Disturbing discord

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the most difficult people to get along with are either family members or fellow Christians (especially those in one’s local body)? Unfortunately, I personally am not especially good at the art of getting along well all the time with others, so I speak from experience on this dreadful subject. I have sometimes wondered why the people we agree with fundamentally are so often our worst enemies. I have noticed that this is no different for creation scientists. I have never had the privilege of being in the company of a group of more than two creation scientists at once, but I can read between the lines and hear the way they talk about each other well enough to tell that there is a lot a disagreement among them.
I am a huge fan of the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth) group; a group of six creation scientists who made many monumental discoveries regarding modern dating methods. However, it was evident from merely reading the introduction in their book documenting their research that these six scientists really disagreed on a lot of the minor details, so much that they had to recruit a seventh creation scientist, Dr. Larry Vardiman, to moderate between them. I think that this is partially due to the fact that evolution and billions of years are the only things that these scientists are taught in college. I have seen for myself how hard it really is to have to re-interpret everything they are teaching us in schools. Creationists are rarely in classes together on a secular campus, so we sort of have to fend for ourselves and reconcile all the little things we learn in classes personally to fit our model. Interpretations of geologic layers is a very good example of this because all we are ever taught in geology classes is that it all the layers were gradually deposited over billions of years, but we individually have to try to figure out in our heads what layers were flood layers and which were from the ice age.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that it we should always agree with each other. On the contrary, debating ideas is one of the only ways we will be able to make progress in our scientific and theological understanding. But, we should not hold these things against one another and start taking sides. As Jesus said in Matthew 12, every “house divided against itself shall not stand”. In all of our disagreements, don’t lose sight of the big picture, ask yourself it this will help or hurt the creation cause as a whole. Remember that we are in Spiritual warfare, and must help those who are fighting with us, just as Benjamin Franklin noted, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or we will most assuredly hang separately”. I really wish that all of the leading creation scientists would get along better, because for me, as a young aspiring creation scientist, it makes our task a lot harder when the people we look up to are in discord with one another. As a whole, remember 1John 3:16, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”