As the report phrases it, science and religion deal with two different kinds of human \u201cexperience.\u201d There is the experience which can be validated as fact (science), and there is the experience that can only be embraced in faith (religion). So believe what you want about God \u2013 that is your prerogative \u2013 just don\u2019t treat it like you would a scientific reality.<\/p>\n
It is to be granted that modern science is based on empirical evidence and testable explanation. One cannot put God in a test-tube and determine His existence. But there is more at hand here than science doing its job, and knowing its limitations in regard to matters of faith. It is about limiting what religion can say about science. The working idea is that we can maintain our religious faith and our scientific discoveries not by seeing both as operating in the realm of public truth \u2013 to be jointly engaged and interpreted accordingly \u2013 but by seeing them as separate categories altogether that should never be allowed to intertwine. If you wish to believe in God, fine; just don\u2019t posit that this God actually exists as Creator, or that He could actually be pulled out to explain anything.<\/p>\n
As Ronald Numbers has written, \u201cNothing has come to characterize modern science more than its rejection of appeals to God in explaining the workings of nature.\u201d Hence the report\u2019s categorical rejection of any and all forms of creationism, including intelligent design \u2013 calling such positions devoid of evidence, \u201cdisproven\u201d or \u201csimply false.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I couldn\u2019t have put it better myself! But what\u2019s that you\u2019re saying? Pastor White doesn\u2019t actually approve? This is supposed to be a criticism, and this is a negative review? How remarkable\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pastor James Emery White, Senior Pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church as well as Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, has been reading the recent NAS report on Science, Evolution and Creationism. He\u2019s been looking at the contentious section on the relationship between science and religion and, remarkably, does a rather good job of summing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>Pastor James Emery White<\/a>, Senior Pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church as well as Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary<\/a>, has been reading the recent NAS report<\/a> on Science, Evolution and Creationism<\/span>. He\u2019s been looking at the contentious section on the relationship between science and religion and, remarkably, does a rather good job of summing up the implications.<\/p>\n