Two weeks ago, we celebrated Bixby Knolls Christian Church’s 71st anniversary.
Last week, we celebrated the 107th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. (Scout Sunday is always on the Sunday closest to the anniversary.)
Today - Feb. 12 - is also a significant day. On this day, two historic men would (if they were alive) be celebrating their 208th birthday. Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on this day in 1809.
Charles Darwin’s birthday has become a day in which hundreds of religious leaders preach on science.
It may surprise you, but many religious leaders see the truths of science as being compatible and even complementary to the truths of faith.
Pope Francis has declared that evolution and the big bang are real.
The Dalai Lama has said that if science disproves some aspect of his Buddhist faith, then it is his buddhist faith that must change.
Yet a number of religious people continue to ignore and argue against the truth that is found in science.
They are fools for doing so.
They argue that the biblical stories of creation should be taught in schools as science. They’re not science. Any fifth grader reading Genesis can figure that out. There are talking animals and unrealistic time frames, and the first child born - Cain, the son of Adam and Eve - the Bible says he had a wife.
Where did she come from?
Science has a real problem with literal interpretations of stories like this, and it should, because they’re not stories of science. They are stories that help people understand their place in God’s creation. They help explain who we are as humans - how we are created by God, how we are tempted to do evil, how God loves us and seeks to restore us despite our giving in to temptation. They are great parables with great meaning - just not scientific meaning.
Science, on the other hand, doesn’t really look for meaning. Meaning may come out of science, but that’s not where science starts. Science starts with observation. Science is literal. Science deals with facts.
For example: last month, on January 22, it rained in Long Beach. A lot.
Scientists measured the amount of rain we got. They weren’t looking for meaning. They didn’t have a secret agenda. They just wanted to know how much rain we got. So they did what scientists do. They took measurements. They looked at their rain gauges, and saw that Long Beach received just over four inches of rain.
Then they looked at their records of all the previous days of rain Long Beach has ever received, and they noticed that Long Beach had never received four inches of rain in one day before. Never! This allowed scientists to draw this conclusion: it was a historic, record-breaking day in Long Beach weather history.
You can’t argue with that. The rain gauge doesn’t lie. Its measurements are accurate.
Scientists are taking measurements all the time. And they do it everywhere. All over the world. For example, the NASA & the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration compile climate data from over 6,000 weather monitoring locations world-wide, and that’s just on land. They also have sophisticated ways of gathering data from weather occurring over oceans.
Scientists also look at data from the past. They can’t go back in time 5,000 years to measure the temperature or rainfall; however, the earth has its own way of preserving climate data from thousands of years ago. Tree growth rings, and ice core samples, just to name a few.
And based on these observations, scientists know that the earth’s climate has always had fluctuations. Even before humans were capable of altering the climate, there have been cold and warm periods. In other words, climate change has always been a part of earth’s history. This is a fact.
Here’s another observation. The RATE of these fluctuations has always been very gradual. The changes to the earth’s climate has always taken place over thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years. This is a fact.
However, in the last century, scientific measurements have shown that the RATE of climate change has accelerated far beyond what earth has ever before experienced. Instead of changes take place over many thousands of years, the changes scientists are now measuring are taking place within the span of a single human lifetime. This is a fact.
In addition to temperature, scientists measure many other things, like the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Before the industrial revolution, the amount of CO2 hovered around 250 ppm. Sometimes it fluctuated up to 275 ppm. But now, in our lifetime, it’s shot up to 400 ppm, and it’s still rising.
These are actual, scientific measurements. You can’t argue with them! You can’t say that on January 22, it was a normal day in Long Beach. You can’t say the sun was out. You can’t say, “Oh, it rained some, but it was pretty typical.” No. The gauge recorded 4 inches of rain.
And you can’t argue with the other observations of science. You can’t say the sudden rise to 400 ppm of CO2 is normal, because it’s not. You can’t say that our current RATE of climate change is normal, because it’s not. The measurements show: earth has never, in millions of years, experienced as rapid a change in temperature as we have these past few decades.
All of these observations and measurements are the starting point for science. These are the facts, and the facts are what they are. It doesn’t matter what you believe about God or scripture - Long Beach still got 4 inches of rain on January 22, and the earth is still getting warmer at a rate that is unprecedented in biological history.
Now, here’s the thing. Some people ignore or argue against the facts because the facts do not support their own beliefs. So they DO say things like, “I believe that January 22 was actually a nice sunny day in Long Beach, so the facts must be wrong.”
That’s not good science. And it’s not good religion, either. What kind of a religion would force you to say the weather is nice when it’s not, that it’s sunny when it’s actually raining? What kind of religion would force you to say that the climate isn’t changing, when it clearly is? What kind of a religion would force you to ignore facts, to ignore truth?
A false religion, that’s what kind.
A friend of mine recently posted on facebook the actual number of Americans killed by various causes. These numbers were compiled by reputable sources and represent a ten-year average, and they showed that the number of Americans killed annually by Islamic jihadist terrorists was less than the number killed by armed toddlers, less than the number killed by lightning, less than the number killed by lawnmowers, less than the number killed by being hit by a bus, less than the number killed by falling out of bed, and less - much less - than the number killed by other Americans.
A person with an obvious bias against Muslims immediately left a comment which simply said: “That is ridiculous and false.” Well, just because the facts don’t conform to that person’s anti-Muslim views doesn’t mean that the numbers are false. Yes, islamic jihadist immigrants have killed an average of 2 Americans per year over the past ten years. Yes, Americans have shot and killed an average of 11,737 each year over the past ten years. If you want the numbers to match your own anti-Muslim bias, you’re going to have to make the numbers up yourself, because the actual numbers simply do not support the view that Muslim immigrants are a danger to America.
Unfortunately, too many people are all too willing to make up their own numbers.
Back to climate: simple observations show us that the rate of temperature change has accelerated, and that the CO2 levels are at record highs, but simple scientific observations do not prove the cause of temperature change or the rise in CO2 levels. So scientists, following the scientific method, will propose ideas that might explain the cause.
And they’ll test those ideas. They’ll test them again. And again. And again.
If the tests do not support their ideas, they discard those ideas.
But if repeated tests DO support their ideas, and this happens over and over in test after test, then their ideas are probably correct.
And if repeated tests suggest other possible causes, they they will test those other causes over and over and over again.
Because of this thorough testing of ideas, scientists are confident that human activity, like the burning of fossil fuels, is the cause for the unprecedented changes in our climate.
This is how science works.
To deny scientific facts, and to deny scientific theories that have stood the test of time through repeated testing, is to deny truth. And any religion that forces you to deny truth is a false religion.
The definition of a prophet is one who speaks the truth that no one wants to hear. The Old Testament prophets confronted kings and rulers, proclaiming that their policies hurt the people, especially poor people. The leaders, they said, turned away from what was true and what was right, and pursued their own selfish interests.
Confronting kings and rulers was a dangerous task, but the prophets did it anyway. They spoke the truth even when it was dangerous to do so.
Speaking the truth is what Isaiah did. It’s what Jeremiah did. It’s what Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi did.
And it’s what Jesus did.
God called upon the prophets to speak out, and speak the truth - the truth that the leaders did not want to hear.
Because without truth, there is no justice. This is what Isaiah was talking about. Without truth, people grope like the blind along a wall. Without truth, the people growl with hunger like bears, for they are hungry for truth. They are hungry for justice.
Isaiah says that without truth, “justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.”
Or as Zechariah says: “Speak the truth to one another.” Notice the prophet doesn’t say, “make up your own truth if you don’t like the actual truth.” “Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace” (8:16).
To be a prophet, to be a follower of God, you need to speak the truth.
Spiritual truth. Scientific truth. Social truth.
You need to speak the truth in love. You need to speak the truth out of love. You need to speak the truth because of love.
And if you don’t like the truth? Well, then you better spend some time in prayer first. The truth is sometimes hard to accept. But after your time of prayer, speak. Speak the truth.
Speak the truth, for the truth will set you free.
Speak the truth, for the truth will set others free.
We cannot be free as long as we hide behind the lies.
Speak the truth, however and wherever it may be found.
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