Blog

by Steve Risner

[This blog post is part of a series. The previous one is here, and the next one is here.]

This week we’re back to taking a look at a blog post by Tyler Francke that he calls “How to use the Bible to disprove just about anything.” This is a link within another blog post, “10 theological questions no young-earth creationist can answer” that I’ve been dismantling for the last couple of months. It’s time consuming, I know. But the implications of his theology, if we’re calling it that, are important enough to systematically demonstrate just how inconsistent theistic evolutionists are and how they really have no idea what Biblical creationists believe or what the Bible says, in my opinion.

A couple weeks ago, the Worldview Warriors blog began chapter 12 in Romans. The second verse says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” How applicable this is to the discussion of worldview clashes (which is exactly what this entire discussion is about).

So Tyler starts out by saying that he loves the Bible and thinks it’s a wonderful book if you read it correctly. Who decides how to read the Bible in his world? Well, secularists, of course. Atheists and other non-believers appear to be the authorities on what God’s Word actually says. Rather than use thousands of years of tradition and study from dedicated followers of God, they would use people who admittedly set out to remove Christianity from just about every aspect of life. That’s saying something. Let that settle in for a moment. He states, “If you read it incorrectly, you can use it to discount virtually all modern science and send humanity tumbling back into the Dark Ages.” This is such a tired and deceptive position. Namely, if we think science is championed by secularists, we’re wrong to a very large degree. You can read quite a bit about that here. But his entire statement reveals how educated he isn’t on these matters. It’s okay to not be educated on something. I’m not educated on a lot of stuff. But I try not to publish writings on those topics if I can avoid it. I stick with what I know.

The Dark Ages… ugh. This is a very tired and unenlightened argument (see what I did there?). The trouble here is that Tyler has bought what was peddled to him by liberal teachers and likely by the mentors that influenced him to accept Darwinian evolution over the clear presentation of creation in the Bible. It was commonly taught (I was taught this and likely Tyler still believes it) that Columbus sailed westward on the Atlantic in 1492 to reach India, even though everyone believed the earth was flat. And this was the belief because the Bible said it was true. The truth is, however, nearly everyone knew the earth was round long before Columbus or Magellan sailed the oceans. It was taught that the Church stumbled over this for years and Columbus resisted them greatly before finally deciding to disobey the church leaders and set sail. This is all nonsense. A book published admittedly to discredit Christianity states these lies. Andrew Dickson White published “A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom,” which was literally full of bogus information solely printed for the purposes of discrediting Christianity. In fact, the entire notion of a war between Christianity and science is purely a lie used to further atheism and nothing more. For someone who claims to champion intellect, truth, and being unbiased, Tyler is severely lacking in all of those things in this blog post. The unfortunate part is I'm still in the first paragraph.

Unfortunately, there is much more to say on the topic of the made up “war between science and religion.” This, in my opinion, is pure deception. There is no honesty (unless ignorance is the explanation) in claiming Christianity has a problem with science. The truth is that science owes everything it was built on to Christians—literally all of it. First the misnomer of “Dark Ages:” there was no such time period and historians will tell you so. The so-called Dark Ages were littered with technological advancements and a great deal of learning and discovery. The term was coined to discredit the Church in the 19th century (although some research may suggest it was first used 200 years earlier). It's really remarkable that it's commonly taught still that such a time existed after the fall of Rome. Rodney Stark states, “The reason we didn’t know the truth is that … for more than three centuries [the claim of inevitable and bitter warfare between religion and science] has been the primary polemical device used in the atheist attack on faith. From Thomas Hobbes through Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins, false claims about religion and science have been used as weapons in the battle to 'free' the human mind from the 'fetters of faith.'”

It's interesting to note that the “Scientific Revolution” of the 16th century (generally noted as being 1543-1680) was initiated and fueled by Christians beginning in the 11th century. This is all stuff I would highly encourage a believer to investigate for themselves. It's amazing the amount of spin a person can be taught and never be aware of it. Rodney Stark goes on to ask why Europe birthed science and not some other place. Science was born once and in one place. It’s probably the same reason Europe first spoke out against slavery—it was predominantly Christian. History is full of amazing causes that Godly men and women fought for that later became the norm of society. Science is no different. Stark says, “It is the consensus among contemporary historians, philosophers and sociologists of science that real science arose only once: in Europe. The leading scientific figures in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were overwhelmingly devout Christians who believed it their duty to comprehend God’s handiwork.” Read that quote again if you have time. It's a good one. Thus we can say with confidence that if atheism was in charge of such matters, we would have actually had a time we could call the “Dark Ages.”

I can write a great deal on why the “Dark Ages” never happened, but I have a long way to go to get through this blog post by Tyler. I will conclude this portion on why his statements concerning a Biblical belief in creation and some connection to a period in history known for its lack of progress due to the Church are incorrect, disingenuous, distasteful, and likely heaped in ignorance. This, of course, is only my opinion. But when the 52 most notable scientists that sparked the “Scientific Revolution” are predominantly Christian (all, in fact, but perhaps 2 and at least 30 could be considered devout Christians), it makes you wonder if he cares at all about being accurate and about what the truth actually is. I say bring on the Christians and let them move us forward. Just imagine how advanced we may be if creationists could get funding!

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