The word student can be defined as "one who is enrolled or attends classes at
a school, college, or university." Ideally, such a person is actively engaged
in the pursuit of discovering reality. However, according to the definition,
merely being a warm body in a classroom qualifies one as a student. It is sad
to say, but true, that many of today's students never rise to anything more
than this. As a result, they will expend great amounts of effort finding ways
to complete their courses of study without ever learning anything significant.
This is especially problematic in a world where a large number of professors
have embraced naturalism as their worldview. For this reason, they reject the
knowledge of God and embrace secularism. Based on this ideology, they promote
ideas and concepts that are essentially false.
Students are, therefore, often asked to research controversial issues.
Regrettably, the path of least resistance often leads them to internet sources
which are anything but scholarly. In turn, they form their opinions and make
their life choices based on "knowledge" gained from extremely questionable
sources simply because they were available on nice, easy to use websites
constructed by webmasters who knew how to get high search engine rankings.
This problem is especially disturbing when Christian students try to counter
the secularism of our day by using poor sources simply because they were
labeled "Christian." But this, too, is just poor scholarship and will lead to the
formation of poor opinions and weak arguments.
True scholarship is different. The very phrase true scholarship implies
that there is a kind of genuine scholastic effort that can be discerned from
that which is false or errant. It assumes inherently that there is a knowable
reality that can be discovered and understood. It assumes that once something
is properly understood that the knowledge gained is reliable and certain and
is not subject to change.
It is our contention that the most certain thing there is, is God and the
incarnation of Jesus Christ. Moreover, following from this truth is the
certainty that the Bible is the very Word of God, for Jesus himself attests to
it. Beyond this divine revelation is creation. That is, the universe in which
we live is the result of the action of God who created it according to his own
plan. Since God created this world, we can be confident that our study of it
will result in the discovery of enduring principles that can be known and
acted upon. These two certainties establish the basis for true scholarship. On
the one hand, the Scriptures provide the facts that God has revealed to
establish an ongoing theology. On the other, God has created an ordered
universe that can be investigated and understood thus establishing philosophy
or science. As such, real human knowledge can be discovered and that body of
knowledge can increase.
One of the first things to note about this conception of scholarship and
knowledge is that sound theology is never at odds with sound philosophy or
vice versa since the same God is the author of both. Despite this truth,
tension between the two has occurred at various times and places throughout
human history. In some cases, good scientific investigation ran up against
poor theology as was the case of the Church’s stance against Copernicus. In
other cases, poor science is carried on in the neglect of sound theology. Our
own age is largely marked by this latter problem as scientific inquiry in our
time is conducted without regard to theology at all. As a result, all manner
of theories have been put forward in science that simply amount to false
scholarship and false scholarship is no scholarship at all since it promotes
error as knowledge.
What is the modern day student to do if his aim is to gain a better
understanding of the world in which he lives? How is he to discern the
difference it makes? The goal of this web site is to provide links to articles
on various topics that are consistent with orthodox Christian thought. While
it is not necessary that all writers embrace Christian thought in order to
provide true scholarship, it is necessary that their work should not openly
defy good theology. What many students face today in the academy is this type
of regular and open defiance. Therefore, the aim here is to provide students
with a quick means of investigating an issue from a perspective that is at
least consistent with the Christian faith and with the principles of sound
research.
