Science and Faith

"belief that science tells us all that can be known or is worth knowing. It must clearly be distinguished from science itself, which, owing to its intrinsic limitation to only a certain kind of encounter with reality, is far from being in a position to make such an overblown claim for its explanatory power. Science has bracket out to much (meaning, purpose, beauty) from its consideration for it to be the universal source of understanding."

- John Polkinghorne, Science and Religion in Quest of Truth, 23

Conclusion: God cares about the physical world, has called it good, and Christians ought to be motivated to care for, investigate, and cultivate the physical world as God's good creation and gift to us.

Science and Faith

Argument 1: God of the Gaps

Basic Statement:

How do we explain these things:

Because of the development of science, there is no longer a need for religion, or the “God hypothesis.” Everything that religion was needed to explain is now able to be explained by the empirical sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.).

• How do we all stick to the ground?
• Why do my hands get warm when I rub them together?
• Why does the sun revolve around the earth?
• How did the world begin?

Takeaways:

The "God Hypothesis"

Science and the Resurrection

• For the Christian, God does not just create the world and then leave it to its own devices, he creates and sustains his creation. He upholds natural laws.

"God exists to explain all of the things that science cannot explain."

• God’s existence isn't simply a “hypothesis” to explain things.

• We don’t know about God because we came up with him as a helpful way to explain things we didn’t understand. God revealed himself to us.

1 Cor 15:20-58--Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection, and we will be raised like him, into physical bodies!

Do you see any potential problems with this idea?

Rom 8:18-39--Not just humans, but all of creation groans to be made new, not destroyed in favor of a non-physical existence!

Rev 21-22--There is physical new heaven and new earth that God has planned for his resurrected people to live in.

Because of the discoveries of modern science--gravity, thermodynamics, the big bang, evolution, etc., we no longer need God to explain the physical phenomena that we see every day. Therefore, we ought to give up our religion for it no longer has use as a hypothesis.

Discuss: If evolution were true, would it prove God didn't exist?

Q1: What are some issues with the "God Hypothesis?"

Q2: How do God and the "laws of nature" relate to one another?

The Objectivity of Science

Is science perfectly objective?

Religion is biased, subjective, based on opinions. Science is rational, objective, and based on facts.

• Science is not neutrally objective like many often assume.
• All data in science requires interpretation by flawed human minds.
• There are basic assumptions in science that cannot be proven by "scientific" methods, but are still necessary to science.

"I am talking about something much deeper--namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God, and, naturally, hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that....My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time.

- Thomas Nagel, The Last Word, 130-131

Argument 2: Science Excludes Religion

Philosophical naturalism: worldview suggesting all that exists is the physical, assumes the non-existence of God

“The view that everything has a natural cause and that organic life is solely the product of random forces guided by no one. When evolution is turned into an All-Encompassing Theory explaining absolutely everything we believe, feel, and do as the product of natural selection, then we are not in the arena of science, but of philosophy.” (Keller, 91)

Option #2: Contrast

Christian faith and science don't overlap at all. Christianity speaks to morality and feelings, science is about the physical world.

On Scientism...

"Above all, science requires commitment to the basic act of faith that there is a deep rational order in the world awaiting discovery, and that there is a sufficient degree of uniform consistency in the working of the universe to permit successful argument by induction as a means to discover aspects of that order, despite the inevitably limited and particular character of the experience that motivates the belief."

- John Polkinghorne, Science and Religion in Quest of Truth, 9-10

Option #1: Conflict

Option 3: Support

- If God created the natural world the way he did, and created human minds with the ability to understand it, then we should encourage Christians to be involved in science.

- Christian faith encourages the humble search for knowledge, and should therefore propel its followers to investigate the world God created.

Science and Christian faith are in conflict, they cannot function together coherently.

Christian faith supports and provides a framework for science.

ex. creation vs. evolution, Galileo, etc.

Do Christianity and science actually conflict?

Q: How does science fit into a theistic worldview?