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Credibility of Christianity at Risk

The intellectual credibility of Christianity has been placed at risk due to the perceived naivete of Christians by the non-Christian intellectual and scientific communities. The Creationists have yet to surrender, despite the ever-increasing mound of scientific and theological evidence that disputes their claims. Yet, many Christians continue to filter out scientific evidence and methods when the result sets fail to meet their pre-conceived ideas on creation.

The study of origins is a fascinating field. It attracts intelligent people. And these people will reject the existence of God if they feel restricted in their options:

  • Creationism = Theism (7 day creation)
  • Evolution = Atheism (existence is by chance)
Insert the middle ground, and the choices are not so rigid.
  • Theistic Evolution = Theism (theistic creation via evolution)
Don't misunderstand the objective here: the middle ground of Theistic Evolution is not being promoted here because it may be deemed as a convenient way to bridge the gap between the two extremes. Rather, the Theistic Evoltuion viewpoint is considered to have high probability based on both theological and scientific analyses.

Theistic Evolution differs in two areas from traditional Evolution:

 
Theistic Evolution
Evolution
Cause
Infinite Divine First Cause
Random Chance
Causal Progression
Infinite Divine Designer
Continuation of Successive Random Chances

As demonstrated in the diagram, pure evolutionary theory clings to a random existence of matter whereas Theistic Evolutionary theory identifies an Infinite Being as the initial cause and as the Grand Guider of the evolutionary process. Traditionally, Theistic Evolution refers to this Infinite Being as God.

Recognizing God as the First Cause and Divine Designer is a key component to this argument. Some Creationists have attempted to discredit Theistic Evolution by alleging that it tries to harmonize the existence of God and the randomized chance of creation. On the contrary, Theistic Evolution does not consider this existence to be by random chance. Instead, the view is that God used evolution to create.

The continual refuting by the scientific community of the scientific claims of the Creationists is damaging to Christianity. The Creationist scientists do not submit their scientific theories to scientific journals where their scientific peers can review their methods and results. Instead, the Creationist scientists rely on publishing their work in books targeted for Christians. This is not proper communication for scientific research. Such tactics are commonly referred to as propoganda and are frowned upon in the academic community. Even worse is when such tactics are deemed as deceptive, an attribute that is not considered representative of Christianity.

It is a shame that the Creationists have become more defensive and rely even more than ever on propoganda instead of confronting their scientific peers with a realistic perspective on scientific research. Likewise, they avoid confronting the biblical scholars and theologians who recognize the literary role of the Genesis texts and the deeper meaning found within. Until either confrontation occurs, the Creationists will not be taken seriously. And until they are taken seriously, the credibility of Christianity will continue to be at risk.


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