I have been concerned for some time now of not only the lack of discipleship among our young people but how young people are going to the colleges and universities and losing their faith over the supposed contradiction between what they were taught about Genesis and the earth being young and science which says the universe and earth are very old.
There is a great little discussion book by Josh Reeves and Steve Donaldson called A Little Book For New Scientists (IVP, 2016). This book calls for both sides to more humility and for Christians to be more honest in dealing with science and the Scriptures. If science can interpret the facts wrong, so can Christians misinterpret the Bible. The opening chapters of Genesis have always been interpreted in a multiple of ways and its more a modern invention to take Genesis with such a strict literalism and suggesting at the same time that the Bible is giving a scientific explanation of the universe which it is not. The purpose of the Bible is to give us spiritual knowledge and to warn us against the many ways we fall into idolatry. If science can turn into scientology, so can harden views of Scripture turn into bibliolatry. There are extremes and pitfall on both sides of this discussion.
Science and Christian interpretations of origins need to be a mutual dialogue with each other and not in fierce polemical debate. A much healthier and wiser approach is to view nature and scripture as complementary and not polarized against each other. The whole history of science was done by devout Christians seeking all truth as God's truth. Can we do any less?
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