Sunday Faith Series: The Fundamental Error Of 'Creation Science'

When you combine bad theology and bad science, in an attempt to distil scientific truths from the Bible, you get the misguided entity that has come to be known as Creation Science. Creation Science gets both fundamental propositions wrong - and in doing so, it diminishes both the Bible and science.

The Bible is a Divinely inspired book that tells us who God is, who we are, how we should act, how much we are loved by Him, and how we can have salvation. There is no scientific commentary in the Bible (at all), because the Bible was written several millennia before the scientific methods first became formally established.

The scientific methods enable us to converge upon information and ideas on how to assess variable and diverse protocols, and bring them into exquisite theoretical descriptions. Science gives us facts about the physical substrate of our natural world. There is nothing in the domain of science that can tell us who we are in relation to God and His plan for us.

All that is to say, Christianity and science offer two different lenses through which to understand reality as best we can - and things get muddy when their domains are confused. To illustrate, suppose Jack and Jill visit the zoo. Jack is looking at the tigers, and Jill is looking at the elephants, and both are oblivious to each other's focus.

Jack: What a beautiful shade of orange those creatures have.

Jill: It isn't orange, that's the way the sun is shining on them - they are grey.

Jack: Nevertheless, I wouldn't want to be chased and eaten by one.

Jill: What do you mean? They are herbivorous, not carnivorous - they wouldn't eat you.

Jack: Of course they would; haven't you seen those sharp teeth?

Jill: I think you mean tusks.

Jack: Eh?

Now, you see, all the time that Jack and Jill are talking past each other about different animals, their conversation lacks proper utility. The same is true with the Bible and science - the conversations are similar to Jack and Jill's, except the subject matter is more intractable. There is no conflict between good theology and good science; the only conflict is when either (or both) of these tenets are distorted. The continual need for clarifications like this tells us that, alas, there is still plenty of work to be done to weed this nostrum of Creation Science out of Christianity.

Edit to add: Creation science is that familiar phenomenon used by people with a perverse agenda to make their deception sound more credible to pliable individuals – they take a valid word and insert a preceding word to make their deception sound like a credible field. Creation Science is a classic example of trying to make pseudo-science sound like a science. Social justice is a classic example of trying to turn divisive identity politics into a field that sounds progressive. Holistic medicine is a synonym for medicine that has not been verified properly in clinical trials, and so forth.