If you think that Christians are anti-science, then consider this. Who is most opposed to nuclear power, automotive research, nanotechnology and genetically modified foods? Environmentalists and other secular luddites. Show me the major conservative Christian group that is afraid of any research except in areas that modify what it means to be human. I'm serious, show me where there is a general trend away from technology among Christians because I can show you plenty of examples where secular and neo-pagan environmentalists have gone absolutely insane over research and development of technologies they barely understand.
Those of you who think that we're all frothing at the mouth lunatics who hear evolution and screach in terror, rather than smirk at it, need to get out a little more. I am a software developer and I've known many Christians in other fields such as Physics, Chemistry and Math. There's nothing religious about genetics, quantum theory, Von Neumann machines, Calculus or the vast majority of scientific and engineering pursuits.
It really is a big and complex world out there. So look at Christianity again, but this time don't get your knowledge of it off of sugar packets like Grandpa Simpson got his history education. You might be horrified to find out that Christians are just as diverse as the rest of the country. Forget what you think you know about us because we're only 11% of the population.
Technorati tags: Christianity, Science, Engineering, Luddite.
Just because a person chooses not to take the words in the Bible literally, that doesn't mean that person isn't Christian. Why would God give you a mind if he intended to hand you all the answers anyway?
The Bible is just one more source of human wisdom. Each of its 66 books was written by a human being, or a group of them (e.g. the Old Testament. All the stories in the Old Testament were originally passed down through pre-literate Jewish culture). The books that made it into the Bible were selected by a committee of clergymen (and clergy are people, too!). The Bible is a human text. It should be taken seriously, but it's not the sole source of wisdom you seem to be making it out to be.
As for "smirking at" evolution on the basis of said 1500 year old book, I don't know why you would if you take science seriously. Or does evolution "change what it means to be human"?
Lucas, it's not about taking the Bible always literally, but a question of do you believe that in one form or another, the entire Bible is true? Now, somethings you have to take literally to be a Christian like you have to take Jesus' ministry literally, though not his parables. If you believe that Jesus Christ was something other than the Son of God, died for the remission of sins and was resurrected three days later.
My point in the previous post was that the Bible is the only legitimate and true source of moral and spiritual truth for Christians. It's nothing more than that and a history of the covenant between God and his people.
Science is also a lot more than evolution. There are a lot of scientists these days that are shying away from it. Part of the reason I laugh at evolutionists is that, let's assume it is true, it doesn't deny creationism. Only abiogenesis does that. Species only change by the sovereign will of God. The only people who find at least microevolution to be faith-shattering are those that haven't read the Bible enough to understand God's sovereignty.
In one sense, though, evolution does affect what it means to be human. Blacks were treated far worse during the Progressive Era of the United States, with its "scientific" outlook on everything than at any of the prior religious eras of American history. Significantly worse. Most of the crap that came to a head in the 50s and 60s started during that time. Evolution as a theory has a tendency to devalue human life in the eyes of a subset of people the way that no other theory has ever done.
I believe the Bible points to the truth.
John 5:39-44