Science—Friend or Foe?
15 September 2021
Growing up as a kid, I remember one time when some friends really made me feel uncomfortable for my belief in dinosaurs. According to their faith teachings about how time worked in the Bible and since the Bible never talked about dinosaurs, they never could have existed. Plus, since they were taught to interpret 100% of the Bible literally, the possibility that some species including humans might have evolved/changed/grown over thousands and thousands of years—an idea I thought was really cool—was not only discounted but even marked as a sign of potential Christian unfaithfulness. Wow.
Do you have stories of how you perceive science and faith being portrayed as foes and not friends? Vaccines. Possibility of modifying DNA. Artificial body parts. Humans impact on the planet. Invitro fertilization. Cloning. The list is long of how scientific discoveries and realities impact our lives. How do we process such science from the lens of faith?
Some early scientists were ostracized or even killed by Church authorities (like Italian Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake in 1600) because their scientific hypotheses were thought to be unfaithful. What do you think about the following quotes from various scientists?
Galileo. “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
Kepler. “Science is a gateway to truth and faith.”
Galileo. “The Bible shows how one goes to heaven not how the heavens go.”
If you’re intrigued about this relationship between faith and science, I invite you to join me and some other friends for four sessions on “A Cosmic Journey Through Science and Faith.” Beginning today at 12.15 PM, we’ll spend four Wednesdays hearing the story of Paul Wallace, a NASA astrophysicist who thought for a while that he had to make a hard, stark choice between his Christian faith and his love of science. Each session is only 30 minutes (10 minutes of video and 20 minutes of discussion) held via Zoom over lunchtime to make it easy to participate. Zoom Meeting ID– 847 0444 7763. Password: “cosmic.”
If you’d like to watch Session #1, entitled, “A Tale of Two Books,” check out this link: