Separating Theology and Science

I have been in thought for awhile now and have realized why people seem to have a hard time reconciling Christ with Evolution, or more specifically, the Bible and Evolution. The reason is one word: Theology. 

What do I mean by this? Most people focus on Theology  when discussing Creation. Since most people have a set belief going into the debate, they use their theology and influence their scientific view. Young Earth Creationists, believing Genesis 1 is literal and their views on other theological topics, look for any shred of evidence for a young earth and discredit opposing evidence no matter how valid it is. Same thing goes for Progressive Creationists as well as Atheistic Evolutionists and Evolutionary Creationists. Everyone does it. Period. 

This is why Im writing this short-ish post. We need to separate Theology from Science when we are just looking at Science. When Im trying to find how old an object is, by using all dating methods, Im not using theology, but Science. After we determine the age, we need to grab our Theology and Scientific data, and reconcile it. This process will take a while but ultimately will work better than using Theology to interpret science. Young Earth Creationists do it 24/7. They say “ok so universe is 6,000 years old so I need to find out how this data fits into a young earth”. But in reality, you cant alter God’s Creation to fit your belief. If God’s Creation says this fossil is 25,000 years old, then that’s what it is. When we do science we should really say “Ok this data says this fossil is 25,000 years old. Now let me reinterpret the Bible to see if I can reconcile God’s Word with God’s Creation”  This sounds alot better. It allows more freedom to explore and be free instead of worrying about a timeline. 

To summarize what I just said, we need to study Science and Theology separately and KEEP them separate until you need to reconcile them. That’s my process of thought. I study the Bible and find out what its saying, then study Science to find out what happened in the past, and how things work. Then I take my Scientific data and take my Theology, and fit them together. If I have to reinterpret the Bible, I will. After all, a book, even God’s Word can have many interpretations but scientific data that speaks straight forward facts, can only have 1 meaning. 

I hope the Christian Community understands this and doesnt use Theology to dictate Science. Obviously science is studying God’s Creation so we shouldnt be afraid to let God’s Creation speak for itself and we shouldn’t be afraid to admit we are wrong about our interpretation of the Bible. We shouldn’t fear about having to reinterpret the Bible.