Creationism/Evolutionism

The last couple of days I've read a couple of articles about the right wing Christians in the US who seems to be all too certain about what's right and what's wrong. I just read this article about how Kansas is now changing the way they teach the origin of life in schools.

Let me say a few words about my own standpoint. I'm a scientist and I'm a Christian. I don't think there is a conflict between Christianity and science. However, many people act like there were or the try to create a conflict. The conflict is between some Christians and some scientists. Both Christianity and science is about the truth. Because of the way science go about unraveling the truth and the way that the Bible is interpreted Christians and scientists don't always agree on what the truth is. As for me I am first and foremost a Christian. When there is a discrepancy between the two views I choose the Christian version. This is because I have found that the Bible is trustworthy. God exist and the Bible is accurate in describing him. Also, as a scientist I have found that science never holds the final truth. It often varies as new data comes to light and challenges old theories. Don't get me wrong. I am a scientist, I very much believe in the scientific way of scrutinizing things. But I also know that scientists are also humans and that as our ways of examining our world get more refined we learn new things and have to revise our current standpoint. I find God more reliable.

So I am what people would call a creationist. That's a word which has a really bad ring to it among scientists. But I'm not anti-evolutionist. Rather I'm somewhat skeptic to the theory that life as we see it today has evolved the way contemporary scientists claim. I'm not alien to the idea, I'm just skeptic because I don't find the arguments very convincing. In fact, I think it looks like the evolution theory is cracking up. It has been patched in the last twenty years or so. When scientists starts to patch a theory to fit with the data it's a sure sign something is wrong. So my bets are that there are better theories around the corner. I guess you could call me pro-truth.

I think that the story that the Bible tells about how God created heaven and earth is complementary to the answers we seek as scientists about how the creation went about. The Bible is not very specific with the details. These details are for the scientists to discover. That's how I deal with being both a scientist and a Christian.

But all these things I'm reading about right wing Christians in the US makes me sad. They give truth a bad name. They put forward alternative "scientific" theories which aren't scientific at all. They don't seem to have any interest in arriving at the truth other than to postulate it. I don't see how this can be good for anyone. If God exist and the Bible is true then it shouldn't be any problem with arguing for it. There is nothing to be afraid of. Christianity can stand up against scientific scrutiny because it's about the truth.

I have much more to say but it gets outside the topic of this particular posting. I'll make sure to return to it. Also, it's late and I really need to sleep.