Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 1 - Article 15

Article 15 – Creation apologetics and the role of Psychology in apologetics

Creation apologetics is a truly thankless job. It possibly is one of the most difficult jobs in Christian ministries. It faces attacks from both the church and the scientific community. Churches that subscribe to theistic evolution, even the churches that subscribe to Biblical creation, do not view it well. The former mock those who believe in 6 literal day creation as unscientific and outdated, etc, while the latter criticize that creation apologetics tries to put science above the Bible.

Every involvement gets attack from Christians and the scientific community. One camp attacks the creation apologists for not being theologians, the other camp attacks them for not being scientists. How many can practice both science and theology as full-time professionals?

Truly, if one is not convinced that it is their calling, and if it were not for the sustenance and grace of God, one would have most certainly given it up.

Psychology is a field that very much deserves recognition. By the hard sciences, it is regarded as a soft science, capable only to make associations and correlations. In the church, it is even more misunderstood. Some churches rely on it too much such that they do not believe and use the power of the gospel to heal, and the other camp regard it as some demonic art especially in the applications of hypnosis in hypnotherapy and other methods.

Even in many creation apologetic ministries, Psychology is not given its due credit as it is deemed not firm in its results to be good enough for apologetic use.

However, psychology reveals a lot. Let us remember from the Bible

2 Corinthians 10:15 - Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

We have a Christian duty to take captive all knowledge, including the data and theories of psychology and bring it to the obedience of Christ.

What has psychology shown us?

It actually shows us the horrible state of the Fall in Genesis. No hard sciences can properly study the topic of Evil. In my own research, I found that Psychology is the only field that can study the fallen human state by examining the mind. Every psychology student would have undoubtedly studied Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment that reveals the wickedness of how a role playing game can become amoral and evil, a finding that became famous in relation in the Abu Ghraib prison treatment by American soldiers. Psychology 101 would also no doubt cover Milgram's experiments on obedience where it was found that most people were willing to go up to 450 Volts to shock people to teach something. These experiments contribute towards the Psychology of Evil. Interestingly, the scientists involved were not Christians, and yet they found Evil. Of course much more modern versions of the psychology experiments are present, and there are tons of other psychological studies that showed evil (the Kitty Genovese murder case , see the Wiki page on it) but it is nonetheless clear on one thing:

Atheistic psychologists, through psychological experiments have found Evil. If evil exists in the hearts of men, where did it come from? If there is evil, there is good. How did evil come in? These are questions that atheists cannot answer. For if there is good and evil, there is a judge to define them. And this judge is undoubtedly God - a conclusion you will come to in any final stage of logical reasoning.

It is good apologetic material, for evil is for once, proven in an academic discipline, by psychology. If it was not evil, there is no suitable explanation for the horrid behavior of man, and that it somehow "just happens". But clearly the atheist psychologists who are experts in what they study conclude quite differently from "accidents" on the topic of Evil. Moreover, evil is something that physics, chemistry, and biology would have a really much harder time to study.

In addition, there is clear support for the Calvinistic view of Man's fallen state. That man is totally depraved, and incapable of doing good. In fact, as a psychology student, I found numerous evidence in my social psychology module. Today, psychoanalysis and everything Freudian is dismissed by many psychologists, but I find that many things he proposed are not too far off. For example, if one applies introspection of psychoanalysis, one will most certainly see that almost all our motives and desires are borne out of the wickedness of the heart. Psychoanalysis understanding certainly reveals the dark inner workings of the mind. But most studies do not make the connection with the other areas of psychology because they only make sense when taking into account of the Fall in Genesis. The Bible remains the ultimate authority and unifying guide.

The problem comes when interpretations are made without the guide of the Bible, and hence they become wayward. The same is for the findings on the area of psychology of sex, which are controversial, especially those from the Kinsey Institute. However, looking at the data itself, one can certainly see how depraved man is in the light of the Scriptures.

There are numerous data from psychological studies that certainly affirm the fallen state of man. Some examples include how many times we lie and how selfish desires are present in all human relationships. Psychology does a great deal to investigate these things that the "hard sciences" cannot. And these are great apologetic material. The Christian should certainly reject unbiblical practices and interpretations. Guided by the authority of the Scriptures, all knowledge can be tied together, and they are all in harmony in obedience to the knowledge of Christ.

As it is with psychology, it is with all knowledge. All are to be brought into submission to Christ. Let us not throw out the baby with the bath water as Peter did in Acts 10:9-16. All wisdom and knowledge are of the Lord. It is man who has perverted all things good. Under the guidance and authority of the Word of God, all will make sense and we will do the rightful job of giving glory to God.