SCIENCE IN SEMINARY?

I was alerted to a paper stating we did not teach enough science in seminary. The writer advocates teaching all the memes of secular science and was totally dismissive of the science of the Bible. If you know me, you knew I HAD to respond. This is what I sent to him this evening:

It seems to me that the lion's share of seminary graduates ALREADY believe what you are advocating. It is rare to find any seminary which actually really believes the Bible whether a Westminster on one hand or an Assembly of God seminary on the other. As a minister, I know people on pretty much the entire spectrum, and I find almost none that have any real scientific training or have critically examined the predigested, one-sided secular pablum they were fed let alone the Biblical accounts attested to by the prophets, by Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit.

On Easter today, especially since my message today was titled "Paradigm Shifts" regarding deviations from the Biblical norm to new fads such as Missional Theology, it was so disappointing that any theologian would repeat the error of so many of the Jewish leaders of almost 2,000 year ago who called Jesus a liar. Yet, your paper seems to not understand some very basics of faith or reason. 

First "science" means "knowledge", not a consensus of the memes that largely pagan philosophers have agreed on. Throughout history, consensus has often been wrong, even the opposite of objective truth. You have adopted the pagan ideas of the Big Bang, Evolution, and interminable time periods lock, stock, and barrel even as many very intelligent scientists, some of faith and some simply with a base level integrity are questioning these memes to one extent or another. All the above memes and numerous others have substantial scientific difficulties, and most are more based upon philosophy than any provable scientific facts. I have two degrees from the highly regarded scientific university, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I have been studying these issues most of my 70 year life and intensively looked at different sides of the issues. I enjoy going to a lecture on white holes or time bending, so perhaps a bit of esoteric blood is in my veins. One interesting event at RPI was that an Orthodox Jewish professor put up an award that would pay for one semester's tuition and books to any student who could prove that the earth was any older than about 6,000 years. Many laughed, but none were able to prove it, and this man was a brilliant scholar and debater. The fact remains over 50 years later that what is told as absolute fact in deep voices is unprovable. Nonetheless, the evidence and data properly interpreted support this Jewish professor's contention.

I am bivocational, including being a minister of the gospel who has produced over 2,000 radio shows, have a long running blog, and minister on the Internet, social media, and in person stemming from an intimate personal relationship with Christ for 65 years, so I believe I am qualified to comment on the faith side of the equation as well. I have read the Bible through numerous times and studied every phrase of it. Jesus Christ attested to the timeframe of creation and wrote it on stone tablets for Moses, so when you make pejorative comments about what you dismissively call "creationism", you call Jesus Christ a liar. The same goes for the Holy Spirit, who plenary inspired the scriptures and who mentions the foundational stones of Genesis creation numerous times. Even Peter, who did not have the benefit of a scientific education other than learning the different ways of catching fish, defined the disconnect rather efficiently - uniformitarianism vs. the Biblical accounts that everything has NOT existed in a monolithic timeline forever. Honest scientists are questioning the Big Bang and even a 13 billion year old universe would have time issues concerning starlight with conventional secular thinking. They also question why at the volcanic eruption at Mt. St. Helens in Washington state, radiometric dating was used less than a year later which resulted in data that it happened many millions of years ago when we KNOW it was under one single year. How many cases where we were not present to observe would yield similar results that would stun unbelievers but coincide with the beliefs of Biblical Christians? The simple truth is that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Without the fear of God, which of course is the case with ALL scientists who consider themselves agnostic or atheistic, wisdom has not even STARTED, let alone matured, Therefore, the last thing we need is for even more seminaries to teach as fact things not based in wisdom and which contradict the Lord of the universe. Those who actually are in Christ do not wrestle with the claims of those who reject our God. We simply follow the evidence and understand the nature of God, the testimony of God, and the total rationality of the Holy Spirit who has renewed our minds. We do not need to sit at the feet of those who are at enmity with God, but sit at the feet of God himself, who freely shares with us all things.

The second half of my bi-vocational life is as an architect with professional experience of over 48 years, with 40 years of those in owning my own practice. I understand design quite thoroughly and learned from various masters including Lou Kahn. I understand as well from anthropology and other sciences irreducible complexity and the design of nature. To claim there is no design in the universe, let alone in an eye assembly or even in a single cell is utterly absurd. Even secularists are forced to admit that Intelligent Design arguments often make a lot of sense. I know the skill it takes to even design a toilet room with excellence, let alone a building, and without that skill, they are all an utter mess that do not function well or look appropriate either. I love my work, but a complex building is simpler than a single cell and the comparison with our earth let alone the entire universe hits it out of the park.

I truly recommend that rather than ape the memes of the ungodly, that those in Christian education actually learn from the Master. Everything he has said and taught makes ultimate sense. However, without a personal, intimate relationship with him and without receiving the gift of faith, nothing will compute as long as a person is consumed by the world's way of thinking. We must never be conformed to this world and our minds need to be totally renewed, (Romans 12:1, 2). May God be true and every man a liar. (Romans 3:4).

 Thank you!