The Sixth Day camp accepts scientific
data on its own terms, that is, that it is true to
the senses, that it is empirical data.
But they
will admit
little else about what empirical data says. They accept empiricism
while holding fast to the Abrahamic Big Story which subordinates all
scientific data to Revealed truth. They accept a tension between
empirical and
Revealed data, but this is only reflective of their broader
acceptance that they
are “in the world, but not of the world.”
Yet,
it is important to realize that they do not doubt nor deny
scientific facts and truths, as would a strict adherent to the Abrahamic
Big Story (a Creationist). In this
light, when scientists forward a theory to explain their data, these
Sixth Day advocates are less accepting. For them, scientific theory
is by definition
a reasoning process, aided at times by non-empirical acts of rational
deduction and/or induction. Such induction/deduction is seen as a
shade above guess
work.
The Sixth Dayers, for example, hold that there is scientific
evidence confirming a rise in temperature in the seas and that there are dangerous
forms of pollution, but they reject the theoretical interpretation of
global warming. For them, global warming is what scientists can only
see when they use the scientific method and employ reason. They hold
that when scientists only look for empirical or reasonable data and interpretation,
then that’s what they get.
Their view is to trust in
the Scriptural
Word when it comes to dealing with non-empirical
data. So when God said, on The Sixth Day, “it
is very good,” He
meant that creation is excellent. They hold that, through the dominion over
nature granted to Adam, the world is working
as it should,
if only all their fellow scientists and scientismists could
see properly.
Continue—Sixth Day
