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Evolution, Creation and Heliocentrism

Creation and the Theory of Evolution certainly does spark passionate debate. Let me list two examples from today:

A $1000.00 check is being offered to the first person who can prove that the earth revolves around the sun. Catholic Apologetics International is holding the contest. In doing this they are reopening the science vs. the Bible debate regarding the Bible’s many references to the sun revolving around the earth. Here is a short clip:

If Scripture can be dismissed by claiming that it is mostly a collection of myths and fables from ignorant and primitive people; and if the Church can be faulted for siding with an aberrant view of cosmology; then modern man thinks he has found the ultimate excuse for relieving himself of being bound by either Scripture or the Church.
That is not all. If one examines the so-called "scientific proofs" for either Evolution or Heliocentrism, the proofs simply do not exist. Yet modern man, so desperate to find his excuses, has turned mere theories into "facts," and has thereby convinced the world that IT, not the Church or Scripture, is the king of truth.

I ask this question - can one challenge the theory of evolution using Genesis 1 - 2, and still accept science’s judgement that the earth revolves around the sun? This is the kind of emotional debate that brings us back to Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith - The Authority, Inerrancy, Infallibility, and Sufficiency of Scripture. What we learned from Chapter 1, is that the answer to the above question is Yes and No.

The second example today is the celebration of Evolution Sunday by a number of churches - including one in my hometown (United Methodist Church of Sudbury). They are celebrating the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.

On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of denominations will come together to discuss the compatibility of religion and science. For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science. More than 10,000 Christian clergy have already signed The Clergy Letter demonstrating that this is a false dichotomy.

Praise God that we can gather on this same Sunday and offer worship and praise to the one and only Triune God who created the universe.

What is the work of creation?
The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good. - Westminster Shorter Catechism

Posted by Christine at February 10, 2006 10:35 AM