The article below (from "A Symposium on Creation" Vols. 1-5 @ http://www.creationism.org/english/symposium/) is used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, copyright ©1968-1975.  All rights to these materials are reserved.  Materials are not be be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Book House Company.

Two of the most vigorous and promising developments in the field of learning in our day have sprung up independently over the past ten or twenty years. Now they are being joined together in what should be another great stride toward leadership in the modern realm of thought.

The first of these is the re-establishment of belief in the historic fact of creation as the fundamental postulate of natural science; the other is the re-establishment of schooling as a religious work and the reappearance of Christian schools in every part of the land.

The papers presented in this volume represent the bringing together of these two developments. They were delivered by men of science, leaders in what may be called creation research, at the annual conference on Christian schooling in Houston, Texas, under the auspices of the Association for Christian Schools.

This conference, held at St. Thomas' Episcopal School, is attended largely by teachers and administrators of Christian schools from all over the country, from many denominations. There are no member schools either of the conference or of the association: attendance is open to all who wish to come, and the whole purpose is to stimulate a recovery of the high standards of Christian learning – without question the most exacting known to man.

There is no attempt made to impose any of the thinking of the conference on those in attendance. The criterion for selection of speakers is that they be convinced of the truth of creation as it has been believed by Christians always, and that they explore the implications of this fact on their various disciplines.

It would be rash indeed to expect complete and settled doctrines at this stage, or perhaps ever, except in theology. Even here, where theological doctrines seem to be open to differences without departing from the doctrine of creation, no agreement is required. Clearly there must be a great deal of exploratory work done in the sciences, and there must be ample room for trial and error, for honest mistakes, for readjustment to new facts. Perhaps there is no limit to the facts that have to be interpreted or reinterpreted in the light of the controlling belief in creation.

The scholars engaged in this pursuit would probably be among the first to insist that their work is not definitive, and that at the present writing the most that can be hoped for is to lay the foundation for a whole new system of scientific thought. It must also be recognized that men of religion who have sought to reconcile evolutionary premises with Christian doctrine also have some hard thinking and study to do.

Undoubtedly one of the strongest forces directing the new line of interpretation has been that of so-called scientific investigation itself. It is men of science more than men of religion who are leading the return to the doctrine of Creation. New findings have amassed an overwhelming body of data that simply cannot be accommodated to the twin pillars of evolutionary thought – eons of time and chance. On the other hand, the doctrine of creation offers an exciting basis for interpretation and as more and more work is done along this line, the greater is the response from all sides.

One of the leaders in this field, Dr. A. E. Wilder Smith, professor of pharmacology at the University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, has written: "Darwin, when he formulated his theories of the origin of life one hundred years ago, had no knowledge of either the laws of thermodynamics (they were just being worked out by Calusius, Clapeyron, and Kelvin at that time), or the laws of heredity (Mendeľ's laws were unknown to him, though published in Darwin's lifetime ). Darwin in his day could therefore assume with impunity that order did arise spontaneously from chaos, that life did arise spontaneously. Today, in the light of scientific discovery, we can no longer do this.

It is a rare privilege to be associated with men of such intellectual skill and courage and to be in any way connected with the great contribution they are making to the whole field of learning and especially to the recovery of Christian scholarship, the jewel of human achievement. Their papers are to be commended to all who are concerned with Truth.

T. Robert Ingram

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