My Idea Book/Randomness

Christianity and Science

 There's something I want to talk about. Something I've been struggling with for a very long time now. The 'battle' between Christianity and Science.

 There is this pervading thought, at least in America, that Christians cannot be good scientists. Wait a minute. A group that believes in a creator who embedded order in everything is the wrong set of people to be looking for order in the universe? I'm genuinely confused.

 Now. Before everyone jumps on me, I'm not calling everyone who believes in evolution brainless. Darwin was a brilliant man who made amazing observations and taught us a lot about genetic modification. But why can't we accept the possibility that he may have drawn some incorrect conclusions? Aristotle was wrong and he was one of the greatest scientists of his day. It happens. People can be wrong. Blindly believing anyone regardless of how famous or intelligent they are is bad science. I don't care if it's Stephen Hawking, Darwin, or Ken Ham, every theory needs to be looked at carefully and measured against the evidence. The theory, not the person.

 This next part is important. Most of you will probably disagree with me here. I'm okay with that. But evolution is not science. Creationism is not science. They are belief systems. They cannot be observed, they cannot be repeated (Although, trust me, if someone can actually manage to repeat evolution, I will be the first to retract that statement.) and they cannot be tested. These are the pillars of true science.

 So, if I don't believe that either evolution or creationism are science, what do I think they are? Like I said, they're belief systems. They're history speculation. I'm sure everyone would look at me a little funny if I claimed that science had proven that George Washington actually won the American Revolution single-handedly.

 "But, Rook," you would all say, "That's not science. It's just plain wrong."

 Exactly. And we know it's wrong, not because science has shown us it's wrong, but because history has. So where do any of us get off thinking that we can apply science (the observing, repeating kind) to world origin questions?

 I'll go even farther. I don't know what all of you were taught in school, but when I went through science classes (which I loved, by the way) the phrase I heard over and over was 'Science can't prove anything.' People believed that flies were formed from rotting meat for years. And years. For all functional purposes, science had 'proved' it. But people just didn't have all the pieces yet. Science can't prove the center of the earth is molten rock, it can only guess that from what we observe topside. Until someone manages to go there or send a robot, we can't know that the center of the earth isn't a giant marshmallow world with sprinkle grass and cotton candy trees. We have some very educated guesses that it's not, and I happen to believe those guess, but at the end of the day, they are just guesses.

 Furthermore, why does our respect for fellow humans fly out the window whenever the topic comes up? I've heard it on both sides. Only morons could believe evolution some 'Christians' say. Only religions fanatics could believe creationism, say evolutionist scientists. This is probably my biggest issue with this topic. Not the bad science, not the blinding biases on both sides, the lack of respect.

 Now, if anyone actually read all that, you all get a cookie and an invitation to discuss both sides of this issue in the comments.

Rook out!