Re: [asa] More WLC on Evolution, ID, and Genesis

I have a broader problem with the suggestion that at any point in time in
human history there was an overarching "Christian culture" or adherence to a
"Biblical worldview."

Andy Crouch makes an excellent point in his book "Culture Making": we
always live in multiple "cultures" not in a unitary "culture." I'd suggest
that likewise we always operate under multiple "worldviews" not under a
unitary "worldview."

I also don't like the notion that medieval / rennaisance / 18th century
Europe was a "Christian" culture because there were many things about the
cultures of those times that, though ostensibly "Christian," seem to have
had little to do with the actual teachings of Jesus.

So maybe we could say this: the development of Western science was
supported by the notion in the cultures of Europe, which were strongly
influenced by Christianity, that there was a God who created an orderly,
observeable universe.

David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Ted Davis <TDavis@messiah.edu> wrote:

> Schwarzwald,
>
> I was picking up on this specific language: "modern science was birthed by
> a biblical worldview," which to my ears sounds like the claim that
> Christianity was the one main cause of modern science. Perhaps I have read
> too much into this, but if the language said "modern science arose in a
> Christian culture" I would fully agree.
>
> Often, I encounter the view that there was no genuine science at all, prior
> to (say) 1500 or (less commonly) 1200 AD, that it took Christianity to
> produce genuine science. That wasn't part of the claim I responded to, but
> (as I say) I do find it said more than a little. Stark pushes this, based
> partly on Stan Jaki and partly on his own misreading of other sources (he
> seems to think this is a consensus, when it's a tiny minority who think
> this). IMO, however, genuine science did exist in the Greek and
> Hellenistic
> worlds. It wasn't widespread in time or space, but it was real science,
> even if it didn't very closely resemble modern science. Indeed, the
> impulse
> for the human mind to go out and conquer nature, mentally if not
> technologically, is embedded within Greek philosophy; you don't need
> Christian theism to believe that nature makes sense, even though it very
> naturally flows from Christian theism that it should. Hubris can do what
> theism encourages.
>
> Ted
>
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Received on Tue Nov 25 12:17:02 2008