Science, theology, the Bible and rocks . . .

I was astonished this morning to receive notice from a friend on Facebook of this post by Dr. Jay Wile, an arch young-earth creationist and founder of Apologia Ministries, who was willing, actually, to stand up for decent treatment of someone of a radically different perspective than his own.

Reading some of the responses to his post

--"these are unbiblical views"--

--"[Such a] view . . . is clearly not Biblical"--

etc.

reminds me of something I have been trying to figure out how best to post here. So what I am about to say won't be "best," but at least it will be said.

This past weekend I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Clarence Menninga, professor emeritus of Geology at Calvin College. We were discussing old earth/young earth issues and he noted, "Many people try to set the Bible against science (or vice versa). But that is an inappropriate comparison. It is not the Bible against science. It is theology against science. The Bible provides the data on which theologians work, just as rocks provide the data on which scientists work. Science is an interpretation of data every bit as much as theology is an interpretation of data."

Put another way:

Science is to Theology as
Rocks are to the Bible.

--More on this theme at another time.