Does Christianity Still Make Sense?Muestra

Isn’t Science at Odds with God?

A Christian won’t have to search long to discover God-fearing scientists. In fact, many of the best scientists of the past saw no conflict between faith and science. Consider religious believers such as Galileo, Copernicus, Faraday, Kepler, Boyle, and Newton, each of whom was devoted to scientific endeavors and belief in God. One might argue that this was because such intellectual lights were products of their own epochs, and perhaps they would have believed differently had they lived today.

To begin with, that’s an argument one could never prove. Not only that, but also it isn’t as if we’re hard-pressed to identify solid scientists today who also believe in God. Many laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine over the past century have identified as Christians. In fact, it has been estimated that 65.4% of Nobel Prize winners between 1901 and 2000 were Christians or had a Christian background.1 That’s an impressive statistic. And it certainly dispels the myth that good scientists don’t believe in God.

Arguing that one cannot be both a genuine scientist and a genuine Christian is simply a canard that has been widely dismissed by historians of science today. That’s not to say there aren’t those who disagree. The world will likely always have militant atheists like Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, and Peter Atkins. But these guys are vastly outnumbered by others in their field.2 Intellectually honest scientists are more than willing to acknowledge the fruitful work of their Christian colleagues.

To wrap up today’s study, let me offer some encouragement if you find yourself doubting the compatibility of faith and science. Christianity and science both deal in the realm of facts and faith. Faith is not simply a leap into the dark, a crossing of one’s fingers, or wishful thinking. Faith is trust in something or someone we know. And solid faith entrusts itself to solid facts. As Christians, we believe in the facts of Christ’s resurrection, our own sin, and God’s existence; and in light of these convictions, we place our faith in God, believing that the reasons provided in support of these facts are valid. So, too, with the scientists. They believe in the realities of energy and consciousness, acknowledge the existence of other minds and perspectives, and entrust themselves by faith to the reasons they give in support of these facts. It doesn’t have to be either-or. If the evidence is solid, our faith is on solid ground.

Though the Bible isn’t a scientific textbook, it doesn’t shy away from making scientific claims. In fact, the very first verse of the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Within this verse, we find the fundamental features necessary to explain our existence. These fundamental features are time, force, action/causation, space, and material. Here’s how this shakes out: In the beginning (time), God (force), created (action/causation), the heavens (space), and the earth (material). It’s all right there. In one verse!

Thought to Chew On: It takes a lot less faith to believe that something and someone took nothing and made something than it is to believe that nothing took nothing and made something.

1. Baruch Aba Shalev, 100 Years of Nobel Prizes (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2003), 57.

2. Shalev, 100 Years of Nobel Prizes, 57. Shalev notes that “atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers comprise 10.5 percent of total Nobel Prize winners; but in the category of Literature, these preferences rise sharply to about 35 percent.”