Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Trusting the Bible Over Evolutionary Science

James Anderson, associate professor of theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary, has written a very good article entitled Can We Trust the Bible Over Evolutionary Science?

He gives a nice introduction the the epistemological issues involved.  Well-worth reading!  Here's the introduction to Anderson's piece to whet the appetite...
It’s no secret that one of the main reasons unbelievers give for not believing the Bible is that modern science—specifically, evolutionary science—has shown that the Bible’s account of human origins is mistaken. Indeed, evolutionary science is not merely an obstacle to unbelievers; it can also be a stumbling block for professing Christians. There are many believers desperately trying to reconcile a high view of Scripture with mainstream scientific claims about our evolutionary origins, and those who cannot do so invariably end up downgrading their doctrine of Scripture. In some cases this is just the first step in a near-complete abandonment of Christian orthodoxy. For both believers and unbelievers, the claims of evolutionary science pose a serious challenge to the trustworthiness of the Bible.
Can we trust the Bible over evolutionary science? I doubt I need to issue a “spoiler alert” before revealing that my answer to the question will be an emphatic “Yes!” Even so, much needs to be discussed before delivering that affirmative conclusion. Why can we trust the Bible over evolutionary science? On what grounds can we answer the question with a confident “Yes”? That will be the primary focus of this article. Along the way, however, I also want to say some important things about how we ought to approach this question—and similar questions about the trustworthiness of the Bible—so that readers may be better equipped to deal with this and other challenges to Scripture.