Recently we alerted Acts & Facts readers to the hazards of an organization called BioLogos, a non-profit group founded by Dr. Francis Collins that aggressively engages the disciplines of science and religion with one key message--thinking Christians believe in evolution.
As part of their campaign to push evolution into evangelical Christian ministry and education, BioLogos is teaming up with progressive creationists, Intelligent Design proponents, political pundits, religious philosophers, and a variety of well-known professors and pastors in an attempt to merge some semblance of old-earth scientific concepts with biblical Christianity. Called The Vibrant Dance of Faith & Science, this symposium will be held in Austin, Texas, this fall and is intended to teach pastors that it is okay to believe in and teach evolutionary ideas in their churches. Read our feature article this month by Dr. Henry Morris III titled "The Deceptive Dance of Compromise."
What do I mean by evolutionary ideas? I received a call recently from a gentleman who wondered if I had gone too far in my June column in attributing the term "evolution" to groups like Reasons to Believe or the Intelligent Design movement. Both of these groups (via the underlying principles they accept) embrace some form of old-earth thinking--i.e., the Big Bang, billions of years, non-literal understanding of the six days of creation, death before sin, etc. All of these ideas are foreign to the text of Scripture--historically, grammatically, and contextually. Of course, while the Institute for Creation Research conducts scientific studies in the area of origins and earth history, we do so with an unwavering commitment to the authenticity, accuracy, and authority of the biblical record. The Word of God (which is inerrant and infallible) will always be more accurate than the words of men (who are prone to error).
Groups like BioLogos and Reasons to Believe look for ways to retain their dependence on evolution-based scientific theories when reading the Bible, thus forcing them to insert into the pages of Scripture man-made ideas that cannot be justified in the text or supported by the testimony of the other writers of the Bible. The Intelligent Design movement is (by design) a non-Christian movement, with a strategic policy to develop evidence and ideas about design (which is good) without identifying a designer (which, at least for Christians involved in the movement, is dangerous). ID struggles at remaining non-religious while their work consistently hints at a supernatural designer.
The bottom line is that the scientific establishment--owned and operated by atheistic and naturalistic evolutionists--grows tired of all three of these groups. Evolution, rightly understood, has no place for God and never will. No amount of harmonious conversation or even "vibrant dancing" is going to change that fact.
Biblical Christianity--the kind that Jesus taught and exemplified--is a polarizing faith that separates believers from unbelievers, just like God will do on the Day of Judgment. This reality will never be changed by any sort of sophisticated symposium or academic two-step.
* Mr. Ford is Executive Editor at the Institute for Creation Research.
Cite this article: Ford, L. 2010. Sorry, I Don't Dance. Acts & Facts. 39 (8): 3.
