In my last three posts (the first is here), we looked at Al Mohler’s understanding of the relationship between science and Christianity. The heart of the matter is Mohler’s notion of “apparent age”—that the universe looks billions of years old but is in fact only about 6000 years old, as the Bible says. Today, we begin to look at Mohler’s views as expressed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” interview that aired on September 22, 2011. The audio and entire... Read more
In my last post we looked at one problem with Mohler’s theory that the cosmos was created to look billions of years old but is really only about 6000 years old (“apparent age”): It is an arbitrary solution that makes the facts fit the theory. Today we will look at two more problems. The world shows evidence of age and evolutionary development The world does not just show evidence of age. It also shows evidence of millions upon millions upon millions of... Read more
Al Mohler believes that God created the cosmos, including humanity, about 6000 years ago, but with “apparent age.” That means that the cosmos only looks billions of years old because God created it to look old. This is Mohler’s solution to why the earth looks so old when the Bible says it is so young. “Apparent age” allows Mohler to accept the observations of science while rejecting the interpretation of those observations by scientists. The interpretation of those observations remains... Read more
Rev. Al Mohler holds strong views on the Bible, what it means to read it correctly, and how taking the Bible seriously requires one to reject evolution. I think Mohler’s views on these matters are wrong and harmful. I first came across Mohler’s views while watching a video of a speech he gave in June 2010 at a conference sponsored by Ligonier Ministries. In that speech, Mohler warned his audience of the dire consequences of compromising their faith in Scripture’s authority... Read more
I just received my copy of Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible (Brazos) and am eager to alert interested readers about it. Smith is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at University of Notre Dame, and his book looks at evangelical views of Scripture from a sociological perspective. To summarize, Smith shows how evangelical “biblicism” (his term) crumbles under its own weight, but continues to survive because of its historical role in establishing evangelicalism’s sociological boundary markers. This is why evangelicals have had a history of bending over backwards to protect... Read more
Peter Enns
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