A Scientist's Lament

When God drops a powerful book into your lap, you can be assured that it does not come by accident. A couple days ago I met a representative of Voice of the Martyrs who gave me a copy of "Tortured for Christ" by Richard Wurmbrand. Today I'm a bit over halfway through reading it. It's gripping, painful, revitalizing, and real. That in itself would be noteworthy.

Today I watched the worship of a beautiful house of cards. It was my role to observe and take notes on a teacher training workshop at the university. The instructor masterfully wove his tale of the discovery of geologic timescales over the last few hundred years. I've always loved the geosciences, whether meteorology or oceanography or geology. I love the amazing variety and intricacy of this earth that God has given us. But I can not love the way that science (especially geology and biology) is so often hijacked to try to tear at the fabric of Christian faith. Today's instructor was nice, entertaining, and very well prepared. The kind of guy you can't help but like. He tried to preempt any religious concerns by claiming that his issue was not who made the rocks but just when and how. Just like in the Garden, the deception builds gradually in bits and pieces, until the final result is totally at odds with the revealed Word of the Creator God who is Himself the very embodiment of truth and reality.

I knew the topic for today ahead of time, and his arguments were largely familiar. But two points hit me head-on without warning near the end. First, I can not think of any real practical scientific value in the seemingly fanatical addiction that so many geologists have in trying to date rocks. The only reason I can see for caring to show that a rock or fossil is millions of years old instead of thousands is to try to discredit the Bible. Yes, they may say that they can still believe in God (as even the demons do!). But who really wants to give their life to a God that you can't believe what He says?

Secondly, I was struck by the contrast with some of Wurmbrand's stories from Communist nations. He pointed out cases of students and uneducated workers who courageously stood up to refute atheistic arguments in university and public lectures, at a very very high price. And yet here in the sanctuary of America's Bible Belt . . . not one person (of the cream of the crop of high school science teachers) gave any public indication today that they did not buy into all they were being fed. An hour later now I still can't stop shaking or easily hold back the tears.

The truth of God's Word may seem to lack the ornamentation and popularity of the anti-Christian house of cards. But the stone blockhouse built upon the Cornerstone that was rejected on Calvary will stand long long after man's ideologies. Yes, even eternally.