The thing is, Kelli, that you do need to make sure that your facts are straight, and you do need to recognise that we live in the Real World. Yes, we have to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, but we have to work out that grace and knowledge in our workplaces, in our schools, and in our communities.
Science isn’t just something “secular” that you can dismiss as untrustworthy because it challenges your worldview. It is a set of essential skills and competences that many of us need to understand and apply correctly in order to do our jobs properly. Passive-aggressive or hostile attitudes to science have effects far beyond just attacking “evolutionism”; they undermine our ability to function properly in the workplace, to keep our loved ones safe, to fact-check what we are being told and to hold people accountable for the integrity and factual accuracy of their claims. I’ve seen far too many Christians under-performing in their careers, falling for the most blatant falsehoods, making crazy decisions that they’ve later regretted, or even being led astray altogether, because bad attitudes to science had undermined their ability to think critically and to test everything as the Bible commands us to do. (1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 John 4:1). As Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
I’ll be honest here: I don’t actually care how old the earth is, or who or what did or didn’t evolve from what, or whether Adam and Eve were real historical people or some kind of theological archetype. Theologically, I consider such debates to be something of a distraction because the Bible is first and foremost about how we behave in the here and now, rather than whether or not we have someone way back at the dawn of creation to pass the buck to. But honesty, factual accuracy, scientific literacy and good critical thinking skills are of vital importance. If you’re undermining them, you’re just setting your fellow Christians up for a fall.
