Glueing the pot: an investigation into the biblical basis for Christian fundamentalist beliefs about God, man and nature

[Abstract of a paper read at the Ecological Society Conference, 1983.]

Christian fundamentalists have been actively promulgating the idea that evolution theory is scientifically unsound. Their attacks have attracted much public interest, and the overall effect has been to create widespread unease about evolution.

Scientists have responded to the attacks by defending evolution, but are handicapped by the fact that evolutionary concepts are often complex and difficult to explain to a non-scientific audience. In the eyes of many, biblically based fundamentalism is still seen as a credible alternative view of nature.

A neglected strategy has been to examine the biblical texts on which the fundamentalist case is based to see if a coherent biblical account of creation can be deduced. As this paper will show, no account can be derived, and moreover, the internal contradictions are such that no consistent biblical view of the relationship of God, man and nature exists.

"Teaching a fool is like mending pottery with glue, or like rousing a sleeper from heavy sleep". Ecclesiasticus 22: 7.