Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb

Modern myths

Sunday 4 September, 2005 · Posted by Philip Bassett

I’ve been reading a book called “Six Modern Myths Challenging Christian Faith” by Philip J. Sampson (IVP 2000). In it the author looks at how every society, even our own, has its own stories that shape what we think and how we live. We are used to ancient or so called primitive societies having myths but he shows that our own modern Western society has its own distinctive myths that are all too often accepted as fact.

Myth N^o. 1 is that Galileo was a hero of science against a hostile church. I have heard this one often as I’ve pursued my scientific studies and have been interested in the whole area of apologetics of science and religion. What the author demonstrates is that the issue was not science versus Christianity but really alternate views of the nature of reality or competing forms of reason together with the worldviews associated with them. The real conflict was between Aristotlian reasoning and the newly developing observational science.

The supposed conflict was a figment of the spin put on the real events by modernist philosophers like Huxley and Russell. These were implacably opposed to Christianity and by their persuasiveness had the myth of Galileo’s repression by the church enshrined in our text books as if it was fact.

Myth N^o. 2 is that Charles Darwin’s story of origins was an attack on Christian faith. These days evolution is a received fact and woe betide anyone who questions it. However it always has been, and until conclusive proof, which so far does not exist, comes along it will remain a speculative theory. Again it was championed not so much by the originator of the theory, Charles Darwin, but Huxley and others who were convinced that enlightened reason did away with Christian faith.

Other myths that Sampson explores are:

Myth N^o.3 In the area of the environment the Bible is at the root of global exploitation.

Myth N^o. 4 Christian missions were the primary vehicles of colonial oppression.

Myth N^o. 5 Christianity is essentially anti-body and anti-sex.

Myth N^o. 6 Witch-hunts by Christians were an example of the subjugation of women.

I am amazed at the frequency with which these and other myths are used by people to explain why they are not Christians.

Another good book on this subject is Kirsten Birkett’s “Unnatural Enemies

-- An introduction to science and Christianity” (Matthias Media 1997). They both make fascinating reading and reveal how much modern society has been taken in by these modern myths.

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