Putting Progressive Old Earth Creationism in Historical Perspective
This website is about looking at the Scriptures from the approach of progressive Old Earth Creationism. Progressive Old Earth Creationism takes the approach that the descriptions of the creation events in the Bible are harmonious for the most part with the descriptions of historical events that have been discovered through science. This is not to say that the Bible is a textbook of science. The descriptions of creation events in the Bible are often very short and might leave many questions unanswered about exact details. Biblical descriptions may even use metaphor and poetic language. But where the Bible does speak clearly about creation events, it can be shown that most of these events can now be substantiated by discoveries that are well accepted in the scientific community. This growing harmony between the Bible and science is quite significant in the history of mankind.
For a historical perspective about this great gift of the growing harmony between the Bible and science, it is important to understand trends of western thought regarding scientific understanding. A practical definition for “science” is an attempt to systemize human knowledge and understanding, especially knowledge based on observation and experimentation. Using this practical definition, science can be traced back to early civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia where they had early forms of understanding about astronomy, medicine, and mathematics. This approach was enhanced by ancient Greeks like Thales, Euclid, Archimedes, and Pythagoras. In the western world, this approach that we now call science was called natural philosophy up until the mid-1800s. The next large step in western natural philosophy or the scientific approach came in the 1400s to 1600s with scientists like Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton. Most societies throughout these times had a strong belief in some type of supernatural deities. So, while this scientific approach used human reasoning to try to explain how the natural world worked on its own, these explanations usually left room for the supernatural deities to be influential in the universe and in our lives as well.
A Brief History of Naturalism
As the scientific approach became more and more successful, however, there was a growing sense that supernatural deities may not be needed for meaningful explanations of how nature worked. For example, in the early 1700s, Isaac Newton had remarked that God would be needed to intervene in the universe from time to time to keep our solar system stable. By the early 1800s, another accomplished scientist named Pierre-Simon Laplace had written several books precisely explaining the movement of planets. When asked by the French emperor Napoleon why Laplace’s books did not mention God, Laplace’s reply was to the effect that he did not need the hypothesis that Newton had made for God’s intervention. This statement of Laplace about not needing God to explain science is descriptive of the philosophical approach of methodological naturalism, which restricts scientific explanations to natural causes and events and excludes supernatural or divine explanations.
During the 1800s and 1900s the continued success of science along with additional economic, political, philosophical, and other factors led numerous scientists, philosophers, revolutionaries, and other influential people to move beyond methodological naturalism to what has been called pure naturalism (or metaphysical naturalism). Pure naturalism is the philosophical view that says that the natural world is all that really exists. This means that pure naturalism denies the existence of any supernatural or spiritual realm, entities, or forces. Most scientific organizations have been careful to promote methodological naturalism and not pure naturalism. However, in today’s world many influential people in all walks of society continue to promote a belief system based on pure naturalism. For example, a Wikipedia article on atheists lists hundreds of influential scientists and technologists, most of whom would probably hold to a philosophy of pure naturalism. Through philosophers like the American John Dewey and others, naturalism in all its forms have become influential in education as well.
Why Progressive Old Earth Creationism is Quite Significant
This brief history of naturalism helps to explain why God and religion are often not taken seriously in today’s world, especially in highly educated segments of our society. But as this understanding of the harmony between the Bible and science becomes more widely understood and appreciated, then worldviews will change. And from worldviews changing, then there will be fruit that our Creator meant His truths to bring. What that fruit will be exactly remains to be seen. But we have hints from the Scriptures about the fruit of wisdom. For example, James 3:17-18 shows the true fruit of the wisdom that is from above.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.
Potential Barriers to Accepting Progressive Old Earth Creationism
For a myriad of reasons, it is also true that the harmony between the Bible and science has not yet been well understood or embraced by a majority of people. One large reason for this lack of acceptance is no doubt the fact that it will take time for individuals, institutions, and societies to process and accept a worldview different from worldviews that have been taught for so long. That will be the case for many of those those who have embraced pure naturalism or many other worldviews. Worldviews that are not consistent with the Old Earth Creationism presented here have been taught for a long time and by many influential people and will be “inconvenient truths” for many people.
To other people, it may not seem believable or acceptable to mix metaphor with actual events in Genesis 1. Perhaps the explanation on this website concerning the use of metaphor in the Bible might bring more understanding concerning that issue.
For some people, the science behind Old Earth Creationism may seem too difficult to comprehend or it may seem like the science is being twisted to conform to the descriptions in Genesis 1. For those having this attitude, we would encourage you to become familiar with some of the basic scientific explanations presented in this site and make comparisons from searches on the web or from reading the latest scientific writings. See how well the science presented on this website and the latest scientific findings correspond with each other.
To overcome resistance to other worldviews, however, we would encourage anyone to simply stand back a little and ponder how a 3000+ year old text could describe events from billions of years ago, and describe those events in the correct order in a way that is fundamentally in harmony with the descriptions from the science of today. The odds that the writer of Genesis 1 just had some “lucky guesses” is extremely unlikely. And since that is the case, then it is quite reasonable to believe that reading the Bible with an understanding of its harmony with science could have been foreseen and intended by our great Creator.
The Privilege of Living at this Time in History
At this time in our history, it would appear that we are quite privileged to see the growing harmony between the Bible and science. The Bible tells us that eventually truth wins out in human history since the path of humankind is ultimately guided by our Creator. Much of our human experience would tell us something similar if we take a long enough view. So, if this progressive Old Earth Creationism perspective does contain deep and lasting truths, then it will become more and more widely accepted. That acceptance may take time, as explained above. Many other truths and deeper wisdom have taken time to play out in human history as well.
So, this website is an effort to help explain the Old Earth Creationism perspective in an approachable manner, and thus hopefully accelerate the understanding and acceptance of this perspective. After becoming familiar with this approach, then hopefully many Christians and non-Christians will find it easy to understand and embrace these profound truths and be able to share these truths with other people. The harmony that this Old Earth Creationism approach brings between the Bible and science has great potential for increasing human clarity, understanding, and hopefully peace, and at the same time bringing about even greater wonder at the unfathomable magnificence of our Creator and the wonders of His creation.