Part of my reluctance stems from professional considerations. In my previous career as a college professor, I continually challenged students to think straight about the difference between environmental science and environmentalism (a distinction I still find people confused about). It’s important to know which of our beliefs about the environment come from serious science, and which ones come from our ideological makeup. My students always left taking that distinction seriously, and I think the ones who went on to careers in activism did so better grounded in science and economics, and more able to make a difference in the world.
I’d say it’s equally important to distinguish the ideas we get from Scripture and which ones we get from the culture around us. Why? Because we use different forms of argument for each of those kinds of belief. And because as a Christian, I have more confidence in the ideas I get from the book of Scripture and the book of Nature (both of which reveal something about God), than in the ideas I get from the culture around me.
[And, no, I’m not so naïve as to think I can be completely objective in my reading of Scripture and of science. But neither am I so completely postmodern that I disbelieve in truth.]
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