| Welcome to the Thomas Ministries
website, whose purpose is to report on the investigation
of the relationship between science and the biblical
Christian faith; an investigation that uses the tools of
scientific, philosophical, and theological inquiry. The
first thing some of you may have wondered is, "Can there
really be an accommodation between the Christian faith
and science?" Or, to put it another way, "Can a serious
scientist be a serious Christian?" We must say that the
general attitude is that neither of these is really
possible. For example, when the idea of presenting
reconciliation of the Christian faith and science was
brought to the attention of one church-going chemist,
his adamant and implacable response was "I believe that
the earth is 6,000 years old; that the Bible is
infallible; and in sola scriptura." Then he
walked abruptly away (sola scriptura is a
Reformation credo meaning that the final source of
authority is Scripture only, as opposed to church
tradition). On the other hand, when the idea of
presenting reconciliation of the Christian faith and
science was presented to a group of scientists that
included both atheists and agnostics, the response was
uniformly one of open scorn. In neither of these cases
was the attitude expressed particularly helpful, nor
strongly indicative of open-mindedness. If anything,
they demonstrated that neither the religious community,
nor the scientific community, are immune to
close-mindedness. And since a closed mind cannot grow,
such attitudes are commendable for no one, and indeed
embody the exact opposite of the spirit of this
investigation. There has also been the approach taken
by some to "compartmentalize" science and faith. By
viewing them as completely different facets of human
existence that are in essence unrelated, the need to
reconcile them becomes moot. But it this really how
things must be? We believe that the answer to
this question is a resounding "NO!" In fact, we believe
that there is much to be gained by a thoughtful
reconciliation of science and faith. The Thomas
Ministries are particularly and unswervingly dedicated
to truth, and see the pursuit of truth as the great
common denominator to science, philosophy, and the
Christian faith. And, despite current attempts to teach
otherwise,
truth relativized is truth destroyed.
Truth is indeed a two-edged sword, and must be
handled with care and knowledgeability, but the basic
premise of the Thomas Ministries is that absolute truth
exists. The basic function of the Thomas Ministries is
to pursue that truth, and the basic promise of the
Thomas Ministries is to never intentionally suppress
that truth. Indeed, what is scientific
investigation, if not the search for the truth about
ourselves and the world around us? And what is
the Christian faith, if not the search for the truth
about ourselves, the world around us, and about God? If
science identifies itself as the pursuit of truth, and
the biblical Christian faith identifies itself as the
revealing of truth, the two ought to meet somewhere!
Thus, we arrive at the motto of the Thomas Ministries, "truth
arises where science meets faith."
It must be pointed out, however, that Thomas
Ministries is not focused on a presentation of so-called
"creation science." (under construction) Neither is
Thomas Ministries focused on a defense of
creation science. Rather, the point is to examine where
truth leads us with respect to humanity in particular,
and with respect to the world in general. We find the
battle cry of "It's either evolution only or creation
science only!" to be too limited and unhelpful to
properly investigate the actual relationships between
the Christian faith and science. We here at Thomas
Ministries say instead, "It is truth only, and let the
chips fall where they may!" We are interested in
following truth, and not dogmatic traditions. And, like
it or not, both the scientific and the religious
communities are very much beholden to dogmatic
traditions. So, with the utmost confidence that the
pursuit of truth will ultimately be sufficient to find
the necessary common ground between science and the
Christian faith, let us begin our investigation!
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