(A reflection offered to an Australian Baptist church).

It’s been lovely weather here lately, hasn’t it? Not only during the day but also at night. The night sky has been fantastic this week – I often go for a short walk in the evening and the Milky Way this week has looked fantastic stretched across the sky. I sometimes use my bird-watching binoculars to get a closer look at the gas cloud up in the handle of The Pot and I love the fuzzy star cluster Omega Centauri near the Southern Cross that looks like a new furry tennis ball and has 5 million suns . . . it makes me think of Psalm 8: “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?

Four hundred years ago this year, a brilliant mathematician, scientist and God-fearing man, Galileo, heard that someone has made a telescope so he decided to make one for himself and observe the night sky. He soon discovered that there were four moons orbiting Jupiter and from his observations he worked out that the earth must be orbiting round the sun. These days everyone would agree that Galileo got it right – including all of us here today. Back then though, Galileo had a problem in getting people to agree with him: the reason was that most influential people in the church of his day disagreed with him – they had no doubt that the Bible clearly stated that the sun revolved around the earth.

One Catholic priest claimed that Galileo’s conclusions were not only heretical but atheistic. Other attacks included a claim that “his pretended discovery vitiates the whole Christian plan of salvation” and that “it casts suspicion on the doctrine of the incarnation.” While much of the criticism came from the Catholic Church, it was not limited to that. John Calvin and Martin Luther also objected.

Galileo was subsequently tried before the Roman inquisition in 1633, and ultimately forced to “abjure, curse and detest” his own work. He remained under house arrest for the remainder of his life, and his publications were banned. Only in 1992 -- 359 years after the trial -- was an apology issued by Pope John Paul II: “Galileo sensed in his scientific research the presence of the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions.”

Is there a lesson to be learnt here? Surely this is a classic case of Christians back then treating the Bible as though its purpose was to teach science.

Allow me to be a little bit controversial. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that something similar is happening in our world today. I can’t imagine any of us saying to someone else “Well, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. The Bible clearly states that the sun revolves around the earth. I mean, if you don’t believe that, let’s be logical, let’s throw out the rest of the Bible. You either believe the Bible is inspired or you don’t.” I’ve never actually heard THAT conversation, but this one is a bit more familiar, I think you’ll agree: “Well, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. The Bible clearly states that the God created the world in seven days. I mean, if you don’t believe that, let’s be logical, let’s throw out the rest of the Bible. You either believe the Bible is inspired or you don’t.”

You may or may not be aware that some of the world’s most respected believers in evolution are also passionate followers of Christ. Dr. Francis Collins is one.

Francis Collins is an internationally respected authority in the area of DNA research. In his book “The Language of God” he mentions the long process whereby he ceased to be an atheist and became a Christian. He mentions the end of that time in the following words: “I had to make a choice. A full year had passed since I decided to believe in some sort of God, and now I was being called to account. On a beautiful fall day, as I was hiking in the Cascade Mountains during my first trip west of the Mississippi, the majesty and beauty of God’s creation overwhelmed my resistance. As I rounded a corner and saw a beautiful and unexpected frozen waterfall, hundreds of feet high, I knew the search was over. The next morning, I knelt in the dewy grass as the sun rose and surrendered to Jesus Christ.”

Today Francis Collins continues to be a passionate Bible-believing witness for the Lord amongst the world’s leading scientists – and he continues to believe more than ever that God has used evolution in the creation of the world.

I don’t know whether he’s right about evolution, but then again, I’m a language teacher and he’s a world renowned molecular biologist, so if I’m not to be arrogant like the church authorities in Galileo’s day, I’ve got to admit he’s got more chance of being right than I have, because that’s his field of expertise.

But let’s be clear, guys, about where I’m coming from here, I’m not trying to convince anyone here to believe in evolution. Frankly, I think the whole young earth/old earth debate is not what God wants us to spend our time arguing about. And God certainly doesn’t want any person searching for spiritual truth distracted and turned off the Bible and Jesus Christ by my insistence that they must share my belief in some aspect of science.

What I feel quite sure about is that Paul was right when he reminds us how to approach the Bible in II Timothy 3: 16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

As Christians today let us all be passionate about our faith, but let us also reflect on the words of Proverbs 19:2: “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge.”

Ross Mildenhall