Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.  Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.

• 1 Timothy 6:20-21

“Bacon claims to accept the teachings of the Christian Church.  But he also argues that science must be separated from religion, in order to make the acquisition of knowledge quicker and easier, so that it can be used to improve the quality of people’s lives.  Bacon stresses this transforming role of science.  One of his complaints is that science’s ability to enhance human existence had previously been ignored, in favor of a focus on academic and personal glory.
“Bacon presents a list of the psychological barriers to pursuing scientific knowledge in terms that he calls collectively the ‘idols of the mind.  These are the ‘idols of the tribe’, the tendency of human beings as a species (or ‘tribe’) to generalize; the ‘idols of the cave’, the human tendency to impose preconceptions on nature rather than to see what is really there; the ‘idols of the marketplace’, our tendency to let social conventions distort our experience; and the ‘idols of the theater’, the distorting influence of prevailing philosophical and scientific dogma.  The scientist, according to Bacon, must battle against all these handicaps to gain knowledge of the world.”

• Sam Atkinson (senior editor), The Philosophy Book, Big Ideas Simply Explained

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) opened Pandora’s Box, and the idols of the mind have now taken over science.

Maybe I should just end here.

No, once you delve into a subject, you must boil it down to what we know and do not know.  Bacon saw the issues of his day.  He lived and worked at the same time as Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).  Galileo had his troubles when the Catholic church became offended by the thought that the earth spun around and also rotated around the sun.  These are proven facts today, proven by the scientific method that Francis Bacon championed, but Galileo had to be silenced.  With that in mind, you can see why Bacon insisted on separating science and religion.  Without a preconceived notion, we should obtain knowledge that God is the Creator, and the Bible is accurate.  But Bacon knew we could never get there if we started with a theory and then applied “science” to support it, as did the theories of evolution and millions of years.

But just as the USA is discovering today, when you have a good reason to separate two things, people can easily misinterpret your intentions.  The author of the quoted book makes it clear that the author thinks Bacon to be a heretic, non-believer in believer clothes, or crazy.  Separation of science and religion in the modern world has become a view of a godless science, ignoring the scientific method, and keeping the blinders on.  But Bacon also postulated his idols of the mind.  We have forgotten those in a zeal in our education system to ignore God.

Every part of the idols of the mind is true about the scientific elite of today.  Modern genetic research shows that the mutations of the genes (forget the word “evolution” as being disproven) can only support about 6,000 years or so.  There would be far more mutations if we were around for millions of years.  And it is impossible for us to have evolved from apes.  But the facts support the Bible, so let us all stick our fingers in our ears, close our eyes and say, “la la la la” until the experimental scientist, the real scientist, leaves the room.

I have seen documentaries on the study of the rock layers in the Grand Canyon and how they do not support the millions of years theory, but instead prove Noah’s global flood.  But since the facts support the Bible …  We tend to start with preconceived notions.

Francis Bacon’s claim to fame was in establishing the scientific method.  If we can measure it and what we measure is repeatable, then we must learn the science that causes that to happen.  Bacon was allowing science to create knowledge that should, as a true believer, bring us to a greater understanding of the wonderful, and complex, world that God created.

Yet, this separation thing can easily be misinterpreted.

The Scripture above is probably one of the Scriptures used to combat science in that day, claiming Galileo a heretic.  The church would rather us not know, at least the church at that time, than to have people create theories that the church could not refute.  The church today is mute on such subjects, leading to a congregation that is divided among what each person believes to be true in the Bible.  My thought is once you disregard one part, you are on a slippery slope of not believing anything.  So, the church says nothing to their detriment.

In other words, the church would rather remain stupid because their faith was not strong enough.  They were afraid science would prove God and the Bible wrong, leaving the gate wide open for heretics to claim just that.  The church, then and now, cannot believe that once we turn over enough rocks that we will be led to God.

Instead, the atheists among the scientific community embraced the idols that they worshipped, the idols of the tribe, the cave, the marketplace, and the theater in order to create a disproved theory that excludes God.  And as long as they remain huddled together as a tribe, keeping their fantasy story consistent among the tribesmen, then they can persevere.  Then each new discovery must be filtered through the cave that only supports their preconceived notion that fails to hold up.  Thus, new facts are discarded because their house of cards is crumbling.  Yet, evolution and millions of years are taught in the schools.  Social pressure is on the side of these false scientists.  And as for the idol of the theater, atheist philosophers and atheist scientists are often proven wrong in properly controlled debates, yet on the street corner they shout louder.  They draw a crowd, and they seem compelling, until you look behind the curtain.

Behind the curtain is not an aging wizard.  Behind the curtain is emptiness.  Without God, there is no purpose in life.  We are just cosmic dust living on a speck of cosmic dust hurtling through space.

But if that were true, why do we seek a purpose in our lives?  I recently heard a professor from the University of Colorado state that Richard Dawkins has purpose in his life, to rid the world of the notion that we have purpose.  If that does not make Dawkins a heretic for his own cause, you must not be thinking it through.  If we have no purpose in life, then Dawkins would sit in a corner, keeping his mouth shut, and letting us all fade into nothingness.  But even Dawkins is afraid that he might not be correct.  Thus, the rhetoric.

No, Satan is manipulating people and Satan thinks he has won this round.  We need to learn from the data that the Bible is correct, and repent.  We must repent and establish a life-giving relationship with Jesus.

Why?  Jesus is coming soon.

And yes, Jesus will return as the King of kings.  Indeed, the King is coming.

I am sure that someone will provide a comment on the best method to fry bacon, but as for Francis Bacon, let us take him off the fire. I think he’s done.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.