If you listen to the media and the self-appointed spokespeople for the scientific community, it appears that
- The scientific community is monolithic; everybody agrees and speaks with one voice.
- That if you accept the statements of Science you have no choice but to be an atheist.
Sometimes Christians shy away from studying Science because they are afraid that Science will cause them to doubt their Faith and the comfort and assurance they receive from their Faith is too important to endanger it.
But if it’s true that God created the universe, then studying the universe should only bring us closer to Him, rather than causing us to doubt.
Some have chosen the position of “non-overlapping magisteria” which basically says, Science does what it does and religion does what it does and the two do not overlap. The big problem with this is that, if you believe the Bible, you find that it is constantly going into territory that would logically belong to Science and members of the scientific and humanistic academia and media, especially the more vocal popular spokesmen, are not shy about telling Christians that they are fools for believing in anything at all outside the physical sciences.
The other problem is that non-overlapping magisteria can be boiled down to “Science deals with the physical world; in other words, the REAL world”, whereas “Faith deal with things that are not physical; in other words, NOT REAL”.
Of course people of Faith would disagree with this because the spiritual realm, while it is invisible to Science, is nevertheless very real. In fact we would say it is MORE REAL than the physical world, because the physical, material universe is transitory and will one day be replaced by a “New Heaven and a New Earth”.
But Science can only deal with the physical realm, therefore it is limited. The loudest voices try to tell us that if Science can’t tell us about it, then it doesn’t exist. But it’s easy to see how that’s impossible.
Let’s say I come into the kitchen one evening and I see a pot of water on the stove, just beginning to boil. So I turn to my wife and ask, “Why is water boiling on the stove?”
Now suppose she answers me like this: “Water, or H20, is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom and when water is heated the molecules begin to move faster and faster, so you see the movement of the water. When the water is heated to 212 degrees fahrenheit, which is 100 degrees celsius, it has reached it’s boiling point at sea level and if it continues to boil, all the water will eventually change from a liquid state to a gas and will escape into the air as water vapor.”
Now was that answer accurate? Was it a scientific answer? Yes, but did it answer the question I was really asking? NO. Because when I asked, “Why is water boiling on the stove?” I was really asking “What’s for supper?”
Can Science tell me what’s for supper? No. Science can tell me all about the chemical makeup of my supper after it is made and what effect the nutrition content will have on my health, but it cannot tell me what will be on my plate before my wife prepares it. How do I find out what’s for supper? By direct communication from the creator of the supper. My wife would never answer me the way described above. Even though my question was clumsy, she would know what I really needed answered and would simply tell me directly what was for supper.
In the same way, Science can tell us a lot about the material processes of our universe, but cannot tell us what the Creator’s reason was for making it. Because Science is unable to answer questions about purpose for the universe and its inhabitants, Science insists there is no purpose to be found.
But we as human beings instinctively know that that is not true. There is meaning and purpose behind our existence; there simply has to be, and we cannot rest until we find the meaning and purpose, not just for the universe but for our own individual lives.
The scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition are, according to internal statements and those who believe in them, the record of God’s direct communication with us concerning the answers to the questions Science can never answer.
“Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee” ~ St. Augustine.
