"Just a couple of weeks after the horrible killings at Columbine High School in Colorado, students (including those who saw friends shot in front of their eyes) went back to school and sadly were given the ingredients to make more 'bombs.' You see, when millions of students have been told in their classes that there is no God, that man is just an animal, and that death, bloodshed, and violence (similar to what we observe in today's world) are a natural part of the evolutionary mechanisms that produced man, then let's be honest about the logical consequences!
"In that world-view, who determines what are (or are not) 'right' and 'wrong' actions? If violence is a part of the evolutionary process, then why should we try to combat it? If man is just an animal, then who decides what 'value' is placed upon human life? If death is nothingness, then what is the point of suffering in this present world?" - Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, from the August 1999 Newsletter
Answers in Genesis (AIG) is a creationist organization founded in the early 1970s in Australia by Ken Ham. As one of its major talking points, it links every manner of social ill to the teaching of evolution in schools. Leaving aside the questionable nature of a morality linked to authority, such a link is prima facie absurd: there is no demonstrable cause-and-effect relationship between the teaching of evolution and the so-called decline of society.
In addition to this absurd proposition, AIG prescribes as a solution to these social ills a beginning of a return to the theocratic, institutionalized ignorance of the Middle Ages: teaching Biblical literalism in schools. According to the AIG website, "the Bible is really the key to what the world desperately needs" (ref. AIG website). Aside from the revulsion you may feel if you're secular, this arouses a particular ire in a Christian like me: AIG is guilty of a subtle, but very real, idolatry: the elevation of the Bible to be equal to or greater than God in reverence and importance.
According to the First Commandment, "I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:2-3). This is a blanket prohibition; if one takes it seriously, as Biblical literalists like the ladies and gentlemen at AIG ought, then one must not worship or elevate any entity above God in importance. Yet, this is precisely what AIG does! If you examine their website, you'll find indicator upon indicator that they feel the Bible, rather than the love of Christ, is the solution to the societal ills they mistakenly attribute to the teaching of evolution.
From the quote above, "Ken Ham explores the need for cultural reform, helping us see that the Bible is really the key to what the world desperately needs." The key to change in the world is not the Bible itself, but the love of Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me." And is it true that no one comes to Christ except by way of a literal interpretation of the Bible? Hardly.
"School students once went through the public education system learning Christian morality, understanding its foundation in an absolute authority -- the Word of the Creator God to whom they were all accountable" (ref. AIG website). Here, again, we see the idolatry at work: treat the Bible as the ultimate authority rather than God himself. Instead of recognizing that the Bible, though inspired by God, is the work of fallen men, they attribute to it greater authority than the actual handiwork of that "Creator God" they profess to follow.
References to society's decay brought about by the spread of "evolutionary philosophy" (is that the scientific method?) are strewn throughout the AIG website. Instead of promoting the love of Christ and its results -- service to others and the fruits of the spirit -- AIG promotes the literal interpretation of the Bible as a solution. While taking the Bible literally may in some circumstances cause a person to display Christ's love, in no way is literalism a solution an and of itself. In fact, literalism may just as easily lead to pharisaic hypocrisy, as in Matt. 22:18-45, and Matt. 23. Specifically,
"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swear by the gold of the temple, he is bound by the oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything in it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it." Matthew 23:16-22
Which is more important, Christians: the Bible, or the God who created the Bible?
"As a ministry, we want to help defuse these 'bombs' and provide these students (and teachers) in the public school system with the truth about their origins so that they will understand that they are made in the image of God, are sinners separated from their Creator, but that they can be saved for eternity, and know purpose and meaning in life through Jesus Christ." (ref. the AIG website)
Clearly, from this quote, AIG feel that the "truth" about origins is sufficient to bring about salvation through Christ. This is obviously incorrect, else every person from the Middle Ages was saved and had a relationship with Christ. What their ministry really does is elevate literalism and origins "truth" to be equivalent to the love of Christ: more evidence of their subtle and pervasive idolatry.
Some might charge that I'm making mountains out of molehills. While the quotes themselves may seem to stretch in places, they are so numerous that, taken in sum, they demonstrate that the overall attitude of AIG is one that takes the Bible literally at the expense of God. As the Bible AIG professes to take literally makes so abundantly clear, to Christians the answer to society's ailments is self-sacrificial Christlike love and working to build the kingdom of heaven, not Biblical literalism.
Most all Christians believe in a God who created, despite the lack of evidence for that God. Science is God's gift to us: the exercise of our rational minds to discover how the universe around us works. Placing faith in the Bible above faith in God's creation is the height of arrogance; selling Biblical literalism as a solution to society's problems is idolatry, since Christians profess that Christ, and only Christ is the solution to the fallen nature of man.
AIG indulges in a very subtle, but very real, idolatry: making the Bible more important than God. They do this by billing Biblical literalism as a solution to the problems of society, instead of the love of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Biblical literalism closes eyes and minds to the truth evident in nature, as well as increasing the temptation to pharisaic hypocrisy as outlined in Matthew 22-24. Remember, to a Christian, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Not through the Bible; only through Christ.