Scholarship or Foolishness?

I read the following short e-mail interchange concerning biblical studies earlier this week which stimulated some thoughts:

Biblical scholar:
Scholarship cannot be religious. The only agenda of scholarship is scholarship.

Atheist:
Does this, then, mean that "evangelical scholarship" is an oxymoron?

Biblical scholar:
I am afraid so, which does not say that an evangelical person cannot do scholarship. An evangelical approach, not to say a plain fundamentalistic one, is legitimate as long as it can be falsified.

That last predicate struck me. Why must an approach be falsifiable in order to be scholarly? What are the implied assumptions for this thinking? I assume it falls somewhere within this spectrum.

        1. Absolute truth does not exist.
        2. Absolute truth exists but is unknowable.
        3. Absolute truth exists and is knowable, but man cannot ascertain it.
        4. Absolute truth exists and is knowable, but man has not ascertained it.
        5. Absolute truth exists and is knowable; man ascertains and rejects it.
        6. Absolute truth exists and is knowable; man ascertains and accepts it.

If there is an absolute truth, one assumes a truth-giver with absolute authority. Option one attempts to eliminate the truth-giver as an impossibility., while the second through fourth rest in the warm comfort that the truth-giver can have no jurisdiction over the actions of the human race because the standard, precept, or grand plan has not been properly communicated. If man cannot understand, he cannot be accountable. Most of human philosophy has fallen somewhere within this range.

The Bible gives a completely different take on this. In Romans 1:18-23 we find the fifth option above as the apostle Paul writes:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Notice that the truth-giver, God, is knowable through what he has demonstrated in nature. Further, mankind deliberately suppresses that knowledge in their unrighteousness turning rather to their own thought processes and replacing God with a charicature of their own individual or collective foolishness. To make matters worse, God has communicated his intentions by way of various people through the centuries. As certainly as God has made himself known in creation (Psalm 19:1-6), he has made himself known in words (Psalm 19:7-11). This dual witness leaves mankind without any excuse.

The positive side to all this is that by accepting who God is and what he has done for his creation, we can be reconciled to him for our sinful disobedience. And what has he done for us that deserves all this accolade?  Only give the ultimate gift, his son, to cover and remove the sin that separates us from him. The apostle Paul wrote that he had "delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).