From the Principal’s Desk
Dear Parents,
The advance of science since the 1600’s has been astounding. Laws have been established, breakthroughs have been made, and technology has abounded. The reason for these advances is largely due to a change in thinking. You see prior to the seventeenth century, the prevailing thought in science is that if a proposition made sense, then it must be true. That way of thinking regresses back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed that philosophy and science were equals, and that scientific thought could be established by reasonable thinking. He put a great deal of thinking toward the things he observed. He explained his conclusions in logical terms, so much so that people believed what he said. However, he was missing one key component in his science.
Aristotle reasoned that since heavier objects are, well, heavier than lighter objects, that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. He conjectured that men have more teeth than women. He proposed that the structure of matter consists of five basic elements: earth, fire air, water, and aether. Certainly knowledge builds upon knowledge, but there was still one thing missing with Aristotle’s science. What was the missing part? Experimentation.
I believe there was a theological reason why Aristotle relied more on knowledge and reason than he did on testing, and that was because the Greeks had a belief system that said all spirit is good and all matter is evil (Gnosticism). As a result, if an intellectual concept made sense, then it tended to be believed, even if it was not scientifically accurate.
That wrong way of thinking pervaded the next two thousand years. What Aristotle said was accepted as true simply because it was Aristotle who said it. Consequently, science was retarded during that large space of time. Not until the 1600s did people begin to seriously challenge scientific tradition and begin testing what people had blindly believed for generations.
Some of the experiments were quite simple. For instance, in AD 1589 Galileo climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped two balls of different masses. When they hit the ground at the same time, he successfully proved his theory of gravity and disproved Aristotle’s theory of gravity. From that time on, the breakthroughs just kept mounting. Why? Because scientists began to test their thinking.
I believe the very thing that was happening in Aristotle’s day through the middle ages is happening in our day: people believe something simply because they hear it from a “credible” source. In 1946 Dr. Benjamin Spock said that we don’t have to spank our children and that we should trust our instincts. The media is blasting away at traditional family values, telling us that marriage is optional and “gay marriage” is acceptable. We are hearing politically that redistribution of wealth is not only fair, but it is just, and the only way to have equity in a society. As I observe society, I see people being influenced by the standard thinking of the day. But one major factor is missing. People are not testing their thinking against Scriputre.
The Bible says “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:21-22). Everything is to be tested against the truth of God’s Word. If it passes the test and aligns with Scripture, then hold on to it. If it fails the test, abstain from it. Evil comes in all sorts of packages.
I want to challenge you: Test your thinking against the Bible. Jesus said that man is to live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). When we test our thinking against the Bible and believe what it says, we advance. When we don’t, we go backward.
Sincerely,
Pastor Sutton
Dear Parents,
The advance of science since the 1600’s has been astounding. Laws have been established, breakthroughs have been made, and technology has abounded. The reason for these advances is largely due to a change in thinking. You see prior to the seventeenth century, the prevailing thought in science is that if a proposition made sense, then it must be true. That way of thinking regresses back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed that philosophy and science were equals, and that scientific thought could be established by reasonable thinking. He put a great deal of thinking toward the things he observed. He explained his conclusions in logical terms, so much so that people believed what he said. However, he was missing one key component in his science.
Aristotle reasoned that since heavier objects are, well, heavier than lighter objects, that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. He conjectured that men have more teeth than women. He proposed that the structure of matter consists of five basic elements: earth, fire air, water, and aether. Certainly knowledge builds upon knowledge, but there was still one thing missing with Aristotle’s science. What was the missing part? Experimentation.
I believe there was a theological reason why Aristotle relied more on knowledge and reason than he did on testing, and that was because the Greeks had a belief system that said all spirit is good and all matter is evil (Gnosticism). As a result, if an intellectual concept made sense, then it tended to be believed, even if it was not scientifically accurate.
That wrong way of thinking pervaded the next two thousand years. What Aristotle said was accepted as true simply because it was Aristotle who said it. Consequently, science was retarded during that large space of time. Not until the 1600s did people begin to seriously challenge scientific tradition and begin testing what people had blindly believed for generations.
Some of the experiments were quite simple. For instance, in AD 1589 Galileo climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped two balls of different masses. When they hit the ground at the same time, he successfully proved his theory of gravity and disproved Aristotle’s theory of gravity. From that time on, the breakthroughs just kept mounting. Why? Because scientists began to test their thinking.
I believe the very thing that was happening in Aristotle’s day through the middle ages is happening in our day: people believe something simply because they hear it from a “credible” source. In 1946 Dr. Benjamin Spock said that we don’t have to spank our children and that we should trust our instincts. The media is blasting away at traditional family values, telling us that marriage is optional and “gay marriage” is acceptable. We are hearing politically that redistribution of wealth is not only fair, but it is just, and the only way to have equity in a society. As I observe society, I see people being influenced by the standard thinking of the day. But one major factor is missing. People are not testing their thinking against Scriputre.
The Bible says “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:21-22). Everything is to be tested against the truth of God’s Word. If it passes the test and aligns with Scripture, then hold on to it. If it fails the test, abstain from it. Evil comes in all sorts of packages.
I want to challenge you: Test your thinking against the Bible. Jesus said that man is to live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). When we test our thinking against the Bible and believe what it says, we advance. When we don’t, we go backward.
Sincerely,
Pastor Sutton