Christian Science

Mark Noll has written a new book; Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind. . In an interview in Christianity Today he says:

Many of the problems that have taken place in the so-called conflict between religion and science come from hasty conclusions. Right back to the Middle Ages, we have a long series of purportedly new discoveries in nature. The response by church leaders has often been, ”This can’t be possible.” Only a little while later would Christian people say, ”Here’s how it is possible.”

Neither Martin Luther nor John Calvin was at all willing to believe that the earth might move around the sun. But two generations later, all Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics agreed that in fact the earth did move around the sun. It would have been ideal for people to respond to the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo by saying, ”Well, let’s take our time and evaluate this apparent contradiction with Scripture as carefully and as patiently as possible.” What took place instead was an unnecessarily dogmatic reaction.

I’m not qualified to speak in detail about current problems. As a historian, I am qualified to say that less denunciation and more effort at patient study is the best way forward.

It is hard to express how much I agree with him. I cannot understand  why Christians of all people in the world are so hasty in denunciations and so readily get scared of scientific theories and discoveries when we should be the most harmonious and confident people in the world. If we are the children of the creator, what can we possibly fear from science?