Is science faith's enemy?
Why do religious people reject science and its discoveries? For some believers, it has to do with failure to understand the Bible, which contains a mix of religious myth and historical stories about God's interaction with humans. I intend to write a separate blog about the Bible, so I won't belabor this point. But in my view and the view of the vast number of Scripture scholars, the book of Genesis doesn't attempt to report on how the earth was created, for instance, but uses the myths about creation to deliver a point about God's awesome creative power.
By the way, this view doesn't result from an effort to align the Bible with science to avoid criticism by scientists and other critics. It comes from biblical scholars, who are themselves scientists. They’re people who have spent much of their lives studying the languages and historical contexts of the Bible, just as other scientists study sub-atomic particles or the solar system.
For me, the work of these scholars makes the Bible much more understandable and thus more useful in my spiritual life.
Humans' relationship with God also evolved
For some believers, the hostility toward science is a matter of an unwillingness to accept a God who doesn't continuously intervene in our lives, to accept a loving Father/Mother who gives us freedom to fail and to refuse his/her love. This is a God who used, and is still using, evolution to make a universe and also to form his people, because faith has evolved in human history along with animals and plants.
Religious people should be supporters of science and scientists, who have opened up a treasure of knowledge about the world and our place in it. Yet, many religious people cling to notions of God and creation that are stuck in a pre-scientific era, where religion was often used to answer questions that were then scientifically unanswerable.
In my view, there is no conflict between science and religion, although some scientists, as well as religious people, think otherwise. Science and religion are two ways of knowing. Science seeks to explain. Faith seeks meaning. Science often finds answers to questions through objective observation, speculation and research. Faith is coming from a different human dimension - as a joyful "yes" to God's invitation to see through a new set of eyes. The knowledge it yields is no less real or useful.
No room for smugness
But if religious people appear smug, some scientists are no less so. One problem we "modern" people have (promoted by some scientists) is thinking that science has it all figured out. It should be obvious that it doesn't. Each week, "science" makes new discoveries, many of which contradict those that went before. This is the normal process of doing science, and it should keep scientists humble.
In science, nothing is certain. Everything is subject to examination and re-examination. Newtonian physics seemed entirely satisfactory until quantum physics came along. This year's wonder drug may be assigned to next year's drug garbage dump. Scientists have no right to be smug. Despite the daily news reports about discoveries and inventions, there's soooo much yet to be learned.
Religion doesn't have all the answers, either, of course, and religious people turn a lot of others off when they believe, and claim, that it does. It’s good to remember that God is a surprise, that though God may reveal himself/herself in the Bible and in the church, he/she shows himself/herself in many other ways, including the remarkable discoveries of science.
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TC
Your comments come at a good time for me, Tom. I have just endured sitting through "The Truth Project," a 12-hour DVD series produced by the Focus On The Family organization, that was shared by my small group at church. Two lessons examine the "truth" of science and I found myself a lone voice in trying to explain to the group's members why this over-simplified, anti-Darwinian assault on science was just not true.
ReplyDeleteFirst...science is extraordinarily complicated and evolving. Scientists work in dimensions and details that ordinary people simply cannot comprehend. Quantum physics proves that something can exist in two places at the same time. Theoretical physicists work in multiple dimensions, not the three or four we know. Medical research examines complex chemical reactions at the sub-cellular level. No one without advanced training in these discipline can even guess at what these scientists do, let alone attempt to discredit it. And yet the video lumps all scientists together, vilifying them as deceitful "boogiemen" who work to discredit the truth of the bible. The message was: all science is bad. And yet when I asked if anyone in the small group would like to live without polio vaccines or lead-free gasoline, no one said anything about bad science.
The video also attacks Darwin's theory because of the lack of fossil evidence. But when I asked about the fossil evidence of Noah's arc, I was told this was a matter of faith. Apparently only science has to deal in hard facts. I didn't bring up the issue that there is no archeological evidence of a large nomadic group of people ever traveling in the Sinai desert at the time of Moses. This again is a matter for faith not fact.
Other lessons from "The Truth Project" on sociology, labor, the state, and who is God are equally biased. Now I have learned that this video series will be shown for the entire congregation at our church. I am afraid for the prejudiced this supposed truth telling instills people who have no backgrounds in these topics and no other way to judge them.
I know science is full of unexplained mysteries. As a human, I hope to understand these only when I die and move into the infinite universe that God has created.
A retired pastor recently said to me, "The issue is not about the truth of the bible but about the lessons it teaches." From this viewpoint I will continue to study the bible and use its lessons, especially those taught by Jesus, as my personal guidepost in life. I am proud to say I am a follower of Jesus. But after my recent beating on science by "true believers," I'm afraid to make this statement for fear I will be confused as being one with them. It also leaves me wondering exactly where as a Christian I belong. Could this be a topic for your next Blog, Tom?????