I remember the first time I saw her. It was a warm, sunny August day in New York City. She was petite, slender, about 3-1/2 feet tall, maybe sixty-five pounds soaking wet and in her late twenties. She wore the burdens of a hard life, suffering from arthritis at such a young age, and her appearance seemed to take you back to a different place and time. Her name was Lucy.
The name came from the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which was played repeatedly at the party the anthropological expedition threw after her discovery. Only forty percent of her skeleton could be assembled from the hundreds of bone fragments. Still, she was extraordinarily complete compared to other finds.
Lucy became an international sensation as she turned the world of anthropology upside down. Her small brain size and upright posture challenged the theory that brain size increased before man stood on two legs. Another theory on the ropes was the idea that humans evolved from knuckle-walking apes; we're now told that the opposite is true and the design of the human hand may predate that of chimps. It's believed the apes are the ones who've been evolving faster, at least in terms of locomotion.
So it goes in science: old theories are discarded as new information breeds new concepts that are often themselves superseded later on.
We see this all the time. Vitamin E was commonly prescribed until it was found to be bad for you. Cardiac stents used to be little miracles; now not so much. Cyclamates were good, then they were bad, now they're OK again. The "settled science" of global climate change that was supposedly universally endorsed by scientists is now under siege. And these are hard sciences, where data is more readily quantifiable than the soft sciences.
"Truth" produced by soft sciences like sociology, psychology and anthropology is even more mutable. Yet academics from these fields are often the most critical of Christian faith.
Science is seen as a reliable source of truth while religion is seen as dealing with unverifiable mystical beliefs that are eccentric, annoying and hopelessly out of touch with reality. But the unchanging, valid teachings of the Bible are in stark contrast to ever-changing scientific theory.
Christians get truth from consistent biblical teachings that have worked for thousands of years. But they're viewed with skepticism by others who put their faith in fluid theories, seek guidance from self-help gurus, entertain pop psychology or flail around with the New Age fad du jour.
Today, change happens so rapidly it makes your head spin. But our human need for a touchstone is constant; in fact, it's probably intensified. Fortunately the foundation we seek is provided by faith in Christ and a truth that remains unchanging.
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I can remember when I was in 5th grade we had to read a short paper from a scientist at the time who was claiming by the time I would be 40 years of age the ice age will have returned and presently West Springfield MA would be under a sheet of ice potentially thousands of feet thick (I am 48 now). Then a year later I was told that when I reached 16 years of age I most likely would not be able to drive a car because the world would be short on oil and it would be too costly for use in automobiles and the teacher wanted us to reflect how we felt about that. Then there was the old "the world is over populated" and where will I live and work when I become an adult becuase the earth will be too crowded? Science has left me very skeptical through the years about what they call "science". I had a history teacher in high school who stated it best "all science is nothing more than a collective series of theories which have yet to be disproved".
ReplyDeleteI like the teacher's comment,too. This isn't to say that science doesn't advance and learn about the natural world It's obviously given us tremendous knowledge that's transformed the world mostly for the better. But it's limited in two ways: it's a continuing process that won't lead to any ultimate understanding of life, and it has no moral component. Faith provides both.
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