The Great Turning Point: The Church's Catastrophic Mistake on Geology--Before Darwin

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 272 pages
• Published by: Master Books September 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0890514089
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0890514085
• Book Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

Product Review
A carefully thought out book that is easy for all to understand. -- Joanna Swift, Production Secretary

Product Description
Many people in the Church today have the idea that "young-earth" creationism is a fairly recent invention, popularized by fundamentalist Christians in the mid-20th century.

Is this view correct?

In fact, scholar Terry Mortenson has done fascinating original research on this subject in England, and documents that several leading, pre-Darwin scholars and scientists, known as "scriptural geologists" did not believe in long ages for the earth. Mortenson sheds light on the following:

• Before Darwin, what did the Church believe about the age of the earth?
• Why did it believe this way?
• What was the controversy that rocked the Church in 19th-century England?
• Who were the "scriptural geologists"?
• What influences did the Church contend with even before Darwin’s book?
• What is the stance of the Church today?

Reader Reviews
Saint Augustine (354 - 430 CE) in "The Literal Meaning of Genesis" (trans John Hammond Taylor) provided excellent advice that author Terry Mortenson recklessly ignored: "Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world ... and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics. ... For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion." The last fourteen words of Augustine's text come from Paul's First Letter to Timothy, chapter 1, verse 7. Augustine battled contemporaries who mistook Genesis for a science book, and would find our latter-day luddites equally reprehensible. Given the vast consilience of scientific evidence that clearly points to a 4.54 billion year old earth, and the centrality of evolution in the history of life, Augustine's advice is prescient and apropos. As an employee of Answers in Genesis (AiG) Terry Mortenson signed a "Statement of Faith" that includes: BASICS ARTICLE 3: "The account of origins presented in Genesis is a simple but factual presentation of actual events and therefore provides a reliable framework for scientific research into the question of the origin and history of life, mankind, the Earth and the universe." GENERAL ARTICLE 6: "No apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record." Investigating nature - even when armed with the formidable tools of science, philosophy, and reason - challenges the most astute and perceptive human intellect. Mortenson, and the so-called 'scriptural geologists' celebrated in this book, abandoned science for a dysfunctional chimera of theology and dogma. Contemporary geologists observe the structure, features and composition of the earth, and then attempt to construct hypothesis or theories that can explain their observations. Successful theories also predict as yet unobserved phenomenon, which are verified or falsified via further observation and/or experimentation. Any hypothesis or theory that conflicts with observation, or makes incorrect predictions is rejected. Philosophically science, and geology as a discipline, is based on methodological naturalism - which directs practitioners to seek natural causes for natural phenomena. This operational commitment to naturalism catalyzed the scientific revolution during the life of Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626 CE). 'Scriptural geologists' treated the Bible as the ultimate theory of life, the universe, meaning, and everything; and then attempted to shoehorn every observation - however inconsistent with their pre-ordained (priestly) views - into a self-imposed conceptual straightjacket. Observations that conflicted with dogma were rejected, or explained away via irrational faith-based mechanisms that asserted the primacy of unverifiable special revelation over empirically verifiable reality. Philosophically 'scriptural geologists' embraced methodological supernaturalism - effectively reinstating the demon-haunted dark ages world - by allowing capricious supernatural intervention at any point deemed necessary. The 'scriptural geologists' lost this debate - their antique worldview posited nonsensical results in direct conflict with observation. People of any faith can be scientists - and many are deeply religious (e.g. Francis Collins) - but when doing science they compartmentalize faith and pragmatically embrace methodological naturalism because it works. Which is more than any honest observer can say about this book. Ultimately "The Great Turning Point" is just another threadbare tract from the creationists-on-crack AiG claque. Christopher Hedges, author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, succinctly unmasked the goals and objectives of organizations like AiG when he wrote: "They seek the imprint of science and scholarship to legitimize myth. ... The 'paraprofessional' organizations formed by the Christian right, organizations of teachers, journalists, doctors, lawyers and scientists, mimic the activities of real professional groups. They seek to challenge the legitimacy and the power of the traditional organizations. The duplication of the structures and methods employed by the non-totalitarian world, the use of pseudo-science to dress up fantasy, is slowly undermining our legitimate scientific and educational institutions. It is destroying the foundations of our open society. It is ushering us into a world where lies are true."