Closed-Minded Christians

I'm reading a book that I plan to share here soon.  Meanwhile, it got me to thinking a little differently about something the world vehemently preaches and people slurp up like hungry pigs at a trough: the notion that Christians are closed-minded.

The idea is that, because Christians maintain there is only one true God and that Jesus is the only road leading to God, we are closed-minded - not open to the possibility that it's okay for people to create whatever god we want in the sundry images our minds conjure up so we can worship that which we can create and define rather than Him who created us.

Which leads to the subject of science.  By definition, science is the study of that which exists - the physical and material world.  Those who reject the idea that everything in existence was purposefully created rather than spontaneously happening on its own maintain that the notion of a Creator is closed-minded.

I propose the opposite:  that the Creationist point of view opens the mind.

Evolutionists have been unsuccessful in their attempts to explain how the basic survivalist instinct that propels humans to adapt and evolve is inherently opposite to heroism - that which compels us to place ourselves in harm's way to save another person, a stranger?  The survival of the self leaves no room for altruism, justice, compassion and other moral traits.  So why should we care if there are starving people in the world?  About human rights violations in other countries?  About things over there that do not directly threaten us individually over here if, as evolution dictates, we are directed by self-preservation?

They are also unable to explain why, throughout the history of the human race, man has been compelled towards worship and the deification of that which he can not explain.  One example: heavenly bodies were once worshiped as gods and entire cultures built around stories about those gods.  More recently, now that science has given us a factual understanding of our solar system, many have turned to worshiping science. (The fact that everyone worships something is beyond the scope of this post - I'll take it on another day.)

Another flaw in evolutionary thinking is the huge gaps that exist between species.  Darwin, in his infamous book, devoted four chapters to outlining this problem with his own evolutionary theory.  He says, ". . . If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties linking closely together all the species of the same group, must have assuredly existed."  This would involve many thousands of minute changes over the course of time, at least some of which should be evident in some fossilized form or another. So, where are they?  So far, everything that's been discovered shows no evidence linking different species - no in-between steps to support the theory.

Creationism opens the mind to the possibility that scientific discoveries support rather than negate a Creator.  Conversely, that a cataclysmic force (like "Big Bang") initiated the process whereby the universe came into existence seems to be completely accepted by atheistic science as long as we don't call that force "God."

Is the concept of a being that is more intelligent, more powerful and infinitely larger than mankind really that difficult to accept?  Even when, with each passing century, scientists and archeologists uncover more and more information in support of Biblical teaching and the Creationist point of view?  Why would we be that opposed to the existence of a sovereign God?  Is it because the God of the Bible threatens our ability to make gods of ourselves?

While atheistic evolutionists spend considerable effort tearing down religious faith, Creationists are able to recognize how science actually supports Intelligent Design and vice versa.  The possibility of the God of the Bible opens the mind to all manner of possibilities that the narrow focus of an auto-induced beginning to a complex universe can not consider.  It equips us to truly explore a higher purpose for our existence, the possibility of an afterlife, the spirituality that undeniably exists within us all, the occurrences of that which we call "miraculous," and the fact that humans have, since the beginning of our existence, really not changed much at all. 

Those concepts can only be grasped when one's mind is open.  Faith is far more open-minded than man's finite ability to define the universe through our limited understanding of its laws. If we confine our thinking to only that which fallible humans have proven, we close our minds to all that has never been disproved.

I'm always awed by the accounts of atheistic scientists who set out to discredit biblical teaching and end up embracing the Christian faith.  It's amazing what one discovers when the mind is truly open.

Will share that book with you soon.

Comments

[Screwed Up Texan]

Sounds like an interesting book. I'd like to read it.

On the subject of evolution, I have come to accept some forms of adaptation. God Selective Adaptation I like to call it. How can I deny it? Look to the Galapagos Islands and the peoples of the high mountains whose lungs have adapted from birth to low oxygen. I believe God created ways for us to adapt to our physical environment. It doesnt mean that I am somehow linked genetically to an ape or a fish or a catapillar; it just means that God in His Devine and Infinite Wisdom, made ways for us to survive and adapt in the world He created.

Or course I could totally be wrong.

I am curious to know what your book says on the matter if it covers it at all.

[Linda at 2nd Cup]

Very articulate, as usual. Some people don't get the importance of this issue because they say it's not pertinent to the here and now, but we're talking about foundations. Nice job.

[Carol]

Screwed Up Texan, it's called "theistic evolution". That the world was indeed created by a higher being (ie. God) but that creation continues to adapt and change (evolve) over time.

Thanks, Linda! So good to see you here.

[Susanne]

Very well put, Carol. I often thought that the very ones who call us close minded are actually quite close minded themselves.

[Guy]

Christians and non-Christians probably don't differ much as to who is more likely to be closed minded. You might expect the Christian would indeed be more closed minded in some ways; i.e. he/she has come to believe some specifics about God that exclude some other options. But non Christians too believe all kinds of things that exclude other options. And it's hard to be open to everying.