I spent much of Saturday at an event called the Leicester Creation Conference. It was an event put together by a group of evangelical Christians who believe, essentially, that the Bible is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It was quite an interesting day.
There were seminars about the importance of Biblical Creation to the rest of the Christian belief system, about why evolution didn't happen, about why the whole primordial soup thing is grossly improbable, why radiometric dating is potentially flawed... and so on. It attempted to attack the present scientific ways of thinking with conflicting scientific evidence that showed that it was flawed, which was a rather more mature approach than you normally get from fundamentalist Christians, so that was pretty good.
I'm still not sure what I think to be honest. On the one hand the scientists seem to have it all tied up and can produce a whole shedload of evidence to back up their ideas. On the other hand, the Bible rather contradicts a lot of modern scientific thinking, and most evangelical Christians make it pretty clear that you can't have things both ways and pick and choose at the Bible - if you want to believe it then you have to believe in a 6 day creation with no evolution, that kind of thing. Obviously my Christian beliefs pull me in one direction, while my scientific mind and education push me the other way. I like the neatness of the science, yet at the same time I find it terribly hard to believe - I don't really buy the big bang theory and everything appearing out of nowhere, though obviously the same can be said of God always having been here; likewise I find evolution terribly hard to believe and don't really see much evidence for it.
Science is supposed to be about facts. Religion is much more about truth, and what you believe. Given the present climate, science can push through what they believe and what fits their agenda, and push aside conflicting evidence, which is present whether they like it or not. Theories such as evolution and spontaneous generation are held up because they are en vogue, despite being somewhat leaky and improbable; evidence that stands against these things is discredited and doesn't get heard. I do find it somewhat curious that religious people are fighting their battles on scientific turf, but so long as they're properly qualified to speak about such things then I think some healthy debate will do us all good.
I expect that Christians and perhaps other faith groups will continue to find evidence to support what they believe and to discredit modern scientific thinking. I also expect that scientists will continue to do their best to ignore or ridicule Christians for their "faith" in anything besides the scientific method and what can be seen and tested. I don't suppose scientists will ever fully explain how we got here, but will instead asymptotically approach the truth, or fact, or whatever.
For now, I am somewhat undecided. I find it easier to believe in a God who created everything than I do in everything appearing out of nowhere and arranging itself nice and neatly into what we see today, yet I also see compelling evidence from the science camp.
I'm sure God will tell me all about it when the time comes. Ho hum.
