The Advancement Summary
Bush, Russ L. The Advancement: Keeping the Faith in an Evolutionary Age. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2003.
Introduction
After reading The Advancement: Keeping the Faith in an Evolutionary Age by L. Russ
Bush, the purpose of writing this summary and critique will be to enhance this student’s understanding of this topic. Bush’s purpose for writing this book is to give those with a different worldview the background information of what the advancement worldview is and how
Christians can defend our worldview against their worldview. The evaluation of this book is this is a must read for any Christian who is learning to defend against different worldviews, as this worldview is not all wrong. We need to understand what is wrong …show more content…
and as Bush writes, “Progress is inevitable because God is active rather than static.” (15)
Summary
Bush begins his writing with an overview of how the advancement worldview began. “In the nineteenth century the Enlightenment’s emphasis on morality and religious feelings continued and grew, but to this was added a sense of natural historical development and inevitable progress.” (8) After this new sense of freedom to believe in something new, many adopted this worldview and proclaimed that all this were true, some were against it and criticized the teachings, while others believed that some of the new and some of the old were the way to
go.
During this time, the advancement worldview began to grow due to the increases in science, medicine, and technology. Bush argues that this movement was making the society to digress instead of progress, as the truth about God was being diluted. Bush demonstrates that Christians need to be informed about the nature of evidence, but he falls short in explaining how the Christian can apologetically defend their belief. Bush states,
“Many Christians have tried to develop compromise positions by which they hope to be able to maintain their theistic commitments and yet accept the interpretations of biological data which are provided by the secular humanists.” (32) Bush explains some of the well-known thoughts that are looked at by famous skeptics, like Darwin, Spencer, and …show more content…
Hegel. Over the next few paragraphs, a summary of each chapter will be given. In chapter 1,
The Worldview of the Advancement, Bush explains how Plato and Aristotle began the movement of modern and new worldviews that went against the Christian worldview. This worldview stressed a gradual, inevitably progressive development that would change the landscape of our world today. In chapter 2, The Rise of Advancement Science, science began to play a huge role in what people believed about God. The chapter explains that during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was normal to explain the universe and all in it without even mentioning a creator behind it at all. This movement began with Christians began to believe that God left the universe to run on its own. In chapter 3, The Advancement and the Theory of Knowledge, a more naturalistic biological evolution explains that everything is a variation of one thing and that “one thing is the matrix of space, time, matter, and energy.” (38) This explains how mankind dictates how nature is, how it exists, and how it changes. In chapter 4, Modern Theistic Alternatives, looks at several alternatives, such as pantheism, which explains that the “sub-atomic process contains the totality of potential power in the physical universe,” (55) and open theism, which explains, “God knows all that can be known, but the future cannot be known, for it is a set of open options.” (62) In chapter 5, What is Naturalistic Evolution? Bush cites seven assumptions of evolutionary biology: physical similarity is an indication of a historical biological linkage, modern vertebrates and invertebrates had a series of common ancestors, metazoan life spontaneously arose from the protozoans, all life on earth is genetically related and thus arose from a common ancestor, nonliving matter spontaneously gave rise to living matter, spontaneous biogenesis occurred only once, and the every organism has evolved from one another beginning with a single cell.
In chapter 6, Why Not Naturalistic Evolution? Bush gives four basic beliefs; mankind evolved from animals, the human mind and human behavior are therefore directly influenced by our animal ancestry, all of reality is subject to naturalistic scientific investigation, and truth is discoverable or at least confirmable by and only by the naturalistic scientific method of research.
He also gives his five objections: materialism is not self-evidently true, artificial selection has not been proven, encoded information is a necessary precondition for biogenesis, necessary source of codes is not found in nonliving matter, and under no known conditions does information arises spontaneously from noninformation. In chapter 7, Why Not Advancement? Bush provides his arguments against popular or majority opinion. He argues; knowledge versus known, critical versus cultural thought, and how history itself may be altered by cultic demand. In chapter 8, What Then Are We to Believe?
Bush gives three fundamental truths that Christians should believe in: God exists, the world exists, and Jesus is
Lord.
Critique
To critique a piece of work like The Advancement can be difficult. Bush is a well-known author and professor with endless amount of knowledge. If this critique can in anyway help those who read this book, distinguishing between the strengths and weaknesses, will further challenge the reader to dig deeper into their knowledge of the subject and how as Christians we are to defend our faith. The first weakness is Bush does not really engage on how to defend the Christian beliefs until the end of the book. Personally, reading books that give scenarios, such as a basic guideline on how the conversations may go, can lead us to fully understand what the person may be thinking. Bush does not do this. If Bush would have written, “Nature is what produces man’s character,” as a defense of the modern view, and related it to what the Christian believes,
“Nature reflects God’s character,” this type of model would have been beneficiary for the student to learn, due to our society continuing to change daily. Another weakness is the book could have been a little bit longer. After reading the book, it seemed that there was so much more that Bush could have written about the different worldviews that the book lists. This is where adding a chapter of what was mentioned before would have come into play. Bush’s teachings in the book falls short of proactiveness in the area of apologetics, according to the Christian worldview. He seems to leave the Christian wanting more information but fails to deliver. One of the major strengths of Bush is his knowledge of the subject. Before reading this book, this student never understood how the advancement of science, medicine, technology, and other areas that we see in the world today could impact what Christians believed. Bush even went on to mention that Christians are now lowering their standards on their beliefs and are beginning to compromise on certain areas. Why is this happening? Bush warns, “Christians must become informed about the nature of the evidence, about the implications of the various viewpoints, and about the viable alternatives within the framework of a recognition that the Bible is the normative source of truth about God and about man.” (32) Another strength is Bush’s drive of explaining what the book is about. Even though the books seem to be a little short and lacks certain qualities, Bush does want each reader to know that God is the answer to every challenge to the Christian worldview. He writes, “Loss of God as an essential part of one’s life and worldview is a loss of the only sufficient foundation for meaning, hope, and significance. Without God as a control center, everything floats on a sea of relativity.” (103) Bush’s heart is for the reader to know what the world is believing in our society today. This advancement worldview is spreading because Christians are allowing others to become influenced by wrong teachings.
Conclusion
This student finds Bush’s work appropriate for our studies of Apologetics. His writings will help the readers to understand the advancement worldview and will help to be able to defend their beliefs in Christianity. Bush’s work helps in the external apologetics, but Bush’s heart is for Christians to begin the apologetical process internally before they start to defend their beliefs.
Introduction
After reading The Advancement: Keeping the Faith in an Evolutionary Age by L. Russ
Bush, the purpose of writing this summary and critique will be to enhance this student’s understanding of this topic. Bush’s purpose for writing this book is to give those with a different worldview the background information of what the advancement worldview is and how
Christians can defend our worldview against their worldview. The evaluation of this book is this is a must read for any Christian who is learning to defend against different worldviews, as this worldview is not all wrong. We need to understand what is wrong …show more content…
and as Bush writes, “Progress is inevitable because God is active rather than static.” (15)
Summary
Bush begins his writing with an overview of how the advancement worldview began. “In the nineteenth century the Enlightenment’s emphasis on morality and religious feelings continued and grew, but to this was added a sense of natural historical development and inevitable progress.” (8) After this new sense of freedom to believe in something new, many adopted this worldview and proclaimed that all this were true, some were against it and criticized the teachings, while others believed that some of the new and some of the old were the way to
go.
During this time, the advancement worldview began to grow due to the increases in science, medicine, and technology. Bush argues that this movement was making the society to digress instead of progress, as the truth about God was being diluted. Bush demonstrates that Christians need to be informed about the nature of evidence, but he falls short in explaining how the Christian can apologetically defend their belief. Bush states,
“Many Christians have tried to develop compromise positions by which they hope to be able to maintain their theistic commitments and yet accept the interpretations of biological data which are provided by the secular humanists.” (32) Bush explains some of the well-known thoughts that are looked at by famous skeptics, like Darwin, Spencer, and …show more content…
Hegel. Over the next few paragraphs, a summary of each chapter will be given. In chapter 1,
The Worldview of the Advancement, Bush explains how Plato and Aristotle began the movement of modern and new worldviews that went against the Christian worldview. This worldview stressed a gradual, inevitably progressive development that would change the landscape of our world today. In chapter 2, The Rise of Advancement Science, science began to play a huge role in what people believed about God. The chapter explains that during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was normal to explain the universe and all in it without even mentioning a creator behind it at all. This movement began with Christians began to believe that God left the universe to run on its own. In chapter 3, The Advancement and the Theory of Knowledge, a more naturalistic biological evolution explains that everything is a variation of one thing and that “one thing is the matrix of space, time, matter, and energy.” (38) This explains how mankind dictates how nature is, how it exists, and how it changes. In chapter 4, Modern Theistic Alternatives, looks at several alternatives, such as pantheism, which explains that the “sub-atomic process contains the totality of potential power in the physical universe,” (55) and open theism, which explains, “God knows all that can be known, but the future cannot be known, for it is a set of open options.” (62) In chapter 5, What is Naturalistic Evolution? Bush cites seven assumptions of evolutionary biology: physical similarity is an indication of a historical biological linkage, modern vertebrates and invertebrates had a series of common ancestors, metazoan life spontaneously arose from the protozoans, all life on earth is genetically related and thus arose from a common ancestor, nonliving matter spontaneously gave rise to living matter, spontaneous biogenesis occurred only once, and the every organism has evolved from one another beginning with a single cell.
In chapter 6, Why Not Naturalistic Evolution? Bush gives four basic beliefs; mankind evolved from animals, the human mind and human behavior are therefore directly influenced by our animal ancestry, all of reality is subject to naturalistic scientific investigation, and truth is discoverable or at least confirmable by and only by the naturalistic scientific method of research.
He also gives his five objections: materialism is not self-evidently true, artificial selection has not been proven, encoded information is a necessary precondition for biogenesis, necessary source of codes is not found in nonliving matter, and under no known conditions does information arises spontaneously from noninformation. In chapter 7, Why Not Advancement? Bush provides his arguments against popular or majority opinion. He argues; knowledge versus known, critical versus cultural thought, and how history itself may be altered by cultic demand. In chapter 8, What Then Are We to Believe?
Bush gives three fundamental truths that Christians should believe in: God exists, the world exists, and Jesus is
Lord.
Critique
To critique a piece of work like The Advancement can be difficult. Bush is a well-known author and professor with endless amount of knowledge. If this critique can in anyway help those who read this book, distinguishing between the strengths and weaknesses, will further challenge the reader to dig deeper into their knowledge of the subject and how as Christians we are to defend our faith. The first weakness is Bush does not really engage on how to defend the Christian beliefs until the end of the book. Personally, reading books that give scenarios, such as a basic guideline on how the conversations may go, can lead us to fully understand what the person may be thinking. Bush does not do this. If Bush would have written, “Nature is what produces man’s character,” as a defense of the modern view, and related it to what the Christian believes,
“Nature reflects God’s character,” this type of model would have been beneficiary for the student to learn, due to our society continuing to change daily. Another weakness is the book could have been a little bit longer. After reading the book, it seemed that there was so much more that Bush could have written about the different worldviews that the book lists. This is where adding a chapter of what was mentioned before would have come into play. Bush’s teachings in the book falls short of proactiveness in the area of apologetics, according to the Christian worldview. He seems to leave the Christian wanting more information but fails to deliver. One of the major strengths of Bush is his knowledge of the subject. Before reading this book, this student never understood how the advancement of science, medicine, technology, and other areas that we see in the world today could impact what Christians believed. Bush even went on to mention that Christians are now lowering their standards on their beliefs and are beginning to compromise on certain areas. Why is this happening? Bush warns, “Christians must become informed about the nature of the evidence, about the implications of the various viewpoints, and about the viable alternatives within the framework of a recognition that the Bible is the normative source of truth about God and about man.” (32) Another strength is Bush’s drive of explaining what the book is about. Even though the books seem to be a little short and lacks certain qualities, Bush does want each reader to know that God is the answer to every challenge to the Christian worldview. He writes, “Loss of God as an essential part of one’s life and worldview is a loss of the only sufficient foundation for meaning, hope, and significance. Without God as a control center, everything floats on a sea of relativity.” (103) Bush’s heart is for the reader to know what the world is believing in our society today. This advancement worldview is spreading because Christians are allowing others to become influenced by wrong teachings.
Conclusion
This student finds Bush’s work appropriate for our studies of Apologetics. His writings will help the readers to understand the advancement worldview and will help to be able to defend their beliefs in Christianity. Bush’s work helps in the external apologetics, but Bush’s heart is for Christians to begin the apologetical process internally before they start to defend their beliefs.