The Bible, Science, and Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience has an iron grip on large parts of the Christian community. The people in these various camps will find it next to impossible to engage with intelligent, educated people to any real degree. They'll be laughed off, and they're deluded enough to think they're being persecuted for the Lord's sake. Meanwhile, they accuse Christians who reject their interpretations of being "compromisers" and agents of deception.

I well remember the time when a lady tried telling me that dinosaur bones were a satanic deception. She was completely serious and was actually angry that I believed otherwise. I was a small child at the time, and remember that I just nodded compliantly in response, hoping to put some much-needed space between me and the big, angry lady as quickly as possible.

The Bible is not a science book. It was written to, and by, ancient peoples who didn't know even a fraction of what we know today, and it often employs poetic language that should not be interpreted literally or as some kind of scientific commentary.

For instance, Psalm 104:5 says that God "set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Some have taken this to mean that the modern understanding that the Earth rotates on its axis and orbits the Sun must be false (another alleged NASA hoax). It must be remembered, however, that the psalmist did not understand the "earth" in the sense that we do, that is, of its being a planet. The term is probably better translated "land," as this is what the ancients knew (and, often in scripture, "the land" refers to the limited area in which particular events are taking place, rather than all land everywhere). To the ancients' way of thinking, the land, the sky, and the sea all had their designated "places" in the scope of creation. That's what the psalmist is talking about here: how all things are subject to the order God has established in creation rather than being in some kind of chaotic flux. This certainly conforms to what we have learned by the scientific method (and particularly so within the lifetime of human beings), but it should not be taken as an exhaustive commentary on the composition of our planet.

Even those passages where God himself speaks of what he has made should not be taken as necessarily literal or precise. God used simple terms to communicate with people of simple understanding, and he often used poetic comparisons, just as we do today when explaining things to children. When my six-year-old son tells me, "Look, Daddy! The sun's going down!", I don't subject him to a lesson in cosmology. He has some growing up to do before we get into all of that, just as the human race has had some growing up to do in terms of its understanding of the universe.


* Image courtesy of NASA.

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Response to Tim Kaine on Genesis and Gay Marriage

The following is a video I made back in September but somehow forgot to include on my blog at that time.

In his keynote address at the 2016 Human Rights Commission's dinner, former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine stated that religious attitudes on gay marriage will eventually change because, in the first chapter of Genesis, God pronounced his creation of mankind "very good." Mr. Kaine's comments demonstrate an appalling lack of biblical literacy, to say nothing of a lack of critical thinking skills. He has taken the practice of twisting scripture in the name of promoting a socio-political agenda to a whole new level of ridiculousness.

Podcast - Is There Anyone Out There?

My inaugural podcast will deal with the following questions:

With regard to the recent discovers of liquid water on Mars and near-earth-sized exoplanets, are we really on the verge of discovering extraterrestrial life? If we do discover such life, what impact will that have on questions related to the existence of God and atheistic Darwinism? Would alien life prove that there is no God? What, if anything, does the Bible say about alien life? Is there any reason to believe that life can come from lifelessness?

Check out the program here:



Let me know what you think and if you would like me to address any specific issues in upcoming programs.

Music track: "Psalm 131," by Ron and Patti Valiant of scripturesongs.com. Check out their website for free music samples and products available for purchase. Also see godlychristianmusic.com for more by the Valiants and a host of other Christian artists.

Broken and Poured Out, but not Wasted

"And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, 'Why was this fragrant oil wasted?'" - Mark 14:3

"Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” - John 12:3-4

Do you wonder where your gifts lie? Where it is that God's "anointing" rests upon you? Then I would ask you: "Where have you been broken?" The alabaster flask that Mary brought to the Lord contained something very precious; indeed, a "costly" oil, the scriptures say; and as John tells us, everyone in the house was blessed with the fragrance of that oil. But the blessing did not come until the flask was broken and the oil was poured out. 

Where have you been broken? Where have you been wounded? Where are you being poured out? Some would say that your brokenness represents a waste, a waste of years, a waste of talent, a waste of life, a waste of what might have been used for other things: things more appropriate in the sight of men. It's more than likely that you feel this way yourself, when you look back on the years of your life. Your brokenness has cost you much, more than anyone other than the Lord Himself can understand. But it is in that very brokenness that the oil - that which has cost you so much - is poured forth, and all around you may be blessed by its fragrance. 

How long did Jesus carry the scent of the oil that Mary poured out on Him? The fragrance that filled the air in Simon's house ("Simon the leper," mind you; one who was known for a dreaded disease) must have lingered on Jesus for quite some time afterward. Anyone near Him would have smelled it. He carried with Him something beautiful: a fragrance that would have blessed anyone around Him and drawn their attention to Him.

Whatever has broken you, whatever regrets and shames you may carry, however much they may have cost you, and however the voices around you may accuse you of waste, all of this is a precious oil, which, when poured out from you, anoints the Savior's head and feet, blessing the world as it draws all to Him. It perfumes the air, calling the wounded, the hurting, the dying, to the one who gives rest, and upon whom nothing that is poured out is ever wasted, no matter what men in their pretended wisdom may think.

- picture credit, unknown
- scriptures taken from the New King James Version