Nonsense or Nonscience

In November of this year Senator Marco Rubio caused a small uproar when he responded to an unexpected question during an interview with GQ.  The question was simply, “How old do you think the earth is?”  Marco's sputtering and convoluted answer betrayed a position that is all to common for America's professing Christians.  We live in a country that has a tense but polite truce between two world-views that are at war. Nowhere is this more evident than in the political arena. Marco was in a tough spot that no professing Christian would envy.  How could he reconcile his foolish superstitions with the indisputable theory-facts of god-free science and still maintain some semblance of intellect?  Unfortunately, it has somehow come to this oddly stark choice: either throw your brain or Jesus under the bus. A gut-wrenching choice indeed. But why has it come to this?  Is there some unspoken cannon of scientific knowledge that must be accepted or rejected in its entirety in order to avoid being labelled and imbecile? Last I looked, there was no such scientific "bible" containing the indisputable facts of true knowledge.  Actually, the notion itself is the antithesis of science. It is science masquerading as mathematics.

What I mean is that true science should hold all knowledge in a constant state of doubt.  If there is one basic tennet of science, it is that nothing is settled.  Everything is subject to questioning, debate, testing and experimentation.  The areas of knowledge that fall under the label "science" are not things that can be proven with absolute certainty, whereas the concepts of mathematics can be.  A scientific theory is a very different animal than a mathematical one.  No matter how much a scientist may wish a theory to become a fact it can never be.  Much like Geppetto wishing Pinocchio to become a real boy without the benefit of a Blue Fairy. Even worse, there are areas of knowledge that adopt the monicker of "science" but are mostly unworthy of the title.  Like inanimate marionettes their practitioners prance them about on strings on stages composed of academic journals hoping that the public will be gullible enough to mistake them for real science. These are fields such as Anthropology, Archeology and Geology dealing with questions and concepts that are not testable by either direct observation or experimentation.  These fields are more forensic than scientific in nature and many of their theories are mere speculation and conjecture. I am not saying that these fields have not made valuable contributions to society. They have. But they are all to often careless and overreaching and clouded with opinion rather than unbiased research.

What I am trying to get across here is that what so many people wish to pass off as a monolithic and cohesive body of knowledge that they call science is nothing of the sort.  Rather it is a spectrum of knowledge and assertion supported by bulwarks of varying strength and veracity, none of which can attain to the status of unassailable fact. Indeed the very idea of a scientific concept as dogma should be anathema to any real "scientist."  Unfortunately, the popular discourse does not welcome debate on scientific issues, rather it condescends to and shames any and all who might dare to question certain theories.  Certain ideas and concepts have been walled off and declared forbidden.  To breach any of these barriers brings a hasty cacophony of cries of scientific "blasphemy" from the self-anointed priests of science.

While the reasons for this attitude vary from pride to greed to just plain obstinance, there is a strong correlation between these blasphemy-barriers and those scientific theories that prop up atheistic philosophies.  Such is the case with evolution and the age of the earth.  The emotional responses that questioning these theories elicits from seemingly Vulcan-like scientists betrays them as impure half-breeds having religious sensibilities underneath thin logical facades.  There is no rational defense for the impolite and irrational rhetoric that flows from otherwise cool headed individuals.  Why should my doubts regarding the results of the radiometric dating of rocks or the origins of life cause them such consternation? Why should their ridicule and condemnation force me to reconcile what are, at the core, inevitably irreconcilable philosophies? For indeed it is philosophies that are at odds and not science as they claim.

And that is the bottom line, isn't it? Atheists hiding behind a hijacked veil of "science" and throwing hand grenades at those who dare believe that God exists. Atheists wish to declare a monopoly on intelligence while exiling all others under a banner emblazoned with "FOOLS." But by doing so they have rejected an area of knowledge, the knowledge of God, as being nonsense. They hold the laws of the physical universe as paramount and preeminent.  The very idea of a being that is not bound by and controlled by such laws, who might break them, or worse, rewrite them at any instant is utterly repulsive. They reject the divine based on doctrine rather than discernment because His existence necessitates the obliteration of the very ground on which they plant their feet while shaking their fists at Him. And in their passion and hypocrisy reveals their nonscience.

"...men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." - Romans 1:18-25