I am in the midst of preparing a group presentation on whether Science render Christian faith untenable?
One of the pleasure I realize recently is that the freedom I have in pursuit of Truth. I am blessed to be able to think about issues, read, reflect and discern about them. There are so many resources out there to read and different Christians write about their thinking and reflection.
By far, a Christian faith, is a thinking faith. One require the use of the mind and to think through different topics. It ain’t a blind side faith believe in everything. Rather one has to sit and look at the issue from different perspectives, study the text, then study the text some more….and pray to let the Holy Spirit reveal the Truth to us.
For my part, I will be discussing the Young Earth theory. This is in response to the evolution theory. I found this in one of the books I was reading. It’s a quote from Augustine concerning faith and science….
Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of the world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions., about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience.
Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show a vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.
The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but the people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books, how are they going to believe those books and matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learned from experience in light of reason?”
Galileo remained a strong believer to the end. He continued to argue that scientific exploration was not only an acceptable but a noble course of action for a believer. In a famous remark that could be the motto today of all scientist-believers, he said: “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
