The Need for Humility
Both scientists and students of the Bible need to maintain a strong awareness of the limitations of evidence and of human understanding of the evidence. As a biblical scholar who operates from the standpoint of faith I have all the more reason for humility. While I find the Bible an invaluable revelation of the will of God, I am painfully aware of the huge gap between my understanding of the universe and God’s (Isa 55:8-9). Let me share an analogy. Being a scholar is like a farmer digging a post hole at the edge of a field. I know everything there is to know about that contents of that post hole. But the deeper I go into my limited field of knowledge, the more I am aware of how deep the field is and how much I do not know. When all I knew was the surface of the field, I could imagine that I knew a whole lot about the field. But now that I have gone deep in a tiny portion of the field, I realize how deep the entire field goes. So the mark of a true scholar is not how much he or she knows but to know how little one in fact knows. The more a scholar learns, the more aware he or she becomes of how much there is yet to learn. With great knowledge comes great humility. And I believe the reverse is also true. With great humility comes great knowledge. Most of us learn to the degree that we are open to learning.
That brings me to what I call the Ladder of Humility (appreciation to Fritz Guy, who first introduced me to the concept). As a biblical scholar who dabbles in many other issues, I have learned quite a bit in this life. Step one in my ladder of humility is how much I know. But step two is what everyone on earth knows. That is an almost infinite advance on what I know. Go into any university library and you will see that my knowledge is a minuscule fraction of what the human race as a whole knows. But step three is what everyone on earth could know, given an infinite amount of time and opportunity. Another infinite advance. Step four in the ladder of humility is what everyone in the universe knows. If, as most people suspect, there are lots of inhabited planets out there, all possible human knowledge is but a minuscule fraction of what everyone in the universe knows. And of course, step five is what God knows, truly another leap of infinity. Looked at from this perspective, everything I could possibly know about God and His ways are like the musings of a two-year old in comparison with what I don’t know. Even the knowledge of the prophets was limited (1 Cor 13:9, 12). So it behooves everyone interested in the issue of faith and science to demonstrate a strong element of humility in everything that is said and written on the subject.
Are there similar limitations to our knowledge of the physical universe? I have to believe so. There are many areas of science in which knowledge has vastly increased in the last few decades. It is, therefore, reasonably certain scientifically that evolution occurs at the micro level (small changes that we can observe over a human lifetime). This would have been an extremely troubling admission for people of faith a century ago and is still troubling to many today. But microevolution is within the direct purview of scientific method and few people of faith question its existence today. But can we extrapolate from microevolution to large changes taking place over millions of years (macroevolution)? There is significant scientific evidence that points in that direction and one does not have to be a God-hater to see that. For example, the order in the fossil record suggests some kind of evolutionary progression and radiometric dating indicates a considerable amount of time for this progression. I have no compelling scientific data to counter the basic thrust of that evidence. After all, science by nature looks for patterns in repetitive events. A single act of creation in the distant past would inevitably leave some very challenging evidence to the scientist. So in the absence of direct observation and experimentation, can we be absolutely sure of the way things occurred in the distant past? Is it possible that we have yet to discover the flaws in our current analysis? I think humility is an appropriate approach for both science and faith. We must not only bow before the evidence we have but also before the evidence we have not yet been able to examine.
Categories: Current Events
Tags: evolution religion and science creation huility
As an arm-chair theologian, I tried to stay out of the evolution/Creation debate. Science is not my forte and I too come up short. We do have to acknowledge there are things we simply do not know, both personally and corporately.
I was told by a teacher in 1972 that evolution is a fact. Of course, he was talking about those changes that occur within species, but wanting me to believe that it was the changes of one species into another that was a fact. It appears there is a whole lot of humility that needs to be spread around.
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I believe Science to be the methodical acquisition of knowledge - through theory, experimentation, analysis and evaluation of observations. Science is an analytical process, not a religion, and it is surely the confusion of its true nature which fuels the heated debates. Evolution is a kind of golden image for whose exponents demand worship! One either agrees to worship the image, or face the fires of persecution. God has given us 'His Word' to tell us exactly what happened in the Beginning. People today are too lazy to study the Bible, so they rely on 'experts', instead of just reading the truth for themselves.
All creation was created by God in six days (Exo 20:11). When we believe that, we can call ourselves believers. It is impossible for God to lie, the Word of God is truth! Are the pots going to tell the Potter how things were created? (Isa 29:16 & 64:8; Jer 18:6 & Lam 4:2) We are created beings, created in the image of God, and thus belong to the Creator. According to Genesis, the Earth existed before the sun, moon and stars, which were made on the fourth day; so there was no singular 'big bang' either, as Creation took place in stages over those first six days.
It really is not a question of humility, but respect for God as our Creator. Many churches today, as Balaam (Num 22:12) and Achan (Jos 7:21) in seeking wealth; have exchanged everything they have, for silver, gold and a Babylonian garment. King Saul (1Sa 13:13-14 & 15:11) and King Solomon (1Ki 11:11-13) followed their own wisdom and ignored God's Word, and their kingdoms were taken from them. Its about time Christians deal with these modern 'priests of baal' as Elijah did, and use the Sword, the Word of God against them. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He also has rejected
you from being king." (1Sa 15:23)
We can keep the discussion really simple by asking one question, "Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?" If the answer is "No!" we can walk away and avoid all the stress, of trying to
convince someone of something, they are just not ready to listen to. People have tocome asking for truth first, before they are willing to listen to the truth.
I have discovered that Noah was born in 1056AM. The global flood took place 600 years later. Abraham was born in 1948AM. He left Babylon in 2000AM. In the 15th year of the reign of King Asa, 3000AM, they had a huge revival where
people were put to death for not having faith in God (2Ch 15:13). In the year 4000AM Jesus Christ was crucified. Now nearly 2000 years later, there is very little time left (of man's 6 days) to accept our Creator as King.
"Have I therefore bcome your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Gal 4:16 & Joh 8:45)
Kind Regards
leigh
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When Christians are confronted by a person pushing evolution, they should answer as Jesus did to Satan: "It is written ..."
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Gen 1:31)
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Exo 20:11)
"Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed." (Exo 31:16-17)
For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. (Rom 9:6-8)
The reason most Christians are defenceless against this satanic teaching, is because they do not honour and keep the Sabbath day holy. Which is the weekly celebration of our GOD as Creator.
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I think humility certainly is required in this debate however this shouldn’t be used as a euphemism which hints to someone that you think they have gone beyond the evidence.
Certainly there are some things that we can speak about with a high degree of confidence. We can safely say that the sun does not revolve around the earth and I'd like to suggest that in the last 20yrs geology has developed to the point where we have just as much confidence that the earth is around 4 billion years old. Additionally we know that fossils have been laid down throughout the last 3 billion rather than in one event.
Another area that I think we can have just as much confidence that the universe is 13Billion years old.
It’s just very hard to see new discoveries reversing any of this. These areas of science are almost ascompletely understood as the orbit of planets in the solar system.
You can try and hide behind the notion of God making an adult universe with the appearance of age but then is that reasonable to accept? How do you make any other sensible metaphysical judgements?
Now having said all that, there are a great many things that science has no idea about. What is more, much of this knowledge lies outside of the scope of science. A "first cause" of the universe and the nature of consciousness would be cases in point. In areas like these it is the scientists who are deluding themselves.
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