The relationship between the Church and science is a strange one.
On the one hand, there is no legitimate religious Christian sect which still holds the six 24 hour days of creation to be a fact.
No church still holds that the sun rotates around the earth. Nor does anyone yet believe that the sun "stood still" at the Biblical battle of Jericho.
Why, then, is there such reluctance to have religious organizations accept the sciences of the body and the mind as we have come to know them?
How difficult would it be to acknowledge that the metaphor of a "Father" is a potential for behavioral mischief? If a competent psychologist were to look objectively at some of the attributes imposed upon "God" by writers of the Old Testament, wouldn't the diagnosis be that the Old Testament God was a bit of an egocentric bully with evidence of temperamental pettiness?
At that point wouldn't anyone have to ask, "Why?" Why would God be petty? What need would there be to proclaim the first commandment?
If the answer is, as it surely must be, "None," the reason to the strained relationship between the Church and science begins to clarify--Church is in danger of devolving into irrelevancy, and that devolution could threaten whatever moral underpinnings of human behavior there are which are based on Church teachings.
How to prevent this collapse is the great question for religious leaders.
It needn't be difficult. Just accept that "revelation" is an on-going process and with each forward step in science our understanding of "God" increases and we must adjust to that understanding.
