation and shouldn’t be confused with the former. When we look at Genesis we are not supposing that God is setting aside natural law in a miraculous type way, He is creating natural law.
Science at its heart is the observation of creation. Its secondary purpose is to make judgments based on this observation, in order that we may, through understanding, get some applications and make better observations. We have seen that it doesn’t do this secondary purpose very well sometimes but its first purpose it still does extremely well. As Christians, we should either observe better than scientists or accept their observations and provide interpretation in accord with scripture.
Sorry for the long comment, your post really clarified some of my thoughts on the issue.
I agree with you, Joshua. In addition, I believe the 'trouble' between science and the Bible can arise due to divergent (and antogonistic) presuppositions. We all see the same facts; however, we Christians begin with inerrancy of Scripture, necessitating that the facts conform to God's Word, whereas science (in the truest definition) often originates in Materialism. As Christians, I think it is important that we assume, when there appears to be conflict, that science is wrong and the Bible provides the answer.
Jacob: I don't know why I called you Joshua, I'm tired. I just spent the last two hours cutting grass.
No worries, I'll usually answer to anything starting with a J.
Once again I agree with your overall statements; it is just that when conflict arises while ultimately deferring to scripture, we should critically analyze both and let science do its job in observing the material universe. The Bible will provide the correct worldview but we cannot look to it for scientific details because that is not its purpose.
Also we should be prepared to simply say that we don't have the answers to everything about God's created world, either from Biblical accounts or from science.
Sorry, I kept beating a dead horse.
When did you go to Austria?
The Austria trip was back in 1997. Some Austrian students were at A&M one summer and my German class was assigned to help them with their conversation English. Suffice it to say, that entailed taking them to Northgate (how do you say 'Dixie Chicken' in German?) every night. Anyway, I went over to vist one of them a year or so later. Nice trip--but it cost me a small fortune.
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