Image of news story as linked in Facebook. Story from foxnews.com
Yesterday a news story was released about a mass grave of human relatives found in South Africa. Scientists are saying this is a brand new species of human that we have never seen before.
Fox News reports “The species’ brains were a third of the size of today’s humans but they stood like us, and had similar feet and hands, although their fingers were elegantly curved. This new species, Berger said, should be placed as an early humanoid just before the time of homo sapiens. The species could date back as far as 2.8 million years, according to experts.”
Another very interesting aspect to this story is that of a burial chamber, “’This is a new species of human that deliberately disposed of bodies in this chamber,” Said Professor Lee Berger. “Now, with Homo Naledi, we have evidence of the world’s first burial site” he added.
How to do we, as Christians, respond to such new stories and discoveries?
In general, I think we have 2 options. We choose to keep science and theology separate or we can allow our worldview to embrace both. The latter can prove challenging for some people as science and theology seem to constantly contradict.
A Christian Worldview
Before moving forward and looking at both options I think its really important to establish what a worldview is and, more importantly, why having a “Christian Worldview” is critical. In short, a worldview is simply defined by Webster as, “the way someone thinks about the world”. Basically, it’s a philosophy on how we interpret and understand our reality.
You have a worldview even if you don’t realize it. It may be changing and developing but something is there. Even my 7 week old son has a worldview that is very scoped to his mother and nursing. His understanding of the world and how it operates is directly tied to eating and sleeping. At this point, his entire world revolves around basic human needs. Everyone understands life through some sort of lens.
A good starting point to understand your worldview would be to ask yourself these questions:
- What are humans?
- How did we get here?
- Does God exist?
- What is my purpose in life?
- Where do I get my morals?
- Why is there suffering in the world?
- Where did these ideas come from?
For many people we adopt our parents worldview until we reach the age range of 18-25 and we start answering some of these questions for ourselves. I think that’s why we see college kids leave the Christian faith they were raised on so much. Because up until that point they just adopted the worldview of their parents. But in the 18-25 year old range our brains develop such that we starting making our own decisions about life and reality.
This is important because how we interpret the world and life around us will dictate how live, what we do, what we don’t do, what we say, who we marry, what job we have, etc… Its huge. As faithful Christians we have to recognize that our faith shapes most of our worldview. It defines who we are.
With this in mind, let’s look a little closer at our 2 general options when Christians are confronted with things like scientific evolution discoveries.
Option 1) Separating Science From Theology
I am reminded of the TV Show “Lost”. You have Jack, a man of science, and Locke, a man of faith. The two just can’t seem to get along. Each has its own way and each claims theirs is better for various reasons. (Great show, by the way, up until season 4)
A common response with this mindset might sound something like this, “I don’t really feel the need to argue against every discovery related to the evolution of human beings. Let science be science and theology be theology. I believe the bible and that’s all.”
I get this. It’s an attractive option to keep the two separate and move on with life. The problem here is that this logic is flawed. You can’t ignore it completely. You will be forced at some point to reconcile the two. Because discoveries like the one mentioned in this article rub against the grain of historic Christianity. Does this discovery in the article mentioned above confirm evolution? If we are evolved what about Adam and Eve, did God create them?
It’s a natural string of questions that can seemingly unravel the first several chapters of the bible and, in turn, a Christian worldview. If you can’t trust a foundational aspect to Christianity, namely how we got here, how can I trust everything else?
Operating with this mindset finds it’s roots all the way back to Plato. Platonic presuppositions look at reality in two worlds – the supernatural and the physical. The two are clearly divided. The bible , however, never separates the two. Everything spiritual in scripture is happening to physical people who lived a in a certain place in a certain time. In other words, the faith and science are blended together.
A couple hundred years ago news stories like the one above could largely be ignored or over-looked. But, with the extent of rapid communication and spreading of ideas, Christians are forced to evaluate their worldview almost daily.
Option 2) Blending Science and Theology in a Christian Worldview
Title Photo Attribution: “Hands and Feet” by John St John; CC 2.0
There are several ways people do this. Some don’t ignore science but just reject it altogether and claim science to be a bunch of lies. Some of these people even refuse to go to doctors. Others change their understanding of scripture to be much more figurative than literal, thus, finding ways to let science fill in the gaps of scripture. Some may have a hybrid model by which they intertwine the two.
I think we need to not jump to any conclusions. Scientific discoveries are made all the time and frequently contradict what science believed previously. This is not a knock against science or the scientific process. We are still figuring things out and that’s OK. There are creatures being found constantly that a year before we had no idea existed. One scientific discovery should not be enough to force anyone radically adopt or change their worldview.
As Christians, we need to acknowledge that we believe an incredible story of supernatural events. If we deny the supernatural we deny God Himself.
Really, if you think about it what we do is kind of loony. Think about this statement, we base our reality and purpose in life on the claims of an invisible being who communicates to us. His name is Jesus. If we replace Jesus with a normal name like, Rob – we are quickly being shipped to a mental facility. We believe crazy things and we don’t understand all of them. That’s OK.
So, let’s not jump to conclusions as science makes discoveries and announces new theories. Even in the article linked above a scientist is quoted as saying history will need to be rewritten. New discoveries and insight constantly remind scientists of what we don’t fully understand.
It’s probably worth addressing what is known as evolutionary theory. First it is what it says it is, a theory. But it is also a worldview. Darwinism encompasses not just scientific ideas related to how life evolves but it also includes a number of other assumptions that go far beyond what you might consider factual science. It addresses the meaning of life and the belief in a higher power. It address morality and the question of good and evil. It’s much more than just – “this bird grew a beak to survive in its conditions therefore evolution is true.” Darwinism replaces the truth of God with a lie (Romans 1:15).
I have complete faith that over time science will overwhelmingly support the claims of scripture. Sometimes fitting science into a Christian worldview is to have faith label it as supernatural. Be patient and give scientists time to reconcile faith and science. They will. When all is said and done science will align all of it’s ideas and theories with scripture. It will show over and over again how God, and testimony of scripture, is true. This doesn’t mean we can just ignore whats happening around us. We need to listen and evaluate. We can dismiss what we see in the news but we need to do so with a well thought-out Christian worldview.
For Skeptics
For those who might be reading this that really struggle with evolutionary theory and have doubts on Christianity because of it. I encourage you to recognize that scientific thought is constantly changing and developing. The scientific worldview is vastly different than it was roughly 2 lifetimes ago. Think about what your great-great-great grandfather thought of the world. How different is that than now? This process of scientific discovery will still be going on years after you die. It’s narrow-minded to make absolutes with the very limited information we have regarding science.
Instead, I encourage you to deal with the person of Jesus. Consider His claims about reality. Everyone is forced to categorize Him in some way – like science He cannot be ignored. he claims are too big and too radical to be ignored. Study what He says about Himself, morals and sin; see if it lines up with what you see in the world today.
Jesus is not scared of your skepticism or your science.
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