The Scientific & Religious
Obscurantism is Alive & Well
by Nic Samojluk
What did the defenders of religion do when Galileo publicized the Copernican discovery that the earth was not the center of the universe and that the earth rotated around the sun? They opted to dismiss the scientific evidence. They knew that it was the sun that circled around the earth because there were numerous Biblical references to "sunrise" and "sunset," which was in agreement with the long-term popular belief that it was the sun and not the earth that moved. I call this refusal to consider the compelling scientific evidence Religious Obscurantism.
Is it possible for Post Enlightenment scholars and scientists to fall into the same trap? Consider the following: If scientists are really objectively searching to discover the truth about origins, wouldn't they consider all options, including the possibility that our universe is the result of careful design? Common sense dictates that we need to keep an open mind; yet most scientists dealing with the problem of origins discount the design alternative as not deserving any consideration. I call this attitude Scientific Obscurantism.
The recent leading article published by the National Geographic magazine titled Were the Darwinists Wrong? purposely omitted al reference to the many scholarly publications dealing with this alternative explanation for the origin of our universe, as if the Intelligent Design movement didn't even exist. This is evidence of scientific obscurantism, I believe!
In which of these two categories shall we place our own church which sponsors the Geoscience Research Institute, but has declared that, regardless of any scientific evidence to the contrary, SDA scientists are expected to support the notion that life on our planet cannot have existed for more than six to ten thousand years? If this is the case, then perhaps the Geoscience Research Institute is a missnomer, since the scientists working in that institution must ignore any evidence suggesting that life on earth might be older that the assigned age to life on earth by the church. I am indebted to Bryan Bull for this idea. Nevertheless, do not blame him for the way I have phrased it.
Note: After reviewing the above comment written by me many years ago about the Geoscience Research Institute, I have concluded that my knowledge about the people working there was slightly limited, which means that they might be more open to scientific evidence than I had previously thought.
Free Mailing List Club!
If you would like to be on our SDA Forum Mailing List, please take a minute to sign up today and join hundreds of others who have done already so. It is free, and you will have the choice of unsuscribing at will. We do not share, nor do we sell your E-mail to others.
