Science vs. Christianity: Can They Coexist?
Science can be a scary thing for people of faith. It questions such issues as the interpretation of scripture, human nature, creation, miracles, and more. But it is my ambition in this article to make the case that science finds its most authentic home not in conflict with Christianity but actually under its broader umbrella.
As astronomer Owen Gingerich claimed, "What passes for truth in science is a comprehensive pattern of interconnected answers to questions posed to nature—explanation of how things work (efficient causes), though not necessarily why they work (final causes)" (Gingerich 95).
As the final cause, God makes the world as we see it through the lens of science far more plausible than a world given materialistic naturalism. Ultimately then, to jump ahead, Orthodox Christianity is in no way in conflict with science. Really what we see is that religious fundamentalism conflicts with scientific fundamentalism ("scientism," as C. S. Lewis called it) but true science, as an empirical discipline, rhymes with the truths of Christianity.
Science & Faith: Poetry or Tapestry?
"In science, we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity, we find the poem itself." (Lewis Miracles 212).
Like C. S. Lewis, I believe that science and the Christian faith are not in conflict but are meant to be integrated. Science is a discipline, the origin of which is firmly rooted in the classical Christian tradition. It provides humanity with the forensic tools to identify the varied notes of the natural universe.
However, science alone cannot read the poem. What is needed is a philosophical worldview to integrate and interpret the data points into a system that is coherent and plausible.
More so than any other worldview, Christianity can take the notes and harmonize them. As a result, it can read a work of order and beauty that simultaneously satisfies the intellect but also enlivens the imagination and delights the soul.
Whereas Lewis' literary mind drifted towards poetry, in a series of Harvard lectures later synthesized into his work God's Universe (2006), Gingerich adopts the analogy of a tapestry.
Science adeptly identifies the threads of nature—noting their texture and substance—and conjectures how and where the strands fold over each other. But something more—a metaphysic or a worldview—is needed to conceive the grand design that all the individual fibers and weavings come together to display.
Gingerich claims that Christianity provides humanity with the most transparent picture of the tapestry and ultimately the clearest and most credible interpretation. With the notes that science helps us read, we can, with appreciation, wonder, and pleasure, look at the poem itself and agree with the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins that the universe is truly "charged with the grandeur of God" (Hopkins "God's Grandeur").
As I have been delving into the natural world's mysteries through texts such as Gingerich's, there have been two anchoring phrases.
Jesus' words to His disciples to be "as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16)
St. Augustine's mantra: "all truth is God's truth."
With the shrewdness of the serpent, I aim to take the truths that science has to offer and, with the innocence of the dove, bring them under the bright wings of a Christian worldview. I firmly believe Christianity provides the best explanation of the phenomena that science discloses.
A Brief History of Christianity & Science
What Jesus wants, as C. S. Lewis explained, is "a child's heart, but a grown-up's head" that is "in first-class fighting trim" (Lewis Mere Christianity 77). When Gingerich felt a calling to pursue astronomy, a shrewd teacher encouraged him with these rallying words: "you should go for it. We can't let the atheists take over any field" (Gingerich 3).
Atheism (specifically materialistic naturalism) is the Zeitgeist of the world of science, but that is only a recent development. The discipline of science—the methodological pursuit of truth in the natural world—actually found its beginnings in the Christian tradition. As Gingerich said, "the Judeo-Christian philosophical framework has proved to be a particularly fertile ground for the rise of modern science" (Gingerich 6).
Because Christians believed that God was a God of reason and order, they were compelled by a belief that His creation would be correspondingly reasonable and orderly. Modern science evolved out of this initial excitement to understand the world which God had made.
Listen to what M. B. Foster says in his work The Christian Doctrine of Creation and the Rise of Modern Natural Science:
A world which is created by the Christian God will be both contingent and orderly…It will embody regularities and patterns since its Maker is rational, but the particular regularities and patterns which it will embody cannot be predicted a priori, since he is free; they can be discovered only by examination. The world, as Christian theism conceives it, is thus an ideal field for the application of scientific method, with its twin techniques of observation and experiment.
Moreover, the testimonies of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton (all Christians), and contemporary scientists like Gingerich and Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, positively affirm the harmony between the song that "the heavens declare" (Ps. 19:1) and the song of theology.
Defining Our Terms
A good place to begin is by defining terms. What is science? What is faith? And how could they possibly rhyme? There is nothing inherently spooky or evil about science. As I said, modern science grew and developed out of a Christian worldview.
What is science?
Science is an empirical discipline involving observation, hypothesis, experimentation, repetition, and theory-making. It asks questions based on observations about the physical universe that we can see and experience, and it hopes to come to a reasonable grasp of how reality works. In short, it is a method used to come to a critical understanding of what is real.
What is faith?
Faith is the art of holding onto what one believes in an ultimate sense. Everyone, in one way or another, has faith. Even the most militant naturalists demonstrate a remarkable degree of faith when they doggedly hold onto what they believe (Have you read any of the multiple worlds or multiverse theories? That takes a lot of faith! It also lacks empirical evidence).
Science, then is a physical discipline. Faith is a metaphysical one, meaning beyond or above physics. Faith deals with final causes, ultimate questions, and existential meaning. Science deals with efficient causes. The latter identifies the notes, and the former reads the poem.
Christians remark that the poem is jammed with meaning and enjambed with cascading beauty.
Naturalists remark that it's really no poem at all—just sequences of endless data.
Both interpretations are read through the eyes of faith.
What's the Real Conflict?
Children are great metaphysicians. They are always asking why.
"Why do I have to go to sleep?" Because our bodies need rest.
"Why do I need to rest?" So you can feel better tomorrow and be ready for school.
"Why do I have to school?"
Why? Why? Why? Ad nauseam. Ad infinitum. When you ask why so many times about the physical universe, you will eventually get to the Buzz Lightyear stage of infinity and beyond.
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Why is there a universe at all?
Why do I have a mind that can think about itself and come to a reliable understanding of the reality around me? Me!
Why is there a me?
Why do I exist?
Is existing better than not existing?
Is there a Creator?
The relationship between science and Christianity drifts in such metaphysical orbits, and the conflict that is so often perceived in culture isn't between science as a discipline and faith as a discipline. Instead, it is between metaphysical worldviews.
In our culture, science, as mentioned, is often dominated by metaphysical naturalism—the worldview that nature is the only thing that exists. There is no supernatural reality. Before creation, there was nothing…nothing. No force governs the universe. It began 14 billion years ago in a stroke of blind luck (astronomically, inconceivably, appallingly small odds…10^10(124)…a number so small it's beyond comprehension) and has continually unfurled. One accident after another, in a chain of cause and effect that eventually produced a planet called earth that, by chance, is fit for life. Not only that, by the slightest chance of all, a life that is conscious and self-reflective.
Science as a discipline neither supports nor denies such a worldview. And it is here that Christians need to realize that methodological naturalism (science) is worlds away from metaphysical naturalism (scientism).
Christianity claims that God freely created the universe in a plan of sheer goodness so that He might share his divine, blessed life with His creatures. God is love, and He created so that there could be more creatures like Him who could be the recipients and participants in that love. There is something rather than nothing because God is love. Similarly, science as a discipline neither supports nor denies such a worldview.
However, I think Christianity makes the most sense of the universe as we see it. So the philosophical question here is what worldview makes the world as we see it less epistemically surprising? Meaning under which worldview the world actually exists is more likely to have occurred.
The world we experience is far more likely to exist given Christianity than metaphysical naturalism. The existence of something rather than nothing, the creation of the universe from nothing, the existence of self-conscious life with an innate sense of morality and an inner hunger for truth, goodness, and beauty all build a cumulative case that Christianity is a more plausible reason.
Other arguments that add to the case include the gravitational constants being perfectly suitable so that the universe didn't implode on itself. Or rapidly disintegrate after the Big Bang. Or in other ways, like the universe's fine-tuning for life and the existence of self-conscious life with an innate sense of morality and an inner hunger for truth, goodness, and beauty. In philosophy, this is called an ablative argument.
What we have done here is show that science as a discipline is neutral, and the actual conflict is not one of empiricism but one of philosophy.
So, how do Christianity and Science relate to each other?
Ian Barbour, renowned religion and science author and winner of the prestigious Templeton Foundation prize, offers four options: conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration.
1) Conflict
This argument has been laid out already throughout the article.
2) Independence
The late Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard astronomer, borrowed the term magesteria from reformer Martin Luther to describe how the two disciplines should relate. Luther used the term to delineate the magisteria or authority that the Church has in comparison to the magisteria or authority of the state.
Gould adopts the term to mean that science has authority over matters of the natural world and that faith has authority over religious matters. It sounds like a nice compromise at face value, but in the end, it doesn't work because, as we have seen, everyone incorporates the findings of science under a metaphysical worldview.
3) Dialogue
This view purports that science has its language and religion has its language, but they play different language games. For example, mass means one thing to a Catholic and another to a physicist!
We can try to have meaningful dialogue and come to a greater understanding of both spheres. However, they cannot be integrated because of the various limitations of language and understanding.
Closer to home, this is like watching Creationist Ken Ham debate Bill Nye the Science Guy. Did they come to any agreement? No. They kind of just talked past each other. Maybe we learned more about science and more about faith, but we didn't find any common ground.
4) Integration
This is probably the most crucial piece of this article.
What if we know our view is right about something? This doesn't have to be in direct relation to this article. If you went to law school, you would fundamentally know more about law than someone who read a Wikipedia article about law.
What's important to remember is that we are all members of one body. As such, we need to remember Paul's words in Romans 15:1-2, "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up."
In Romans 14:19, he says, "Let us, therefore, make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food."
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of evolution or the sake of seven-day creationism. Regardless if you are "strong" or "weak" in these issues of science and faith, our role as members of one body is to build up our brothers and sisters in Christ and not to cause them to stumble through our knowledge—even if that knowledge is true.
What is knowledge without love? Nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1; 13:8). We are called not to quarrel and controversies (Tit. 3:9; 1 Tim. 6:4; 2 Tim. 2:23). Christians are to speak the truth in love for the body's edification and build everyone up into the head, which is Jesus. (Eph. 4:15). We can do the latter but only on our knees with more repentance than we are at most times willing to give and only by the grace of God.
Conclusion
I want to leave you all with another Lewis quotation as a bookend. In his essay "Is Theology Poetry," Lewis says, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
Belief in Christ, in the miracle of His resurrection, and in His Father, our Creator, gives us eyes to see everything else. All truth is His. And in Jesus Christ, the Logos through whom everything was made, all things are still held together. He is the King.
The book of nature is a true account of His glory, and the book of scripture is a true account of His glory. They are both hard books to read, and they are hard to read in light of each other. But, the best place to begin is with prayer and inviting the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see the truth of God's Word and of His World. He will. And like Genesis says, what you see will truly be GOOD!
Recommended Texts
How to Read the Bible For All It’s Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart
God’s Universe and God’s Planet by Owen Gingerich
Science, Evolution, and Religion: A Debate About Atheism and Theism by Michael Peterson and Michael Ruse
The Language of God by Francis Collins
Miracles by C. S. Lewis
About Christ Church Memphis
Christ Church Memphis is church in East Memphis, Tennessee. For more than 65 years, Christ Church has served the Memphis community. Every weekend, there are multiple worship opportunities including traditional, contemporary and blended services.
