SECOND REASON IT'S IMPORTANT
In my previous post I said that even though there are lots of issues facing the Christian church today, trying to come up with a good solution to the problem of Charles Darwin is a very important one. The first reason I offered was because evidence shows many people, especially the young, have left the church over the issue. More continue to leave. Today, I offer a second reason why this is an important issue for Christians.
The second reason is what I call the "limited bandwidth" problem. We're all bombarded countless times each day by people seeking our attention. Ask yourself, do you have lots of extra time to absorb another message from someone? Most likely, the answer is no. Even for really important issues, most of us only have so much "mental bandwidth." As a way to picture the problem, envision a shelf of about five feet in length (1.5 meters), and the shelf is open on either side. Now line up a row of cans, side by side on the shelf. Fill the shelf so the edge of the can on the left goes all the way to the end and the can on the right goes all the way to the end. Think of each one of the cans as a message presented to you by someone who wants your attention. Okay, now imagine that someone wants to provide you an additional message, so they go and try to add one more can on the shelf. What happens? As you add one more can to one end of the shelf, the can on the far side of the shelf falls off.
The average person only has so much mental bandwidth allocated to the church. To the extent that the available space on the shelf is taken up by Darwin, then there won't be any space to talk about another important issue.
So imagine that there is an important issue on science that the church needs to address. Let me suggest a few "science and technology" issues that probably ought to be of concern to Christians:
Stem cell research
Stem cells may hold tremendous potential for finding cures to a broad range of diseases that affect Christians and non-Christians alike. There are, however, many ethical issues associated with doing this type of research. One aspect that gets a lot of attention is using aborted fetal tissue, but this isn't the only issue. When, and under what circumstances, should stem cell research be okay, and where is the line that should not be crossed?
- Genetic testing
Genetic testing holds much promise for dealing with many medical issues, but there are a whole range of ethical issues associated with it.
- Genetically modified organisms (GMO's)
Increasingly, scientists are using GMO's. Again, this issue has numerous scientific implications. Christians ought to be part of the discussion.
- Crispr-CAS9
In the past several years a new gene splicing technology called Crispr-CAS9 has emerged. You're going to hear more and more about this. This is a technology to "edit" the genome. If there is a problem with certain genes, the idea is to go and "edit" the genome, thus changing the organism's genetics. Some might call that "playing God." Crispr-CAS9 has tremendous potential, but as one of the technology's developers has cautioned, "it could really get out of hand." Christians need to be part of the debate to make sure it doesn't get out of hand.
- Climate change
There appears to be growing evidence, and even a scientific consensus, that humans are causing undesirable changes in our climate. Irrespective of your position on this, the issue has many important, complex scientific implications.
- Abortion
Abortion is certainly a highly charged issue for Christians. While most Christians abhor it, they also tend to draw lines that permit it in certain situations. As an example, a very high percentage of Christians say that abortion is acceptable when the mother's life is at stake, or in the case of rape. There are important scientific, ethical and moral dimensions to where to lines are drawn, and Christians need to be part of those debates.
- Genetic aspects of homosexuality
An argument is being made that there are significant genetic aspects of homosexuality. While Christians traditionally have viewed homosexuality as purely a matter of choice, other evidence suggests it may not be a matter of choice. Without a doubt, Christians should be part of this scientific debate.
These are just some of the science and technology issues that have ethical and moral implications. Christians need to be part of any debate about these issues. However, if bandwidth is limited, to the extent that Christians use their available bandwidth to argue about Darwin and "origins", just that much less time is available to talk about these other, very important scientific matters.
Of course, some will argue that Christians can talk about both issues – evolution, as well as these other scientific matters. I'm highly skeptical. Moreover, I'm also afraid that unless Christians can come up with a good answer about evolution, non-Christians will tend to dismiss anything Christians have to say about science. That's the third reason this is an important issue, so we'll discuss that in the next blog post.
