Years ago, my family took a vacation on the island of Crete. It was an extraordinary trip. While there, we toured the ruins of the palace at Knossos. This is a giant bronze age complex. As we walked around for hours, we went through dozens of “rooms”. Each room had a sign describing the features of the room and how it was used. The walls were largely covered by frescoes which also told about the history of the palace and the ancient people who occupied it, who they were and what their daily life was like. It was an eye opening education.
But, to understand the palace, we need to look at the recent history of the building. In the late 1800’s, there was a pile of dirt, some rudimentary walls, a collapsed staircase, and a stone chair. A British archeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, began digging into the pile of dirt. As he dug, he began piling up the stones he found. He arranged them into what he thought they once looked like. He painted frescoes. He reconstructed wooden columns that had completely rotted. He rebuilt the staircase. He built walls around the stone chair. He tried to recreate the bronze age palace based on the rubble that he found. But, before long, he had had little to work from except rubble. At that point he should have stopped. But he didn’t. When he ran out of historical data, he kept piling up stones……..according to his best guess as to the original design of the palace. What we have today is, in part, a restored bronze age palace…….and in part, Sir Evans’s creation, a creation based solely on his imagination.
What came next is the problem. Sir Evan’s and subsequent archeologists went through the restored palace and made up stories about how the people who occupied the palace lived. These stories were based solely on the years of reconstruction. The reconstruction was in large part created out of thin air by Sir Evan’s imagination. He called the stone chair a throne. He called the room that he built around the chair “The Throne Room”. And he put a King that he dreamed up on the throne. This tale is taught as history today. The problem is that this tale was largely created out of the imagination of Sir Evans.
Please understand, Sir Evans was not a quack or a charlatan. He was a highly respected scientist. He still is highly respected. He did what scientists do to this day. He began by studying actual physical data. But, when he ran out of data. When he ran out of walls to repair, he began speculating. He built walls out of rubble to fit the narrative that he believed. He created a myth about the Minoan civilization. That myth is taught today as history.
Scientists today do exactly the same thing. They analyse hard data and draw conclusions. But, at some point, they run out of data. They fill in the gaps using assumptions and theories. They craft these assumptions and theories to support the data and the analysis that they have already done. These assumptions and theories may some day turn out to be true…….to be supported by new data. But, until that happens, they are myths. Many of them will never be proven by data and will remain myths.
And there is the rub.
The rub is that the scientists teach the theories and assumptions as fact. And we build our lives around them. Some of them are true. Some of them are myths.
What are these theories….assumptions…..myths:
The flat earth theory
The earth is the center of the universe theory
Darwinian evolution
The missing link between man and apes
The big bang
The expanding universe
Dark energy
Dark matter
Hubble tension
There is a thread that runs through all of this “science”.
There is an assumption that undergirds it all.
That assumption?
God does not exist.
This is the greatest myth of all. And it will remain a myth until either the non-existence or the existence of God is proven…….by hard data. But……..that may be too late……for us.
Always remember this:
A chain of logic that contains 1,000 bulletproof steps and one assumption……..is an assumption……a theory…….a myth.
The greatest logical error that we can make as human beings?
To endanger our eternity on an assumption………a theory…….a myth.
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-11, ESV
