Christ the Truth

Our culture practically worships at the altar of science. If the scientist says it, so to speak, we believe it! Unfortunately, this attitude of deference towards science leads many Christians—even some Christian theologians—to seek to accommodate the faith once for all delivered over to the saints to the prevailing scientific winds of our day. So, for instance, many have taken the alleged consequences of the human genome project to mean there was no original first pair of humans, no Adam and Eve. Instead, we are told, Adam and Eve are mere literary characters who never actually existed, nothing more than myths (albeit important ones!). But this flies in the face of historic Christian orthodoxy (as well as the view not only of St. Paul but also of Jesus Himself!); such a conclusion is, therefore, clearly untenable. In thinking about such cases—that is, cases where the latest scientific theories conflict with historic Christian orthodoxy—we do well to remember that the history of science is the history of one false theory after another. (While that may be a surprising way to put my point, a cursory look at the history of science demonstrates its truth!) If the past is any guide to the future (and, ironically, science itself depends on assuming it is!), our enthusiasm for contemporary scientific theories should be tempered by our awareness that today’s theory may well be consigned to history’s dustbin tomorrow. But Christian orthodoxy—like God Himself—is the same yesterday, today and forever more. In short, Christ Jesus—the Way, the Truth, the Life—never changes.