Ben and Rich discuss three elephants in the room this week: Tiger Woods’ affair, Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, and Climate Change. Something for everyone!
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Pop Culture is everywhere. We just acknowledge it. Christ and Pop Culture is an attempt to discuss and think rightly about the common knowledge of our age. 
I believe that Christians need to get a lot more serious about their response to science today. We talk passionately about how we can’t pick and choose the parts of religion that we want and don’t want, but then do the exact same thing when it comes to science.
For example, there is evidence that global warming (the way it has been presented) is a myth: “AHA, take that you stupid liberals, the evidence is right there.” There is evidence that the earth is about 13.7 Gyr old: “Scientists are idiots who don’t know what they are talking about.”
Obviously I am generalizing and being more extreme than most would be. However, if you are going to accept parts of what modern science tells us to be true, you better have some darn good reasons why we shouldn’t accept other parts of what they tell us to be true.
And I haven’t yet seen the Obama speech, I have to check that one out.
Fair enough, Peter, I agree with you entirely.
That said, there is also a flip side to the question… a lot of “thinking” Christians are so frustrated by “non-thinking” Christians that they react by going the other direction and accepting the “scientific perspective” wholesale. The problem here is that, though we should not pick and choose which science to believe, we also need to be continually critical (in the positive, constructive sense).
After all, though science can tell us much, in an ultimate sense it too is under God’s authority and subject to his will.
Most definitely. I very much agree that not everything science tells us is true. I do not encourage wholesale endorsement or denial of science, just an understanding of why we believe certain things and not others.
Also, I think there are times when Christians have to admit that they may have interpreted the Bible incorrectly when there is direct evidence to the contrary.
For example, the Bible talks about the four corners of the earth, and says that it cannot be moved (don’t remember the reference offhand). Some people logically assumed that the earth was flat. We have direct evidence now that the earth is actually round, and that those people understandbly incorrectly interpreted the Bible.
That’s a good point. It’s fascinating how much stuff many Christians think they know for certain, without actually having read the bible carefully or studied HOW to read the bible carefully.
One topic that continually amazes me is the discussion around creation. On one hand, conservative Christians have to admit that the bible isn’t 100% indisputably clear about certain things; for instance, whether the Genesis 1 passage is intended as a poetic expression of God as creator or a technical description of the creation process.
On the other hand, liberal Christians also need to admit that Scripture’s clear witness (including Christ himself) is that the entire human race is descended from a single man and woman, challenging any suggestion that God exclusively used evolution to bring humans into being.
It certainly highlights the need for the Church and christian leaders to speak thoughtfully and carefully about the Truth of Scripture.