SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE 1
Last year I was supposed to be giving a seminar on the topic of "Science and the Bible", but for various reasons it had to be cancelled. Some of my friends have asked me to send them the notes so I have decided to post them on my blog. There are three parts and this is the first. The others will follow at a later date.
GOD AND THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
PART A: THE REVELATION OF GOD IN
NATURE
There have been many times when people have asked me “How
can you be a born-again Bible-believing Believer in Yeshua (Jesus) and a
Scientist?” - as if these things are in
some way fundamentally incompatible.
My answer is usually a wry “ How can you not!” – because to
me, they are fundamentally inextricable. How can I believe in a Creator God and
not study his Creation? Conversely how
can I study his Creation and not see God?
Is faith somehow opposed to reason? Is faith irrational – a
blind leap into belief? I think not. My faith is based on my experience of the
world, my understanding of the Universe, my empirical experience of that
Universe and a personal revelation of God through a meeting with Yeshua. It is
not blind. It is not irrational. It is a reasonable interpretation of the
Universe which is borne out more and more as I study God’s revelation by means
of science. Even atheistic scientists are today, reluctantly, having to admit the possibility
that the evidence is pointing towards the existence of God, because of some of the new discoveries they are making.
The Bible teaches us that God is a God who wishes us to know
him – not just know about him, but to actually know him intimately. His self-revelation is essentially threefold:
1. The written record - Holy Scripture (the Bible) -
through the historical record of God’s dealings with humankind (especially his
dealings with the people of Israel), the poetry and music of the Psalms, the
wisdom literature and the prophetic word,
2. His incarnation as Yeshua, the Messiah – the living Word
(see John 1:1), and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
3. His nature as revealed in God’s creation
It is this last revelation that I wish to focus on in this series of
talks. The Bible clearly teaches us that
nature reveals the glory of God. The Psalmist wrote this:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Psalm 19: 1-3
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When Job in his extreme suffering accused God of injustice (Job 29-32),
God replied thus:
Listen to this, O Job;
Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.
Do you know when God dispatches them,
And causes the light of His cloud to shine?
Do you know how the clouds are balanced,
Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.
Do you know when God dispatches them,
And causes the light of His cloud to shine?
Do you know how the clouds are balanced,
Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
Job
37: 14- 16
And God challenges Job to consider God’s
majesty and power as revealed in the created world:
Then
the Lord answered Job out of the
whirlwind, and said:
“Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy? …
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy? …
Job 38: 1- 7
Job is thus silenced, and he submits to God's awesome power and majesty:
Moreover
the Lord answered Job, and said:
“Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?
He who rebukes God, let him answer it.”
He who rebukes God, let him answer it.”
Then Job answered the Lord
and said:
“Behold, I am vile;
What shall I answer You?
I lay my hand over my mouth.
Once I have spoken, but I will not answer;
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
What shall I answer You?
I lay my hand over my mouth.
Once I have spoken, but I will not answer;
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Job
40: 1-5
In the face of God’s self-revelation in nature we have no excuse before
him. Even if no one has ever taught us or if we have never read the Bible, indeed
even if we are illiterate, whatever language we speak, we can still know God for He is revealed in nature,
if we have eyes to see. What
is more we are warned not to suppress this knowledge:
For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the
world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without
excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not
glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and
their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1: 18-21
In ancient times people were much more in touch with nature
and consequently much more aware of the majesty and awesomeness of God than we are today.
Today we mostly live in cities and have little connection with nature. Most of us have never even seen the stars in
all their glory, for there is too much light in our modern world. When I was
growing up my playground was the stream, the trees, the ponds around our farm,
my playmates were animals, and this intimate experience of nature caused me to
contemplate the existence and character of the universe eventually leading me to a belief in a Creator God, whose wonder I clearly saw expressed in
nature. Today’s children are largely cut
off from nature and many never have first-hand experience of the natural world.
I have students who have never been outside of Jerusalem! How sad that is. We as a society are thus being denied a
powerful revelation of God. It is even
more tragic that many believers suppress that knowledge because of a fear of
Science and its discoveries.
It has not always been so. Many of the first scientists were
monks. They had the literacy, the education and the time and money to carry out
research. So how is it that many in the Church have come to oppose science? The
religious establishment is a conservative force dedicated to preserving the
Faith. It is therefore naturally suspicious of any ‘new’ knowledge, especially
anything that appears to contradict existing understandings.
For example, when Galileo, in the 16th
Century, came out in support of Copernicus’ theory that the Earth was not the
center of the universe, and the Sun did not revolve around the Earth, he was
considered a heretic, tried by the Roman Catholic Inquisition and forced to
renounce his views. Galileo spent the last years of his life under house
arrest, and his writings were banned.
The Catholic Church of Galileo’s day read passages like that of Psalm 19:4-6 (see below) literally to support the current theory of the time, that the Sun circled the Earth.
In them He has
set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber,And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
Its rising is from one end of heaven,
And its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat
Psalm 19:4-6
Since that time however the sheer
weight of scientific evidence for a sun-centered solar system has caused
Christians to revise their interpretation of these verses. It is now understood
by most that these verses are not to be taken literally but are poetic
metaphor, as even the grammatical structure of the passage attests, for example
the use of similes (like a bridegroom… like a strong man). It is clearly
metaphorical, written from the understanding and viewpoint of the people of its
time. I doubt there are many
Bible-believing Christians or Jews who still believe that the sun circles
around the Earth. In the mid-19th century the Catholic Church had to
admit its error and it rescinded its ban on Galileo’s published writings.
We can look back at this incident and
shake our heads today, but I believe we are living at a time when many
Bible-believing Christians are making similar mistakes. In our own time Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
and other new scientific theories have challenged our understandings of
Scripture and have evoked similar knee-jerk reactions from many Bible-believing
people.
What do we do when science appears to
contradict the other revelations of God, especially the Bible? There is a
perception that if there is a contradiction then either the Bible is wrong or
the science is wrong. This generates
fear amongst Believers that somehow Science is a threat to their faith, and
this in turn leads to a protective reaction. However there is a third
possibility. Perhaps it is our interpretation of the Bible that needs revision
– just as was the case in Galileo’s time. I believe in the Holy Scriptures. I
believe they are the unerring word of God, and that every word in the Bible is
true. I believe however that though Scripture is infallible, our
interpretations of it often are not. There is much symbolism, metaphor, and
poetry in the Bible. Some passages are clearly symbolic, some are clearly
literal, but others are not easy to interpret. We need to approach these with
an open mind and humility, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us rightly discern
the truth in them. We need to accept the possibility that sometimes our
traditional, received interpretations may be incorrect.
Of course it may also be that the
Science is wrong. Scientific knowledge is not infallible. Our interpretations
of evidence can be wrong. New evidence may overturn our theories. Scientists
also need to exercise humility.
All honest scientists know that scientific
observations and measurements can never infallibly prove anything to be
correct. They can however prove something wrong. It takes only one confirmed,
contradictory instance to prove a theory wrong, however we can never be sure
that some new evidence will be discovered that will disprove our theory, thus
we cannot ever be 100% sure our theory is correct. Karl Popper, the father of the Philosophy of
Science, gave us the famous raven example to explain this.
We can hypothesize that all ravens
are black. We can then go out and test this hypothesis by observing, let’s say,
1000 ravens. If all 1000 ravens are black this tends to support the theory, but
if we find even one raven that is not black then our theory is disproved.
However even if all the ravens observed are black we can never know if the next
raven we observe might not be ‘non-black’ – therefore we can never know for
sure that our hypothesis is correct. New evidence in the future could always
potentially disprove it.
Ironically it has recently been
discovered that ravens are not black but have beautiful violet colors which are
visible to birds but not to humans, who cannot see that part of the
electromagnetic spectrum. This is an
example of how new technologies can give rise to new evidence that forces us to
overturn our theories.
Not so long ago physicists thought
they had more-or-less come to the end of their field. Newton’s Three Laws of
Motion adequately explained all observable phenomena and generated accurate
predictions. However our technology
subsequently improved and when scientists started studying the subatomic world of protons, neutrons and electrons, and the even smaller fundamental particles
that make up these subatomic particles, they found that Newtonian physics
didn’t work. A new theory had to be developed and Quantum Physics was born. Quantum
Physics, and our new technologies, have led to an explosion of knowledge and understanding about our
universe, which we are only beginning to explore, and which has shown us that
the universe is much, much more complex and strange than we could ever have
dreamed. New evidence is now coming to light which is causing some physicists to question the sufficiency of 'traditional' quantum physics and they are searching for an overreaching theory, the Theory of Everything, that will explain the whole universe.
God has given every human being an
insatiable desire to learn and understand our world. We are fundamentally
curious. We ask questions: Why? and How?
and for What purpose? Science is all about trying to find answers to those
questions. Science does this by
uncovering cause and effect relationships – this happens because this
happens. Every cause is also an effect,
and we can construct cause and effect chains (or rather networks).
For example, if I ask why you were
late to work today, you might answer that you had a flat tire. But then I can
ask, why did you have a flat tire, and you might tell me that you ran over a
nail. I could then ask why the nail was on the road, and you might say it fell
off a passing truck – and so on and on.
If we trace cause and effect chains, further and further back towards
the primary cause, it is inevitable that eventually we will encounter God. Today Science is getting very close to this point.
Scientists are in danger of having to admit that the best answer to the ‘whys’
and ‘hows’ of the universe is a creator God.
https://vixstar1314.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/domino-effect.jpg
Science can only deal with the
observable and measurable world and thus it is intrinsically limited. However with our increasingly sophisticated
instruments we have hugely expanded the part of the Universe that can be
observed and measured. When I was born scientists did not know if there was
anything beyond our galaxy, the Milky Way. Now we know that our galaxy, as vast
as it is, with its around 2-4 billion stars, is only one of perhaps another 2
billion galaxies in the universe. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990,
has sent us back images of deep space, giving us a view of the universe which
we now know is much larger, and much older than we formerly believed. In the
other direction, our microscopes and other instruments have revealed a smaller
and smaller world and we are currently exploring the subatomic world, which is
challenging many of our traditional perceptions of the universe. In the last
hundred years there has been an explosion of scientific knowledge and this is
forcing us all to revise our understandings of the world in which we live.
In the next lectures we will look at
some of these new discoveries and their implications for our Faith. I want to
put it to you that we have nothing to fear from these new scientific
discoveries and theories. Rather we should embrace them, as more and more they
point towards a great Creator who upholds the universe by his hand, and gives
breathe to all living beings – just as his Word says. In fact I have found
these new discoveries to be faith-building, rather than faith-destroying.
But now ask the beasts, and they
will teach you;
And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;
And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this…
And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;
And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this…
Job 12: 7-9
PS. I apologize for formatting inconsistencies. It is the software doing this, not me!!!
