Choosing Between Science and Christianity?

 

It is incredibly frustrating when people stay away from church and Christianity because they think embracing it means they have to leave science behind.  I’ve been watching the National Geographic docudrama on Mars, and one scientist who was interviewed made this revealing comment, “There’s almost a religious belief that we will find [life on Mars] eventually if we just keep looking, and it’s based upon faith and not knowledge, in the same way that religion is based upon faith and not knowledge.”  What a statement! It’s interesting, first of all, that the scientist admits that much of what passes for (pop) science today is not really science at all.  But it’s especially troubling that anyone would think that the Christian religion is not based on knowledge, that it’s pure blind faith in fairy tales or something. 

The fact is that Christianity is thoroughly grounded in history, in reality.  It speaks of real people and real places that archaeologists have studied.  It is based on historical events and eyewitness testimony.  Now it’s true that faith is required to believe what those events actually mean, but the Christian religion is most certainly based on knowledge.  You don’t have to be a Christian to believe that Jesus existed or even that He died on a cross.  Those things, that knowledge can be demonstrated pretty convincingly through both Biblical and non-biblical documents.  What takes faith is to believe that a man who received the death penalty is the Savior of the world and that salvation was accomplished precisely in that shedding of His blood.  But the writers of Scripture are very clear that what we’re dealing with is real, tangible, knowable stuff.  “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1).  “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). 

It is precisely the Biblical and Christian worldview that makes science possible, the belief in Laws of nature that can be consistently applied from place to place and time to time, which of course presupposes a Creator of those laws, a unchanging Creator who has dominion and authority over all places and times.  And who really is being un-scientific in today’s cultural context anyway, the Christian or the “scientific” agnostic or atheist?  It’s not Christians who are denying the biological reality of the full humanity of the unborn.  It’s not Christians who are denying the reality of the DNA in every single cell of our bodies and claiming that men can become women, and vice versa.  It’s not Christians who hold to the irrational belief that life can randomly arise out of non-living things if given enough time—something which has never been observed or reproduced in a laboratory or anywhere else. 

It is perfectly rational and logical to believe in the existence of a Creator (Romans 1:20).  For life always comes from life.  Either matter is eternal and somehow has no beginning, or God is eternal and is the source of life and all that is.  Science is simply the study of God’s creation and how it operates.  The Bible is not in contradiction with real science, though it most certainly goes well beyond what science can look into or explain.  Our God is the God of creation, of wisdom and knowledge, of Wisdom made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, who redeemed and renewed creation by His life and death and resurrection (Romans 8:20-23). 

Anyway, all of this is meant as introduction to this helpful video.  It has to oversimplify some things for the sake of time (for instance in the “how” and “why” portion).  But it’s a reminder that while the Word of God is the highest revelation of knowledge and wisdom, science is a good gift of God to learn about and rejoice in His good creation.