Slides: Christianity and Science

Christianity and Science

By David Feddes

Galileo against Christianity?

• “The Holy Spirit intended to teach us in the Bible how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.”

• “The Holy Bible can never speak untruth—whenever its true meaning is understood.”

The Scopes Trial of 1925

• ACLU wanted volunteer for a show trial. No risk of serious punishment.

• John Scopes was a math teacher and coach, not a biology teacher.

• He did not know much about evolution and couldn’t remember if he ever taught it as a substitute teacher.

Copernicus: earth moves around sun

• Parish administrator for forty years.

• "The universe has been wrought for us by a supremely good and orderly Creator.”

• Science is pursued from “a loving duty to seek the truth in all things, in so far as God has granted that to human reason.”

Kepler: laws of planetary motion

• “The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God.”

• “I give you thanks, Creator and God, that you have give me this joy in your creation, and I rejoice in the work of your hands.”

Newton: laws of gravitation & motion

• Wrote more than a million words on biblical studies

• “No sciences are better attested than the religion of the Bible.”

• “Atheism is so senseless. The universe did not happen by chance.”

Boyle: founder of chemistry

• Boyle’s law: equation for gas pressure

• Devout Christian

• Theological writings

• Gave large sums to missions

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin: thermodynamics, electricity, physics

• Elder in the Church of Scotland

• “If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to believe in God.”

Louis Pasteur

• Discovered bacteria

• Pasteurization process to kill bacteria

• No spontaneous generation: biogenesis

• Believed strongly in God as Creator and in Christ as Savior

• Said that the more science he knew, the stronger his faith became

George Washington Carver

• More than 300 products from peanuts

• More than 100 products from sweet potatoes

• Led Bible class

• Criticized by New York Times for saying that his faith in Jesus guided his research

Francis Collins

• Headed the Human Genome Project

• Director of National Institutes of Health

• Former atheist who became evangelical Christian

• Author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Cultural mandate

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28)

Solomon’s research

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore… He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:29-34)

Science-smothering worldviews

• If many gods bicker, why expect to find underlying patterns and unity?

• If the physical world is unreal or evil, who would want to study it?

• If the physical world is divine, who would dare meddle with it or master it?

• If ultimate reality is chaos, why expect to find order?

• If unchangeable fate rules all, why try to understand or change anything?

Framework for science

• One God created and governs all things, so we can expect to find unity.

• The physical world is real and created good. It’s worth investigating and developing.

• Created things are not divine. The Lord made them for his glory and our benefit. So study them with wonder, and use them for good.

• Fate is a false idea. The Creator gave us the authority and ability to rule creation.

• The Creator is consistent in his character and orderly in his actions, so we can expect created things to have pattern, not just chaos.

• God created an intelligible universe and gave humans intelligence. The Creator even took on a human nature in the person of Jesus. That gives us good reason to think human minds can know at least something of the world.

• The universe of created things is contingent, not necessary. None of these things had to exist. God made the universe from nothing, and he was free to do things differently. Therefore, we need to observe and experiment to learn the way things are, not assume we can figure out it by reasoning without observing.

Science without God: mindless

“With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of a man's mind… are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would anyone trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?” (Charles Darwin)

The idea that one species of organism is, unlike all the others, oriented not just toward its own increased prosperity but toward Truth, is as un-Darwinian as the idea that every human being has a built-in moral compass—a conscience. (Richard Rorty)

Atheist Darwinism as wishful thinking

“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... It’s that I hope there is no God! … I have a cosmic authority problem… Darwin enabled modern secular culture to heave a great collective sigh of relief, by apparently providing a way to eliminate purpose, meaning, and design as fundamental features of the world.” (Thomas Nagel)

Atheist leap of faith

“We take the side of [atheistic] science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs … because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation… but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes … no matter how counterintuitive. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”   (Richard Lewinton of Harvard)

Giving up on atheism because of DNA research

“I think that the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries…It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design… It seems to me that the case for a God who has the characteristics of power and also intelligence, is now much stronger than it ever was before.” (Antony Flew)

Blaise Pascal

“We only know God through Jesus Christ. The Christian’s God does not merely consist of a God who is the Author of mathematical truths and the order of the elements. That is the notion of the heathen… the God of the Christians is a God of love and consolation.”