Science or Jesus: do you have to pick?
podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/3833e104/science-or-jesus-do-you-have-to-pick-john-no10
I love to picture the eternity-changing conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, when the Jewish religious leader went to have an encounter with Jesus himself. Under the cloak of darkness, and the privacy they had, Jesus uttered the most well-known words of Scripture that night as he spoke to one man:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.1
Were Jesus' words only relevant for the first century?
Of course not. Jesus' words of redemptive grace were for all mankind everywhere. Therefore when the not-yet-convinced throws out skeptical slogans, we must not be intimidated by them--slogans such as "Science disproves God." Is that true? No.
Like it was yesterday, this conversation replays in my mind as a college student recounted it to me--his instructor almost jeering him, saying, “Science and Christianity are incompatible. Don’t you know that, Son? Surely you didn’t come here from Oklahoma City and think you were going to keep that Bible under your arm, now did you? Not a chance. At least not in my class," and with that the professor turned around and left my young friend standing there.
Geoff grew up hearing, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1.1. Yes, before anything, God was. And now.... what to think after his professor dismissed him so easily. Huh, he had heard that science and his faith were not at odds with each other. Maybe he could find something to support that...I helped him.
Indeed, here are some of our findings.
The year was 1917. Albert Einstein, a pantheist1, made what he called an 'irritating' discovery: the universe had a beginning. In 1929, Einstein traveled to Southern California's Mt. Wilson to look through Edwin Hubble's 100-inch telescope; what he saw confirmed the irritation: the universe expanded from a single point in the distant past, meaning the universe had a beginning. And
->because the universe had a beginning, the universe had a cause.
That cause - from that single point in the past? Scientists commonly call it the Big Bang. Why? First there was nothing and then Bang! there was something--the entire universe exploded into being.
Everything that had a beginning had a cause.
The universe had a beginning
Therefore the universe had a cause or a Beginner.2
Something outside of nature had to be the 'Causer' of this beginning - something outside of space and matter, an eternal Cause. Something outside of the natural order? Why yes, some one or some thing supernatural - 1: of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe 2: departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature3 Hmmm... supernatural. Irritating if you want to believe something different.
Astronomer Robert Jastrow made this impactful statement: For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.4
Though not a science major, my young friend found out this 'cause of the cosmos' is called the Cosmological Argument, but he soon found more evidence to validate the connection between God and science: the Teleological Argument, taking its name from the Greek word 'telos' meaning design.
Every design had a designer
The universe has highly complex design
Therefore the universe had a Designer.5
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) noted its design when he wrote, "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being."6 Well of course it did! Scripture records this: And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars."7 Designed from the beginning.
It turns out that scientists have noted the universe's fine tuning seems to be just right for man's existence, also called the anthropic principle. Then there is the human brain, the coding in a single DNA molecule . . . and more. How do we know that the brain and the DNA molecule didn’t just happen by chance? First of all, chance doesn’t create anything at all. The probability that the brain or DNA molecule would arise by natural forces alone is truly incredible. If you doubt this, remember that the probability of forming a simple protein molecule by random processes would take somewhere in the vicinity of 10257 power years--one with 257 zeros behind it, a number which is incredibly large. Forming a simple cell by random processes would take around 10119,000. That is a number so large it’s incomprehensible. Of course, scientists such as A.E. Wilder-Smith and others have argued persuasively that the Darwinian theory of matter, energy, and time combining to produce life is not only improbable, it is indeed impossible. Life can only emerge when there’s a code and this code has to come from an intelligent creator.8 A supernatural being - like the God of the universe.
While he may not be able to go toe-to-toe just yet with his professor, Geoff knew enough to stand and say, 'No Sir, I do not believe science and Christianity are incompatible, nor do I believe Science disproves the Bible. Besides, 'Science' doesn't say anything; only scientists do... Sir. Turns out a lot of scientists have always believed in God, and many others are changing their minds.'
"One of the things that stops people almost dead at the beginning of this discussion is the very vocal nature of some scientists. Carl Sagan, in the beginning of his book, Cosmos, said "the universe is all that is was or ever shall be," and people think 'isn't that wonderful science?' It isn't. It's a statement by a scientist but it's not a statement of science. And one of the first things to learn in trying to understand what's going on in our culture is to realize that statements by scientists are not always statements of science. This was just a statement of Carl Sagan's atheism --that's all -- a statement of his belief system.
We must be aware that there's grown up a view that we call "scientism" - that science is the only way to truth. That even does science a disservice to suggest that it can answer all questions because it can't even answer the simple questions of a child "where do i come from? where am i going to? what's the meaning of life?"
God and science answer different questions." Dr. John Lennox 9
You see, slogans such as 'science disproves Christianity' and the like are dangerous because they stop us in our tracks.... that is, unless or until we are willing to dig a little to tap the evidence that is available to us, and be able to articulate it. Thankfully, God gave us a manual for living our lives well, based on truth, full of meaning and purpose. 'Read God's Manual' - now there's a slogan that works!
"Jesus I Know Now," Brandon Lake, Lainey Wilson
Christianity is true; it is also reasonable and intellectually defensible.
Christine
John, no.10
1- John 3.16
2 - I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, Norman Geisler, Frank Turek
3 - Merrriam Webster 'supernatural'
4 - God and the Astronomers, Robert Jastrow
5 - I Don't Have... Geisler, Turek
6 - "General Scholium" in Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)
7 - Genesis 1.14-16
8 - Christian Research Institute, https://www.equip.org/perspectives/what-is-the-teleological-argument/
**9 - From Newton to Hawking: Does Science Disprove God? five-minute YouTube clip, Dr. John Lennox, so good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_kP2XCDLZE&t=29s
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