Regarding the June 6 letter, “Time to vanquish fear-mongering“: The writer is utterly mistaken in his assertion that “knowledge of the basic earth sciences” is considered “forbidden fruit” in the Bible. To the contrary, Holy Scripture (Romans 1:18-20) urges humans to take serious heed to our knowledge of nature in light of what we now call the scientific method.
It so happens that our best cosmological evidence points overwhelmingly both to an absolute beginning of our universe in the Big Bang, and also to a very high level of precision involving a number of factors that were in play (both the strong and weak atomic forces, gravity, etc.) from the very moment of creation. Such realities echo as true the declaration of Genesis 1:1 that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” but they overthrow the previous widely-held position of the scientific community that the cosmos had always existed. It is true that some Christians today adhere to a strict 24-hour-creation day position on the “days” of Genesis 1. But Scripture itself makes no such demands for that interpretation and it actually leaves the question of the age of the universe open.
Incidentally, the actual context of the “forbidden fruit” of Genesis is not difficult to ascertain since it is found within the verse in question (2:17). Its prohibition involves our wrongful choice to usurp God’s authority over matters of good and evil in an attempt to make up our own moralities. The challenge of this passage describes precisely the prevailing sociological experiment of our day known as “moral relativism.”
Rev. Gary Jensen
Zion Lutheran Church
Snohomish
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