Dear Bob,
The difference is that the study of the natural world around us yields results which can be reproduced time and time again (iiregardless of spiritual maturity) verse faith in God and scripture which often times cannot be proven let alone reproduced.
The proof is in the pudding. Planes, computers, satellites, rockets that fly past pluto, eradication of the polio virus, women living through child birth as opposed to many of them dying in it, development of antibiotics... etc.. etc... if science were wrong then all these things and more, think of the radio, cell phones, gps, refrigerators, microwaves, cars, sky scrappers, etc... none of those things would work! And yet they do! They are all created using fundamental scientific principles and knowledge (biology, physics, math, chemistry, etc... etc..) of the natural universe. Its this very same science which used its acquired knowledge over generations of study to calculate the age of the earth and the overwhelming evidence is that it is very, very, very old.
It doesnt take the spirit of God to understand the natural world and judging by the current progress the scientific community has made, testified to by their many innovations, i think its safe to say they know what they are doing.
When it comes to spiritual matters, because the carnal mind receives not the things of God for they are foolishness to him, then yes, I agree, skepticism is healthy but the age of the earth is not a spiritual matter and there is zero scripture that supports a young earth theory or literal creation days. Ultimately, our striving through the narrow gate hinges zero percent on our understanding of the age of the earth and hence why understanding its age is purely a carnal endeavor. The problem is that the church has made it into an issue and created a stumbling block out of it for the vast majority of people when it shouldn't be.
Sincerely,
Alex
Alex,
You touched on something that I think is significant. Science relies on proof - hard, material, repeatable, measurements. We, on the other hand, rely on faith, given to us by the One who created what the scientists are forever measuring. They're at a disadvantage because they draw on something that has limitations.
For example, take the quark - at this point as small as it gets - but science realizes and allows that it doesn't mean there isn't something smaller. They're open to new truths but those truths will always be physical. They're just limited by what's observable. They can never transcend the physical and grasp the spiritual. They don't recognize "first the physical" because for science there is only the physical.
In a sense (or maybe more so) it's a model of the Scriptures. I would compare science to the religion of the church, reliant on nothing more than dogma, sans incontrovertible truth. Science can only measure against previous findings or explore new ideas. They establish a baseline - set by "them" - as they observe, then test, hypothesize, prove to their satisfaction, write papers, and continue studying.
I don't mean to say that science is bad - I love science - it's fascinating when new discoveries are made and old ideas are discarded. It's truly amazing to me what science is able to do by the grace of God. But science doesn't realize that God is showing them what they're discovering. I think that's irony (in a good way.) Science will only, ever, understand what God allows. But on the same hand God is exersizing our incredibly intricate brain by giving us mysteries to solve. The universe is comically large. Who can comprehend it? The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know. I believe that God wants to stretch our imagination and He provides the means.
But in my analogy of the church/religion and science, they are the physical, never comprehending the spiritual, while we can embrace the spiritual, and have an understanding of the physical at the same time, because that was our path - first the physical, then the spiritual. We have an advantage - faith given to us by God. We can comprehend the physical but we know the it was created by Spirit. Science doesn't have that, as their focus is just on the physical. Science is blind to the spiritual and relies on the physical, just as the religious church does.
We, on the other hand, can understand science - the physical - as well as the spiritual, and see how those work together.
I think I wrote way more than I intended. My original thought was that everything in the universe is modeled after our creator or maybe more accurately it has a consistent pattern as designed by God. For instance subatomic particles closely resemble the macro universe, by design. It's all perfection.
The significance of our blessing is not lost on me. God dragged us to the Truth, we are free from bondage, and know of Gods glorious plan for the salvation of all mankind.
Science has beakers...
Jeff