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When theory is presented as fact

7/22/2014

1 Comment

 
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“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools …” Romans 1:20-22

When I first started investigating the question of God in the year 2000, I learned about many issues that old-earth evolutionists were unable to answer – including the issue of comets. Because of factors ranging from the sun’s heat to collisions with planets, they cannot possibly survive for billions of years. So if the universe is truly billions of years old, how is it that we still see them?

Secular scientists obviously acknowledge this as a problem, because they long ago came up with a “rescue device,” which is to say a theoretical explanation: a distant comet-breeding ground called the Oort Cloud.

No one has ever seen the Oort Cloud. No one has uncovered even a smattering evidence for its existence. Instead, they satisfy themselves by saying that the Oort Cloud must exist, because comets exist, and the universe is billions and billions of years old, and it’s the best explanation anyone has come up with to date. 

Back in 2000, scientists at least had the decency to call this a theory. But no more: The Oort Cloud is now presented as fact, even though not a lick of evidence has been found to prove its existence. Kind of like the “fact” of evolution itself.

There’s a word for this sort of thinking: reification. It means treating an idea as fact – or, in Gestalt psychology, perceiving an object as having more spatial information than it actually has.  

Isn’t it interesting that the world rejects the stunning evidence for the God of the Bible, the truth of the book of Genesis, and the relative youth of our universe – but eagerly embraces theories that are totally lacking in evidence?  

I guess Jesus explained this phenomenon when He said, as recorded in Matthew 7, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”

People seem to think that there’s safety in numbers, that the Lord wouldn't let the majority of people spend eternity in hell, that if we just stick with the crowd and avoid the most heinous crimes, we’ll be fine at the judgment seat.

Not so, according to Jesus. As He also said in Matthew 7, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

That’s one fact that we’d all be wise to embrace.

Are you among the few? Or do you prefer to cling to the crowd, to embrace empty theories that have as their only advantage an uncanny ability to deny what your Creator has so clearly said? 
1 Comment
Brenda
10/24/2015 08:48:10 am

As a science teacher (even putting aside devotion to Jesus for a minute) it absolutely infuriates me when any idea that has no empirical basis is presented to a student as a fact rather than as a theory. Sometimes it is much easier for a teacher to present something as a fact rather than admit how many times scientists have been wrong in the past, or admitting that modern scientists are even now forming theories that will eventually be seriously questioned. This is a gross violation of scientific ethics. Every semester I start my new classes by telling my students that I decided to study science because I wanted to learn about truth rather than opinions, but that I quickly found out that most theories have eventually been changed, put on the back shelf, or removed completely from scientific discovery because newly-found information makes them, well, kind of ridiculous. A theory, by definition, cannot be proven true or false, but some sure do eventually look pretty foolish!!

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    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

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