Creationism - National Center for Science Education

All we can know about God’s work of creation must be supplied by God Himself in His Word. That is our
only source of information regarding the fact of creation. The doctrine of creation is the major one with
respect to the relation between the Christian faith and science. That is to say, once a person accepts this
doctrine on faith, there are many logical consequences for his scientific attitude. [1963:86]
Science cannot discover truth independently; it must begin with biblical truth.
Robert J. Ream, in A Christian Approach to Science and Science Teaching
(1972), agrees that the Bible must be given primacy even in science. Ream, a teacher at a
Christian academy, argues against the Thomistic attempt to harmonize rationalism and
revelation. Scripture is “foundational” for science; reason must become the “servant” of
revelation. Truth is not religiously neutral: there is “no truth that is not Christian.” The
purpose of science is to discover God’s plan of creation. Sin and death entered the world
through Adam’s Fall, resulting in a deterioration of nature. This biblical view flatly
contradicts evolution.
“Genesis and geology, I have discovered, have exactly the same testimony,”
writes Bernard Northrup (n.d. [1975]), who pastors a Redding, California church, and has
also studied geology (he has led several BSA Grand Canyon tours). He first proposed his
own scheme of harmonization in 1968, and has been developing it ever since.
(Interestingly, Northrup’s harmonization, which involves multiple catastrophes, is
significantly different than the standard Price-Morris Flood Geology model.) Northrup
insists that the geological record can be fully and accurately aligned with the biblical
account. But, he cautions, the harmonization must be done in this direction—i.e., science
fitted to the Bible—and not vice-versa. Natural revelation (science) is a corollary—and
only a corollary—to the Bible.
In Does Christian Faith Depend on Scientific Fact? (1971?), Robert Whitelaw, a
professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering at VPI, strongly rebutted the argument
that Christian faith cannot be destroyed by science. Taking a strong fundamentalist
approach, he insisted that any fact of science could indeed falsify the Bible. The Bible
must be rejected if any fact or event in it is false. Christianity is built on facts, he asserts;
it is scientific. “In short, Christian faith is rooted in actions that are reported in a Biblical
record that satisfies all the canons of scientific evidence.” If the fact of Adam and Eve’s
literal creation and existence, or Noah’s Flood, or any other statement in the Bible is
denied, then so too is the Resurrection. From this it follows that all new findings or
theories mut be scrutinized in light of the Bible; if they do not conform to Scripture, they
must be rejected. Evolutions fails.
One of the authors of the 1986 ASA booklet Teaching Science in a Climate of
Controversy is John L. Wiester, who has a business degree from Stanford, where he
taught historical geology. Now owner of a cattle ranch in California, he was president of
a company making equipment for the nuclear and aerospace industries. The ASA booklet
incorporates much material from Wiester’s earlier book The Genesis Connection (1983).
Wiester was converted recently to Christianity by his wife. In his book he acknowledges
the assistance of Preston Cloud, UC Santa Barbara paleontologist. (Cloud, who has
debated creationists, has since written his own, purely naturalistic account of earth
history, Oasis in Space). Wiester insists that science armonizes perfectly with the Bible.
He accepts the entire volutionary chronology of the universe and the earth, dopting a
Day-Age interpretation, and convincingly explains ating methods which prove the earth
is ancient, but argues hat certain events are explainable only as creative acts by God.