Naturalism: Dinosaur Skeletons in the Closet

Ask any school kid about dinosaurs (Greek:‘deinos’=terrible, ‘sauros’=lizard) and you will be impressed by their vocabulary: allosaurus, brachiosaurus, compsognathus, diplodocus, stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor. They may even explain that a giant asteroid hit earth and caused mass extinction of these ‘terrible lizards’ 65 million years ago, long before humans appeared on earth. This dinosaur-mania among children is widespread; fuelled by children’s books, movies, mechanised dinosaur performances, BBC documentaries and museum exhibits. Consistently, they all link dinosaurs to the theory of evolution and promote a naturalist* worldview that is contrary to our Christian worldview.

The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity is trying to raise funds to purchase a set of 3 diplodocus (affectionately named Apollo, Prince and Twinky for its kids-appeal). Prof. Peter Ng, director of the museum, explained why Singapore should have such an exhibit, “(The scientific advisory committee) wanted the museum to tell the story of the history of life and evolution. Dinosaurs are (part of) the history of life.”1 Two weeks later, The Straits Times featured another story with the heading “I've no God- and am proud of it”; 2 highlighting a growing number of people in Singapore who do not believe in a God and have banded together, determined to be unapologetic about being non-religious. It quoted one member saying, “The questions I had about the world, about life and death- I found my answer in science, not religion.” The group registered as the Humanist Society (Singapore) last October, calling themselves “secular humanist”, united in their rejection of a theistic or supernatural explanation of reality and prided themselves in embracing only scientific inquiry and “the indomitability of the human spirit”.

With globalisation and westernisation, Christianity in Singapore is increasingly facing the challenge of naturalism. This worldview incessantly bombards our children and youths through education, media and contemporary culture.

Naturalism claims that ‘natural causes’ alone are sufficient to explain everything that exists. It denies the existence of God or a supernatural realm.3 It attributes the origin of life to evolution. According to this theory, non-living substance gave rise to the first living material. The simple organisms reproduced, diversified and through the process of natural selection, produced all extinct and extant organisms, including humans. This random process occurred over 4.5 billion years.

This naturalist worldview leads to logical consequences: if man did not originate from God, he is not morally accountable to Him. There is no moral absolute. Abortion is a choice. Homosexuality is a right. Marriage is optional. All morality is subjective preference, reined in only by the need of law and order. If man is a product of matter, time and chance, he has no intrinsic value or meaning. Man contrives his own meaning. He has attempted to do so - from communism to capitalism, heroin to humanism, sex to science.

The life of Ernest Hemingway, one of the great novelists of the 20th century, a Nobel laureate, an existentialist* and atheist, is one such example. Hemingway’s life credo described the logical conclusion of the naturalist worldview: “Life is just a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness to nothingness. There is no remedy for anything in life. Man’s destiny in the universe is like a colony of ants on a burning log.” To give meaning to that nothingness, Hemingway set out to experience life to the hilt. Then at age 61, after a life of notoriety as big-game hunter, adventurer and womaniser, Hemingway deliberately embraced death. He could no longer prove that he was the master of his own fate by his daredevil adventures or self indulgent lifestyle, but he could prove it by controlling the time and means of his own death.3 He committed suicide by shooting himself through the mouth with his favourite gun on 2 July 1961.

There are the skeletons (of dinosaur proportions) in the closet of naturalism. Yet naturalism claims science as its authority and uses science as its proxy against Christianity. Naturalism is portrayed as reality, facts and rational; while Christianity is relegated to the realm of values, subjectivity and even superstitions. In truth, naturalist scientists have chosen to restrict, a priori, the observable facts of the world to ‘natural causes’ (by which they mean excluding God). This bias leaves them with no alternatives but to appeal to evolution, no matter how unreasonable it may be. Evolution has been challenged by Christians and non-Christians4. It is an unproven theory and lacks scientific, statistical and philosophical evidences for its claims.5,6 The many controversies surrounding evolution have prompted scientists to propose other novel theory of origin of life.

Francis Crick, Nobel laureate of DNA fame, proposed that life on earth may have sprung from tiny organism from distant planet- sent here by spaceship as part of a deliberate act of seeding! This bizarre theory is called “directed panspermia.”7 He is not alone with this fantastical speculation. Variations of “panspermia” have been proposed by scientists from different renowned universities.8 Scientists view the world from their chosen perspective. They wear “spectacles behind their eyes.”9 This explains why naturalist scientists are willing to accept even the most absurd theories, so long as it does not require them to believe in God.

Our battle is not with science. The Scripture is inerrant. Scientific facts are dynamic. When the Bible is interpreted correctly and scientific facts are appropriately evaluated, there will be “No Final Conflict”.10 The battle is for the mind, a worldview. We are commanded to “love the Lord your God....with all your mind” (Lk10:27). This is a mind so controlled by the Word of God that it changes our whole outlook on ourselves, our family, our friends, our society, our country and the world. This outlook is reflected not only in personal piety, corporate worship and works of charity but also onto the totality of life and reality which includes science, education, economics, culture and politics. With a Christian worldview the ‘terrible lizards’ can be ‘missionary lizards’, a bridge through which we explain the magnificence of the Creator, the fall of man and God’s redemption. I hope to have the dinosaurs in Singapore. Tonight, I made a donation to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity at http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/dino

*Glossary

naturalist - a person who adopts philosophical naturalism

existentialism – the theory that humans are free and responsible for their own actions in a world without meaning

 

References:

1. Tan Dawn Wei. The Sunday Times, 10 July 2011

2. Yen Feng. The Straits Times, 23 July 2011

3. Charles Colson. How now shall we live? (Tyndale House Publishers,1999) p.20, p.260

4. Michael Denton. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Adler &Adler,1986)

5. Philip E Johnson. Darwin on Trial (InterVarsity Press,1991)

6. Robert E Kofahl. The Creation Explanation: A Scientific Alternative to Evolution (Harold Shaw,1975)

7. FHC Crick, LE Origel. Directed Panspermia. Icarus 19 (1973):341-346

8. J Madeleine Nash. Was the cosmos seeded with life? Time, Aug 19, 1996

9. N R Hanson. Perception and Discovery: An introduction to Scientific Inquiry. (Freeman, Cooper & Co 1969)

10.Francis Schaeffer. No Final Conflict (InterVarsity Press, 1975)

Note: ST Wed., 7 Sep 2011.The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity has since secured the purchase of the dinosaurs, thanks to the last-minute multimillion dollar donation from a mystery donor.

                                       

                    

Seven Days to Live

Article condensed from Seven Days to Live. What can we learn from Jesus' last week on earth? by Bill Hybels, which first appeared in Today's Christian Woman. March/April 1999,Vol 21 No2 pg64

What if you knew you had only one week to live?

Passion Week—the last week of Jesus' life, before he faced a criminal's execution on a cross—was an extraordinary week. Jesus knew he was going to die in seven days. He knew it would be an excruciatingly painful death. But there's much we can learn from what Jesus taught and from how he acted in the week preceding Easter Sunday.

Saturday
The weekend before his death, Jesus stayed at the home of three of his closest friends in the small town of Bethany, about two miles outside Jerusalem. These people weren't among his 12 disciples; they were personal friends—Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Jesus chose to spend his last days of freedom with them.

Throughout Jesus' teaching ministry, he emphasizes the importance of community. Jesus continually told all who would listen, "You were created for community with God and others. You were created with a yearning to know and be known, to love and be loved, to serve and be served, to celebrate and be celebrated."

Have you found this kind of community in your life? It's more than good relationships with your family. You need an inner circle of friends who are fellow believers—just as Jesus had—with whom you can be honest, with whom you can "do life" together.

Sunday
On Palm Sunday—six days before Jesus' death—people lined the streets, waving palms as he entered Jerusalem. Jesus' popularity was at an all-time high; his teaching had astonishing power. Jesus had changed people's hearts and healed them physically. He'd even recently brought someone back from the dead! By far, Jesus was one of the most popular people in the entire Middle East.

But everyone who lined the streets had a different reason for waving those palms. Some were political activists; they'd heard Jesus had supernatural power, and they wanted him to use it to free Israel from Roman rule. Others had loved ones who were sick or dying. They waved branches, hoping for physical healing. Some were onlookers merely looking for something to do, while others were genuine followers who wished Jesus would establish himself as an earthly king. Jesus was the only one in the parade who knew why he was going to Jerusalem—to die. He had a mission, while everyone else had an agenda.

Monday
On this day, Jesus did something that shocked people. Jesus came into the temple and saw all the little arcades set up for commercial business. He overturned the merchants' tables and kicked them out of the temple.

Why did Jesus act with such passion? Because he saw worship at the temple in Jerusalem going awry. Jesus knew he had to straighten out the situation before he died, was resurrected, and returned to heaven. The message of his transforming power was going to be left in the hands of worshiping communities. Jesus couldn't afford to have any church get distracted and caught up in questionable activities. They alone would possess the message that would change the world. Jesus sent a signal: Don't get sidetracked. Stay on target. Stay on the mission of spreading God's love.

Tuesday
Jesus taught from early morning till late at night. When the sun went down on Tuesday, his earthly teaching was done. As dusk approached, Jesus taught the Parable of the Talents. In those final moments before his teaching ministry came to an end, he told his listeners, in essence, "You have one life. That's it. Some of you have all kinds of gifts and abilities; some of you have less. But don't squander the one and only life God's given you; do something noble and great with it." How poignant it is that as Jesus talked about this, he knew his life was almost over.

Wednesday
Most scholars believe this was a day of solitude for Jesus. He was doing the most important thing he could—getting alone with God. As he quieted himself, he heard the still small whisper of his Father say, "You're on a mission, and it's going to be difficult, but I'm asking you to endure. I'll be with you."

We live in a culture that no longer values solitude. We go from one meeting to the next, one deadline to the next, one activity to the next. Too often we fail to quiet ourselves enough to hear what God would say to us—if only we were listening.

Thursday
This day, Jesus took a normal Passover meal and changed it forever. All the arrangements had been made, but then the foot-washer didn't show up! The disciples came to dinner with dusty feet, and stood around asking who messed up the arrangements. It never dawned on them that maybe one of them could humble himself to do that for anybody else.

Jesus came, took off his robe, put a towel over his arm, filled a basin with water, then knelt down and started washing the disciples' feet. They couldn't believe it! The Son of God, the Savior of the world—and he had the humility to wash their feet.

In today's words, here's the lesson: True fulfillment never comes from a life of self-gratification. The way to the top in God's economy is through serving. It's finding God's mission for your life and engaging in it. It's finding people you can humbly serve in daily, down-to-earth ways. And when you find God's purpose for your life and pursue it in a spirit of humility and servanthood, your heart spills over with love and gratefulness.

Friday
On Friday, Jesus voluntarily submitted to be nailed to a cross.

The Bible says at noon the skies got dark. There was an earthquake. The temple veil was torn. People suddenly realized that when Jesus cried out, "It is finished," and then died, he was no ordinary man. Jesus was taken from the cross, prepared for burial, and put in a tomb.

Thankfully, the story doesn't end there. But what follows next—Saturday—is most difficult of all, because it's the day between the promise and the fulfillment of the promise. Jesus had predicted he'd be crucified, and that he'd rise from the dead. He was dead all right. But would he come back?

On Sunday, Jesus burst forth from the tomb exactly as he'd predicted. The guards at the tomb saw him, went back to tell the officials, "He's alive!" and were paid to keep quiet about it. Jesus appeared to more than 500 people—cynics as well as believers—before he ascended into heaven. There was no question about whether or not Jesus was resurrected. With his resurrection, Jesus proved he is the Son of God.