There
are many problems with “advancement thinking”. As Bush states, “Advancement
thought is like bait, attractive to the hungry fish but with a hook in it.”[1] The bait is that many of
the ideas are attractive however, the hook is the loss of God. Earlier in the
book Bush stated that, “Key scientist, especially in the eighteenth and
ninetheenth centuries, gave up their belief in God and began to interpret the
scientific data on naturalistic and materialistic assumptions.”[2] This is true because
Groothius wrote, “Rodney Stark claims that the medieval Christian worldview
provided a wellspring of intellectual resourcesfor the development of science,
technology, and commerce.”[3] Science and technology
made advancement in early medieval times due to Christian thinkers such as
Newton and Galileo. When the cultural and intellectual landscape is dominated
by godless “answers” for progress (or advancement) people’s itching ears are
being “scratched” for an answer that they would rather go along with because it
is godless. The ultimate problem is that God is left out!
Christianity
can respond to this progress and advancement by placing God back in the
equation. Bush wrote, “The proper worldview affirms both God and the world as
existing realities, with God as the more basic of the two.”[4] It is God who made the
world and the people who have the ideas that make progress possible. He made
people as free agents and the things that are created can either be used for
good or evil. The Christian should first point out that it was scientist and philosophers
that were bleievers who were the “fathers” of modern science and philosophy as
Groothuis points out. Finally, the Christian should demonstrate how todays (the
advancement) technology and philosophy can be used as good and how it fails in
Truth.
Of
the ideas that Bush pointed out, the one that sticks out the most is that God
exists. In this concept he points out: 1. The nature of the universe that
exists is wholly contingent and in no sense necessary, in either form or
substance, 2. Mind, rationality, and spiritual nature exist in humans (since
mind does not exist in nature itself, nor is mind reducible solely to chemistry
or to natural processes, and 3. The unique spiritual experiences that form the
historical basis for Christian faith are real, documented, and testable through
historical analysis and through personal spiritual conformational experiences.[5] These three statements are
guidances that demonstrate how God’s existence can be proved, not just through
logic, but through reason and proof; history. Christians must have a strong
conviction of this and of God’s existence lest they fall to the “advancement”
age. 2 Peter 3:17 says, “Therefore, dear friends, since you have been
forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error
of the lawless and fall from your secure position.” So, Christians should know
that the lack of God is in this progressive move (the advancement), demonstrate
that how technology and philosophy can be used for good and derived from
Christian roots, and should stand firm in order to not fall into the same
tempatation.
Bibliography
Bush,
Russ L. The Advancement: Keeping the
Faith in an Evolutionary Age. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing,
2003.
Groothuis,
Douglas. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive
Case for Biblical Faith. Daowners Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press,
2011.
[1]
L. Russ. Bush, The Advancement: Keeping
the Faith in an Evolutionary Age, (Nashville, Tennessee: B&H
Publishing, 2003), 109.
[2]
Bush, The Advancement, 22.
[3]
Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics:
A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, (Downers Grove, Illinois:
InterVarsity Press, 2011), Kindle Loc. 994.
[4]
Bush, The Advancement, 104.
[5]
Ibid. 99.
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