The problem with our generation is that we fail to learn from our own history. If an idea appeals to popular logic, then everyone is expected to go along with it, embracing it as truth. If television programs, news reporters, books or magazines claim that an idea is scientifically valid, then we are all to bow down to it.
This is a problem because truth and reality exist apart from human perceptions, ideas and understanding. Just as actual truth cannot be determined by religious decrees, so it is can't discovered or determined by popular vote. In fact, even recent human history demonstrates that discovery of the truth has a way of proving popular scientific notions false — again and again.
Reality is not altered by our perceptions and limited understanding. The purpose of science is to get past superficial appearances, mere philosophical notions, and presuppositions, to find out what is real. We attempt, via scientific exploration and experiment, to uncover real facts, real causes, real truth. Science is studying, exploring, learning.
The Law of Honest Science
At any given stage of understanding, we must be willing to rethink and change our minds if the evidences themselves point to conclusions that prove us wrong. This applies to all genuine science because the work of discovery and learning is never ended. The study of human origins, and the origin of all life on earth, is not a completed work today any more than it was when Darwin first published his own observations and the implications he felt they made.
Darwin must be credited for his willingness to study and wonder and record his observations. He was willing to ask questions that were not necessarily politically correct in his day. But we cannot credit him with knowing how life began. He merely made some valuable observations and drew some conclusions based both on those observations and on ideas that already appealed to him.
Why Do Theories of Evolution Exist?
People who do not believe in God must believe in something, regardless of how ridiculous the idea or shallow the evidence. Every human being who rejects faith in God as Creator and Savior of the world must offer some alternative answer to how the universe, the planet earth, the human race, and all other living things came to exist. The main strength behind the popularity of evolutionary thinking today is not in any of the theories or models proposed, but in the absolute necessity to embrace some such theory if one rejects God and the Bible. Unbelievers must have their own belief system.
Christian believers often waste a lot of time trying to argue with evolutionists, thinking that if we can raise valid objections, then the evolutionist will see and admit his or her error. What we forget is that the unbeliever must have some "scientific" or philosophic idea of how human beings got here, how life itself got here. Common sense demands that agnostics and atheists, for example, produce an explanation that doesn't involve or include God. If they choose to continue rejecting faith in God, then they must offer an alternative explanation for how life got here.
The Heart, the Truth, and Natural Science
The heart of the matter, then, is not science at all, but the heart itself. Anyone who believes God will be able to embrace Him as the one and only Creator of the world and of all life. It is no more of a strain on human intellect to accept God's explanation in Scripture than it is to believe in any of the theories of evolution being proposed by biologists, anthropologists, or paleontologists today.
Truth exists. Reality exists (regardless of what some so-called philosophy professors may claim). God has given human beings physical senses that we can use to perceive and observe data. He has given us wonderful minds capable of using and following logic to meaningful and useful conclusions. We are able to ask questions, dig for answers and add to the understanding already gathered by others in earlier generations. While our abilities do not always lead us to complete understanding, they do enable us to continue learning and refining our ideas.
Someday, all things will be known. It is not likely that that will happen here, in this world or in this life. But some day we will know, the Bible says, just as we are known. Today we peer through a glass darkly, trying to make out details that can hardly be seen or understood. Some day the mysteries will give way to knowledge and understanding just a morning fog finally burns away to reveal bright sunlight and blue sky. In the mean time, we must always remain open to the truth.
Jim Sutton, June 2009
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