We began our new series I Got Questions by looking at the conflict between science and faith in God. My challenge Sunday was to choose both faith in God and science. Scientists who have only trusted or have faith in science, need to be honest and admit that science is limited. It can’t answer all the questions as our human intellect and wisdom has limits. Those who have faith in the Bible also have to admit that the Bible was not written to answer all our questions about the natural world. Both have something significant to offer.
Pastor Andy Stanley has it right when he reminds us that the Bible is not a science book, and science isn’t the Bible. They both have a place in helping us understand ourselves, this world and the supernatural world.
Here are some of the limitations of science. The theory of evolution (note it is a theory) has very little evidence that shows consistent slow transitional forms in fossil records. If evolution was the complete explanation of how animals and man came to be, then we should have a ton more evidence of animals that evolved over time. The fact is the evidence shows that we have more fossil records of animals that appeared all at once and were fully formed. The honesty is that there are holes in the evolutionary theory. Scientific evolution doesn’t give a compelling explanation of how life began!
Evolution can’t answer how cognitive development happens. How did we learn to think, speak, and create as we do? A question that some honest scientists ask is this: Can they trust their ability to know the truth (including there is no God) if human minds developed from lower animals?
Science tends to believe that our world is a closed system and that nothing can ever occur out of the normal laws of that system (Newtonian physics). But that doesn’t mean that God, who is bigger than and outside of our system, can’t intervene on occasion and do things differently. Scientists have been discovering that our world is not as regular and predictable as we once believed. Hence the rise of quantum mechanics and more.
I believe that God created the laws of nature or physics. They make life work. They also help us see when there is a miracle or an exception to the standard way of life. When the natural order is disturbed, it points us to a God who is intervening into our world. God wants life to be regular and consistent because that is what is good for us. I’m grateful that every day, the law of gravity consistently works. But at times, God chooses to break in and uniquely alter things to remind us that he is God. I love how John said it in John 20:30-31 – Jesus performed many other signs [miracles] in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. The miracles were signs pointing us to the fact that Jesus was not just a man but God himself who entered our life and world. Science gives us enormous understanding that makes for a richer and better life. But Jesus is the one who actually gives us life.
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