Saturday, October 31, 2009

Cannabilistic Science



Christians tend to get all discombobulated and vexed when the science du jour asserts something contrary to the Bible. But instead of sounding the alarm, rallying the troops and storming the bastions of unbelieving science, believers would be much better served by simply exercising patience. For, as Spurgeon notes below, the greatest enemy of faulty science, is...well...science.

"See how often science has altered its very basis. Science is notorious for being most scientific in destruction of all the science that has gone before it. I have sometimes indulged myself in reading ancient natural history and nothing can be more comic. In twenty year's time some of us may probably find great amusement in the serious scientific teaching of the present hour, even as we do now in the systems of the last century. It may happen that in a little time the doctrine of evolution will be the standing jest of schoolboys." (C. H. Spurgeon)

Some people allege that the Church's unwillingness to accept the heliocentric (sun-in-the-middle) cosmology proposed by Copernicus early in the 16th century as evidence of the Church's need to accept the "science of the day." But in fact, the Church had a difficult time embracing Copernicus' new (and correct) way of viewing our solar system simply because it had already embraced the "science of the day" that posited a geocentric (earth-in-the-middle) solar system centuries before (oops!)

Because scientific history is replete with theories that have been proved either false or inadequate, Doug Jones has suggested that we, in proper humility, wait for at least 2000 years before we call anything a "law" of science. This is, of course, frustrating for moderns who are addicted to fast food, microwave ovens and TV shows that resolve complex situations in under an hour. But given man's God-given curiosity and amazing ability to uncover what God has covered (Proverbs 25:2) 2000 years might not be long enough.

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