A Topic Worth Following

If you've not been following the findings of different matter in fossilized dinosaur bones that couldn't possibly be as old as old earth scientists claim then it is something to watch closely. Here is a link to a very recent (and ongoing) part of that battle. It is well, well worth reading! The link is from FOX news, but it is written about in many other places as well. It is:

Scientist Claims California University Fired Him Over Creationist Beliefs

As you read the article it should be a strong reminder of something that I've talked about a lot—our worldview matters! We will begin our study, our processing of new information and events, etc., from the starting point of our world view. This world view is made up of the presuppositions we hold—those things we presuppose or assume or believe to be true. At the core they begin with what we believe about God. (Is He real? What is His character and nature? Is He active in our life? Etc.). They move to what we believe to be true about truth. (Is there absolute truth? What is its source? What do we believe about the Bible? Etc.) Then onward from there . . .

It is imperative that we begin with an accurate world view. If, for example, we don't recognize a spiritual realm that interacts with us then, based on what the Bible says (which I believe to be true) we will miss our real enemy, we will not recognize some things that the enemy is doing as works of the enemy, etc. For example, imagine how someone without room to recognize demonization would have treated the man in the tombs with the legion of demons that Jesus encountered. They'd medicate him into a stupor when his issue wasn't medical.

We can't help but process our world from the starting point of our world view, because we process our world from what we believe to be true about it. So, if you begin with a "no God" belief, or the belief that the earth must be vast ages of time old, then you are going to stretch and twist evidence to the contrary to fit your belief. That is one of the reasons that geology for so many decades practically labeled heretical any reference to catastrophes in nature (because it hit too close to the "flood" issue). But now, finally, geology is recognizing the major role of catastrophes in shaping the earth as we know it today.

That is also the reason that these finds of things in dino bones that couldn't last the ages of time they are claimed to be are causing such a ruckus. Because . . . if we are finding things in bones that could only be a few thousand years old . . . and we can't embrace a young earth . . . then we are going to desperately fight to find some other explanation. And, if you vehemently oppose God being a part of anything, then you will vehemently oppose anyone who might bring news that might include God. The result is that we force the evidence to fit our world view rather then draw our world view from the evidence.

Do young earth Creationists like myself do the same thing? At some level, absolutely. We start with a world view that the Bible is true, literal, etc. We look at the genealogies and other dates and date ranges and we determine that the Bible says the earth is around 6,000+ years old. Then, from this world view, we look at the evidence around us and see that for the most part it fits our world view nicely (much better, we believe, then the evidence supports an old earth). Do we have all the answers? No. Does everything fit our model perfectly? No. But it is impossible to escape a world view as the dominate influence on our perceptions.