This week’s lesson was on faith & science. I admit I rolled my eyes at the topic. Because, if God is Creator, then obviously He’s also the creator of science, right? He created the earth and everything in/on it, and science is a “careful study of the structure and behaviour of the natural world” (as per the Cambridge Dictionary) so obviously science must be compatible with Scripture. WHAT ACTUALLY IS THERE TO DEBATE?!?!?
By now you can probably tell that theological studies are not agreeing with me. I think I’m lucky I took this subject as an “experiment” instead of signing up for a Masters in Christian Studies or some other similar thing. We’re only halfway through (lesson 7 of 12) and I already want to quit. But… I also shouldn’t stick my head in the sand and maybe, just MAYBE I need to know some of this stuff – it might be good to know – so I’m gonna make myself stick it out. Urgh. Adulting does suck.
Anyway, there are apparently four models used to interpret the relationship between faith & science (or the lecturer chose to highlight four, maybe there are more – he did say that sometimes there are too many things to cover, so he has had to choose the most common or prominent theories/concepts). The four are: the conflict model, the independence model, the dialogue model, and the integration model.
The conflict model puts faith and science in conflict due to a literal interpretation of the Bible. Like, you believe that God really made the world in seven 24-hour days but it conflicts with what we know of evolution. The independence model sees faith & science as independent – separate fields of enquiry – and therefore the two don’t overlap; science focuses on the “how” of things (how things work), while theology focuses on the ”why” of things (meaning, purpose, and value). The dialogue model sees science & theology as informing each other due to shared concepts like the origin of the world and acknowledges the differences between the two. The integration model sees theology & science as integrated, i.e. “belonging to one truth” (quoting from the lecturer’s slides) – both form a single coherent picture. No prizes for guessing which model I’m in favour of.
Then we moved on to views of creation, namely how the “7 days of creation” are interpreted. ::sigh::
For me, if you start with the position that Scripture and science cannot be in conflict because God created science, then there must be a way to understand and interpret Scripture which allows us to see that it does not contradict what we know to be true. Therefore, the seven days of creation can’t be literal 24-hour days.
So, apart from the literal (or traditional) view, which I have just thrown out of the window, we have the “day-age” view, which is still somewhat literal as it takes 2 Pet 3:8 (“With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day”) and says maybe the “day” in Genesis is representative of a longer period of time; but the other two views see “day” as metaphorical – the symbolic view says maybe the “days” aren’t actual days; based on the literary structure used in Genesis, maybe the author was just using “days” to give us an idea of the various stages of creation, since we humans only understand chorological & linear time; the analogy view says the “worked for six days and rested on the seventh” thing is supposed to help us understand God’s pattern of work & rest (by using an analogy) and it isn’t even meant to really focus on creation at all. I’m really much more inclined to the symbolic view; I think it’s the most logical. I don’t think the analogy view makes sense because there is too much detail in each of the six “days”, which would be unnecessary if all the author wanted was to emphasise the need for rest after working for six “days”.
Next, the lesson went into creation vs. creationism and various views of creationism – attempts to interpret when the creation of our known universe actually occurred. This is also an attempt by theologians to reconcile the age of the universe and the earth (as have so far been proven by science) to what is written in the Bible. So, I was also meh about it because again, I’m convinced that science and Scripture cannot contradict each other. I’m quite happy to admit that I don’t understand how it all works but I do know that God’s Word is Truth, but we also know that not all of the Bible is literal (hello, Song of Solomon and Revelation) so WHY would we insist on reading the account of creation literally? Some people are just hard-headed… like the Israelites ::cough::
(I should not say that. Mana tau got plank in my own eye but pointing out the speck in others’ eyes. Aiyoyo. Repent, repent)
Anyway, I am starting to wonder if I’m deficient in some way, because CLEARLY, my classmates are extremely interested in all these theological theories and debates and have read up about the various viewpoints and had questions about them. Do I accept things too easily? Am I too credulous? Have I been sticking my head in the sand? Bleargh.
Together with views on creationism, we have views on Adam & Eve: Were they real people? Does all of humanity really only descend from a single couple? But science and genetics apparently have suggested that humanity descended from a population of several thousand, not a single pair – this I learnt from my lecturer, I didn’t know it prior. Ish, all these are pointless thought experiments to me. I understand why it is important to some people to resolve these so-called “discrepancies” or figure out how to harmonise scientific knowledge & what Scripture has written. But it just isn’t important to me.
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