Unsettled Christianity

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Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

May 16th, 2013 by Joel

But… But… Noah… Moses and that Giggie guy…

Scientists have discovered water that has been trapped in rock for more than a billion years. The water might contain microbes that evolved independently from the surface world, and it’s a finding that gives new hope to the search for life on other planets.

via Water Trapped For 1.5 Billion Years Could Hold Ancient Life : NPR.

Gotta love science, folks. The headline caught my attention due to the hidden water beneath the surface. Guess when the fountains of the deep broke up, this water was the only water left.

Wait, that doesn’t make sense. That was 6000 years ago according to some Irish dude, not 1.5 million years ago according to scientific fact. Not that there is a shred of evidence of a world wide flood 6000 years ago.

And, on another topic, science is awesome. Recently, we’ve seen some decent breakthroughs in the search for life here and out there. Maybe one day, we will find life among the stars before our species is gone.

Ancient Water (poodyheads.wordpress.com)
Billion-year-old water found in Ontario could reveal clues about ancient life (metronews.ca)

Tags: NPR
Posted in Science | 2 Comments »

May 3rd, 2013 by Joel

So, I guess I’ve been outed as an Atheist

Atheism (Photo credit: atheism)

I and other bloggers have written posts on the school tests demanding that the correct answer to the age of the earth is 6000 years. The school in question has been named as the Blue Ridge Christian Academy. Several bloggers have since responded to this news as well.

Ken Ham has likewise responded with his usual calm, measured demeanor:

It seems that since the last presidential election, atheists have grown more confident about having something of a license to go after Christians. These secularists want to impose their anti-God religion on the culture. They are simply not content using legislatures and courts to protect the dogmatic teaching of their atheistic religion of evolution and millions of years in public schools. There is something else on their agenda: they are increasingly going after Christians and Christian institutions that teach God’s Word beginning in Genesis.

His response is simply put: You are an atheist if you do not believe in Young Earth Creationism. He pits himself and his cult of followers against all others in the classic us.v.them mentality where anyone who opposes him is an atheist, a secularist, and a holder to non-biblical Christianity. So, I guess that means I am one of those. I mean, I don’t believe in the deity known as Ken Ham, nor his Christianity, his science, or his martyrdom fantasies.

Read the words carefully… watch as the complex develops… Note the sidebar on Ham’s page as well. There are plenty of Christians who are doing the same thing he accuses atheists of doing. But, because he has the magical holy spirit he’s right, I guess. No matter many others who do not believe in Young Earth Creationism claim to be guided by the Spirit as well…

Also, what is “a biblical approach to dinosaurs?”

So many things wrong in this approach… but does it matter? He doesn’t listen – he simply denounces those who does not follow his cult and therefore is able to dismiss facts and evidences. Further, when you continue to talk to him, he’ll just claim persecution.

And because some of you won’t get the ironic intention of the title, I am not an atheist — well, I don’t believe in Ken Ham or the angry Loki he worships as god — but a Christian who holds to the orthodox Christian tradition, the same tradition Ham rejects in favor of himself. So, I guess if anyone is an atheist, it would be Ham. Happy Friday!

Also, check out this post by the venerable Dr. James McGrath about the origins of Young Earth Creationism, along with other recent posts on the topic.

Blue Ridge Christian Academy: The School That Gave Fourth Graders the Creationism Test Heard Around the Internet (patheos.com)
“Intolerant Atheists Viciously Attack Christian School” (freethoughtblogs.com)
Why Are Christian Homeschooling Parents Pushing to Expose Their Children to Evolution? (patheos.com)
Mystery Solved: The school paper came from a Christian school. (dinoharpist.blogspot.com)
The Creation Museum’s Ken Ham is Asking His Followers to Pray for Me (patheos.com)
Another Texas Church Teaching the Racist Curse Of Ham? NO WAY!!! (politicaljesus.com)

Tags: Blue Ridge Christian Academy, Ken Ham, young earth creationism
Posted in Science, Society and Religion | 4 Comments »

May 2nd, 2013 by Joel

Denial of Climate Change Science and Bad Eschatology are Related

University of Pittsburgh Seal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oh good… a quantification of what many of us have suspected for a while:

Research by David C. Barker of the University of Pittsburgh and David H. Bearce of the University of Colorado uncovered that belief in the biblical end-times was a motivating factor behind resistance to curbing climate change.

“[T]he fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests that governmental attempts to curb greenhouse emissions would encounter stiff resistance even if every Democrat in the country wanted to curb them,” Barker and Bearce wrote in their study, which will be published in the June issue of Political Science Quarterly.

via Belief in biblical end-times stifling climate change action in U.S.: study | The Raw Story.

That’s right – the same anti-science crowd that believes the earth is 6000 years old also is preventing meaningful attempts at fixing the environment. Why? Because they have become the worst sort imagined during the Reformation – their own magisterium.

Climate Change Denial vs. Science at Texas Legislature (texasvox.org)
Bad fruit from bad theology… (houseofthedread.wordpress.com)
Study finds belief in free market economics predicts rejection of science (syndicatednewsservices.com)

Tags: climate change, global warming, University of Pittsburgh
Posted in Science | 13 Comments »

May 2nd, 2013 by Joel

It’s this type of stuff Louisiana has decided is fact

First, you gotta read this:

This chapter is a revision of that which originally was published after one of my creation conferences by Colonial Hills Baptist Church in East Point, Georgia sometime in the early 1970′s. It also has been part of well over a hundred conferences in many states and several countries. For years it was part of my class notes for Genesis 1-11 entitled “In the Beginning,” for Central Baptist Seminary in Minneapolis where I was Director of Graduate Studies. It describes my abrupt awakening to the requirement by the catastrophic contents of the Book of Job that I recognize a post-Noahic flood, thoroughly Biblical, ice “age” catastrophe.

That’s right.. Job is writing about the Ice Age…Bernard E. Northrup (ThD, no relation to a PhD in sciences) was no doubt an devoted follower of God and by all accounts, a very pastoral man. But he is wrong in his Creationism and while a doctor of theology, he was not a doctor of geology, archeology, or other -ologies related to the actual age of the earth.

And now, Louisiana…

The Louisiana state Senate Education Committee rejected a move to repeal the state’s Science Education Act on Wednesday, handing a defeat to opponents who have criticized the law for essentially allowing the teaching of creationism in science class.

Under the law, public school teachers are permitted to introduce “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner.” While the Science Education Act says teachers may not “promote any religious doctrine,” it contains no specific ban on the teaching of creationism. Teachers and local school boards also aren’t required to obtain prior approval from the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education before introducing supplemental material, the Associated Press reports.

Louisiana counts the cost of teaching creationism – in reputation and dollars | Zack Kopplin (guardian.co.uk)
Senators reject repeal of Science Education Act (sfgate.com)
As creationism law comes up for repeal, an appeal to Bobby Jindal (tv.msnbc.com)

Tags: Bobby Jindal, Louisiana Science Education Act, young earth creationism
Posted in Religion and Politics, Science | No Comments »

April 25th, 2013 by Joel

Page 2 of the Quiz – And No, it’s still not science and no, it’s still not education @AiG

Reportedly, we’ll have to wait until the end of June to discover what school did this.

quiz page 2

Check out the link above – sounds like a Christian private school focusing on classical education (the Latin gave that away).

Tags: Answers in Genesis, young earth creationism
Posted in Science | 5 Comments »

April 23rd, 2013 by Joel

And out of the dust of the…

Because the grains, which were found in meteorites from two different bodies of origin, have spookily similar isotopic compositions, the scientists speculate in the May 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, that they may have come from a single supernova, perhaps even the one whose explosion is thought to have triggered the formation of the solar system.

A summary of the paper will also appear in the Editors’ Choice compilation in the May 3 issue of Science magazine.

via Grains of sand from ancient supernova found in meteorites | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis.

Science… it rocks..

Sorry for the cliche… anyway, this is pretty darn awesome…

Tags: McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, SiO2, supernova
Posted in Science | No Comments »

April 16th, 2013 by Joel

Belief in Angry God and Mental Health

Analyzing a Gallup survey conducted in 2010, the researchers sought to determine how one’s perception of God — as punitive, benevolent, or indifferent — was associated with five different psychiatric symptoms: general anxiety, social anxiety, paranoia, obsession, and compulsion.

Respondents’ characterizations of God were gleaned from their opinions of how six adjectives — absolute, critical, just, punishing, severe, or wrathful — applied to God. A numbering system was used to gauge the degree to which the subject viewed the adjective as an accurate descriptor of God (very well = 4; somewhat well = 3, not very well = 2, etc.). In a similar fashion, respondents answered queries designed to measure the five aforementioned psychiatric symptoms.

via Belief in Angry God Associated with Poor Mental Health – Blog.

So… there seems to be a correlation between the person’s mental health and their view of God. Often it is said that the image a child has of his or her father is the image he or she has of God.

Anyway, I want to tuck this away for future reference…

Posted in Science | No Comments »

April 12th, 2013 by Joel

Pope Francis, Scientist

Trafny will co-host a conference focusing on adult stem cell therapies with the pharmaceutical company NeoStem at the Vatican on April 11, a project which the Vatican has partly funded.

This unusual marriage of church and biotech is a targeted public affairs initiative. The Vatican aims to use the partnership to show people there is an alternative to embryonic stem cell research – which it vehemently opposes – that doesn’t involve the destruction of human embryos.

via Vatican seeks to rebrand its relationship with science – CNN.com.

This is great, actually and glad to see this happening.

Science is not scary, folks… not at all

Tags: Pope Francis I
Posted in Science | 1 Comment »

April 8th, 2013 by Joel

Does Secular Science Lead to Better (Normative) Morals?

These studies demonstrated the morally normative effects of lay notions of science. Thinking about science leads individuals to endorse more stringent moral norms and exhibit more morally normative behavior. These studies are the first of their kind to systematically and empirically test the relationship between science and morality. The present findings speak to this question and elucidate the value-laden outcomes of the notion of science.

via PLOS ONE: Does “Science” Make You Moral? The Effects of Priming Science on Moral Judgments and Behavior.

You’ll have to read the entire study, I guess. I mean, what is normative morality? And, how does this fit into “spiritual, but not religious” science? And how does this fit into Jim’s latest post...

Inquiring minds…

What is morality? Is morality the same thing as good morals? Are morals eternal or do they change with paradigm shifts?

Like all of life on earth, and even the universe if we are to believe on particular scientist, morals do evolve…

Tags: morality
Posted in Science | No Comments »

April 5th, 2013 by Joel

In the (e)Mail: Evolving out of Eden

Thanks to the author for sending this along:

It is now beyond any scientific dispute that all life evolved by a natural process of random mutation and DNA crossover, genetic drift, horizontal gene transfer, and natural selection. We are the highly refined but happenstance products of blind experimentation carried out in a design laboratory that has been running itself for billions of years. We are first cousins to the chimpanzees, descendants not of any biblical Adam but of lumbering hairy ancestors who were making fires and hand axes in Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago. Accepting this has been especially difficult for Christianity, because evolution challenges many foundational doctrines.

Concerned believers are walking a troubled middle path between Genesis and genetics, threatened with the loss of a cherished faith on the one hand or their intellectual integrity on the other. Numerous science-savvy theologians have emerged to help them on their way, a whole cottage industry of guides working to establish their own different trails through the hostile territory outside Eden’s comforting fairyland. Writing with the combination of high criticism and low humor that fans have come to love from Robert M. Price, he and co-author Edwin A. Suominen survey the apologetic landscape and offer their own frank reckoning of evolution’s significance for Christian belief.

Tags: Edwin Suominen, Robert M. Price
Posted in Books, Science | 3 Comments »

April 4th, 2013 by Joel

More on Science and Theology – Augustine

English: augustine at the school of tagaste (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision, even in such as we may find treated in Holy Scripture, different Interpretations are sometimes possible without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such a case, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. That would be to battle not for the teaching of Holy Scripture but for our own, wishing its teaching to conform to ours, whereas we ought to wish ours to conform to that of Sacred Scripture.

I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but Augustine’s words here matter to us today because he secures for us a place for science (or, if you rather, the pursuit of truth) in examining our theology. Science can change, he admits, our interpretations and our theology. He also goes on to admonish the Christian who would profess to be wise and look rather stupid — you know, Ken Ham, Little Honey Tee Tee, T. Breeden — because he seeks to counter the settled science of the world. Augustine viewed the light of reason in this work as we must science — the great corrector or our idiocracy.

I, as a believer, see this as the goal of the Spirit who guides us into all Truth, re: John 14–16.