Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

• Genesis 1:1-2

“Along with every other world leader, UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, was keen to assure the nation that when it comes to the COVID pandemic, the government would ‘follow the science’, be ‘guided by the science’, or be ‘driven by the science’—take your pick. And take your pick of what is meant by ‘the science’. It’s assumed that we’re talking about immunologists, virologists and epidemiologists, but even they disagree. How do we adjudicate?
“And might there be other kinds of scientist we want to consult? Might sociologists be relevant guides? Psychologists? Health—care economists? At a stretch, could they be covered by the label ‘the science’? …
“The earth has one moon (v 16), but it could have had three or nine. Why one? The answer does not lie in the logical necessity of a single—mooned earth. The deepest answer is simply ‘Because God…’ And if you want to figure out how many moons the earth—or any planet—actually has, you ought to go and check.
“This holds true for everything in the natural world. The shape of the planetary orbits might be circular, or God might have chosen to make them triangular for all we know. Nothing can be assumed. Everything must be tested. This is because if God is free, then the universe could be otherwise than it is—it could be any way that God chooses. You might think that the world must be a certain way. But there is no must. You need to investigate what actually is. The freedom of God became a foundational concept for the way Christians came to approach science.”

• Glen Scrivener, The Air We Breathe

I have written a lot about evolution vs. creation.  Both require a belief.  For the Creationist, you merely believe in God, in all of His powerful awesomeness.  For evolution, you have to believe in something that has been proven to not happen.  The DNA of a kind must have all the traits (some dormant) in order to “develop” a new trait.  Thus, humans from a primordial soup is impossible.

But then, you say that Creation is impossible.  That is where Rev. Scrivener’s comment about “there is no must.”

I had an argument with a liberal pastor once.  He was not just a cessationist, where you believe that after the Biblical canon ends, so do miracles.  He was a never was, like Thomas Jefferson.  He believed that God created the natural laws, ands since God is perfect, God could not, by His nature, create a miracle.  But how does this unravel the Scriptures?  Jesus performed no miracles, thus He did not prove that He was the Messiah, since the Old Testament speaks of such things.  The world could not ever be created out of nothing.  Life could never exist.  Not believing in miracles gets messy.  And with no miracles, what is left?  Miracles are the business of God.  He can handle it.

As for God’s nature never violating a rule…  God does not sin.  God cannot sin because He is Holy.  But the physical “Laws” that have been established by scientists over the centuries, mostly the last four or five, are not “Commandments.”  They are man’s way of explaining how God’s creation works.

Now, before people get bent out of shape by my expressing it that way, let’s look at a few quotes, all quoted in Rev. Scrivener’s book.

“To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High.”

• Nicolaus Copernicus

“The glory and greatness of Almighty God are marvelously discerned in all his works.”

• Galileo Galilei

“Geometry is unique and eternal, a reflection of the mind of God. That men are able to participate in it is one of the reasons why man is an image of God.”

• Johannes Kepler

“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an Intelligent Powerful Being.”

• Sir Isaac Newton

These scientists were trying to figure out how God did it, rather than prove God did not do it.  There can be no proof that God did not do it.  Yet, Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin both had an agenda to rid the world of the Christian worldview.  To their defense, Lyell being a lawyer and not a geologist (maybe as a hobby), they were born before much of our discoveries today point in a different direction, not proving God created everything, but discoveries aligning with what the Bible says.  Charles Lyell, with no proof at all, produced the idea of an earth that is millions of years old.  Geologists ever since have quoted one text or another, all of which quote previous texts, all going back to Lyell’s book, which had no scientific proof.  Quoting an unproven book does not prove anything, but more and more discoveries have been made, even within the past one hundred years showing that the Bible was “not wrong.”  Eric Metaxas’ book Is Atheism Dead? (a spoof of the famous headline “Is God Dead?) has a lot of data noted throughout the book.  The more information we get, the Bible still comes out as inerrant.

My only issue with Rev. Scrivener’s chapter on Science is that he made excellent points, but he allowed evolution to remain, maybe only on life support.  One thing in evolution that is not argued in real science is natural selection, but maybe for different reasons.  I saw a television show recently that suggested a look at dogs.  The original kind, probably something that looked like a wolf had all the DNA markers that could produce a St. Bernard or a Mexican Hairless.  You put both of those dogs in a cold environment, and the Mexican hairless would freeze to death and the St. Bernard would flourish.  The opposite would be true in a hot environment.  In reproduction, the more advantageous DNA markers would be “naturally selected” in either case.  Thus, you can have two humans who are brothers (and other of their kinsmen).  Place one family group in Scandinavia and the other in central Africa, and over a few generations, the pigmentations will be drastically different.  Thus, the Y-chromosome may be very similar in the male offspring, but they may look totally different due to natural selection.

And Rev. Scrivener’s first paragraph could have been the entire chapter.  Who decides what is science and what is not?

Having two college degrees in chemical engineering, I was not allowed to state anything as fact until I had run experiments to prove it or I did the math from proven formulas (those natural “Laws”) and I derived the mathematical equation that proves it.  I witnessed a professor spend a few weeks of classes writing equations on the blackboard (shows my age…) and finally he started reducing the equation down to simple terms and the class looked dumbstruck at the blackboard.  We had taken formula after formula of things we knew to be true, for a couple of hundred years in most cases, and we were left with E (energy) is equal to m (mass) times the speed of light squared, Einstein’s famous equation.  That is true science.  Evolution or Creation are historical science at best, for they cannot be proven.  Faith is required, that is until we see God face-to-face.

But when politicians quote “science” they are, almost all the time, quoting a “scientist” who is willing to say what the politician wants the scientist to say for a suitcase full of money.  Think of that when you ask what Rev. Scrivener asks in that paragraph.  “How do we adjudicate?” Of the differing views on everything these days, what is science?

In the beginning, God …  Then mankind started “discovering” things and took credit for the discovery.  Then other people started figuring out the rhythm of the universe and using mathematics to explain what was going on, with people placing their names next to the calculation and calling it “Law”.  And then, we have people that want to throw all that in the garbage, because they do not want the Bible to be true.

But the Bible is true.  Our interpretations might be faulty, but that is a story for another day.

Lord, guide me.  I weep for the children and young adults who have been taught a pack of lies in order to have doubts that You are who You are.  The proof is in this well-tuned universe and in the intricacies of a butterfly or a simple cell in our bodies with the millions of little things going on, all required for life to happen.  Illumine the minds of Your elect so that we can rise from this massive misrepresentation of Your creation.  In Thy Name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.