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Peter Atkins (chemist) “The Limitless Power of Science”.
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Peter Atkins (chemist)“The Limitless Power of Science” “Science and religion cannot be reconciled, and humanity should begin to appreciate the power of [science] and to beat off all attempts at compromise. Religion has failed, and its failures should be exposed. Science, with its currently successful pursuit of universal competence ... should be acknowledged the king.”
Definition of ScienceNational Academy of Sciences “The use of evidence to construct testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena, as well as the knowledge generated through this process.”
Philosophical Beliefs Underlying Science • Events in the natural world typically have immediate causes in the natural world. Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Philosophical Beliefs Underlying Science • Events in the natural world typically have immediate causes in the natural world. • Time is linear, not circular. Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Philosophical Beliefs Underlying Science • Events in the natural world typically have immediate causes in the natural world. • Time is linear, not circular. • Causes and effects in the natural world have some regularity across space and time. Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Philosophical Beliefs Underlying Science • Events in the natural world typically have immediate causes in the natural world. • Time is linear, not circular. • Causes and effects in the natural world have some regularity across space and time. • These causes and effects can be—at least in part—rationally understood by us. Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Philosophical Beliefs Underlying Science • Events in the natural world typically have immediate causes in the natural world. • Time is linear, not circular. • Causes and effects in the natural world have some regularity across space and time. • These causes and effects can be—at least in part—rationally understood by us. • Observations and experiments are needed to augment our logic and intuition in understanding nature. Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Philosophical Beliefs Underlying Science • Events in the natural world typically have immediate causes in the natural world. • Time is linear, not circular. • Causes and effects in the natural world have some regularity across space and time. • These causes and effects can be—at least in part—rationally understood by us. • Observations and experiments are needed to augment our logic and intuition in understanding nature. • Studying nature in this way is a worthwhile use of time and talent. Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Biblical Belief about God and Nature • Creation is not animistic (we do not invoke the action of “gods” or “nature spirits” for everything we observe). • Events in the natural world typically have immediate causes in the natural world. Belief in Science Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Biblical Belief about God and Nature 2. Time is linear, not circular. 2. Time is linear, not circular. Belief in Science Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Biblical Belief about God and Nature 3. God is consistent, not capricious, in his ordering of nature. 3. Causes and effects in the natural world have some regularity across space and time. Belief in Science Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Biblical Belief about God and Nature 4. We are made in God’s image and made suitable for this world. 4. These causes and effects can be—at least in part—rationally understood by us. Belief in Science Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Biblical Belief about God and Nature 5. We must use observations and experiments to learn about what God has done in creation, because we are not God. We are limited and fallen people, and our preconceptions about how the world should work may not be the same as God’s. 5. Observations and experiments are needed to augment our logic and intuition in understanding nature. Belief in Science Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Biblical Belief about God and Nature 6. Nature is God’s creation, so it has value and is worth studying. 6. Studying nature in this way is a worthwhile use of time and talent. Belief in Science Loren Haarsma “Does Science Exclude God?”
Rodney Stark For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts and the End of Slavery Princeton University Press 2004 Distinguished Book Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.” (Psalm 111:2)
St. Augustine of Hippo (5th century theologian)The Literal Meaning of Genesis “In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.”
Galileo Galilei (17th century astronomer)Letter to the Grand Dutchess Christina (1615) “[In] St. Augustine we read: ‘If anyone shall set the authority of Holy Scripture against clear and manifest reason, he who does this knows not what he has undertaken; for he opposes to the truth not the meaning of the Bible, which is beyond his comprehension, but rather his own interpretation, not what is in the Bible, but what he has found in himself and imagines to be there.’” “This granted, and it being true that two truths cannot contradict one another, it is the function of expositors to seek out the true senses of scriptural texts. These will unquestionably accord with the physical conclusions which manifest sense and necessary demonstrations have previously made certain to us.”
Francis Collins, MD, PhD (geneticist and National Institutes of Health Director)Test of Faith: Spiritual Journeys with Scientists “I realized there was no real conflict between belief in a Creator God and using science to understand how God had done that creating. It is well documented that 40% of scientists in the USA believe in a personal God. I can’t imagine that science, which allows us to peer dimly into God’s creation, would in some way threaten God. Here is an opportunity to understand God better and increase our awe for what God has created. . . . You can read the book of the Bible or you can read the book of nature, and you can find truth in both ways. You need to be careful, of course, about what kind of question you’re asking, and which tools are appropriate for that question. It seems to me that to put either of those kinds of investigations off to the side and say ‘That’s either inappropriate or dangerous’ is to impoverish your opportunity to address the most important questions in life. We are only given a brief time to live here on this amazing planet, so why should we limit ourselves? We need to search in all kinds of directions for the truth.”
C. S. Lewis (20th century former atheist scholar)The Weight of Glory “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not just because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (20th century writer)The Silmarillion “Yet the making of things is in my heart from my own making by thee; and the child of little understanding that makes a play of the deeds of his father may do so without any thought of mockery, but because he is the son of his father.”
“He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)
American Scientific Affiliation (asa3.org) biologos.org testoffaith.com vosburg@hmc.edu
C. S. Lewis (20th century Christian scholar, writer)The Problem of Pain ““For long centuries, God perfected the animal from which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself. He gave it hands whose thumb could be applied to each of the fingers, and jaws and teeth and throat capable of articulation, and a brain sufficiently complex to execute all of the material motions whereby rational thought is incarnated…. Then, in the fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness which could say “I” and “me,” which could look upon itself as an object, which knew God, which could make judgments of truth, beauty and goodness, and which was so far above time that it could perceive time flowing past…. We do not know how many of these creatures God made, nor how long they continued in the Paradisal state. But sooner or later they fell. Someone or something whispered that they could become as gods…. They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, “This is our business, not yours.” But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives. We have no idea in what particular act, or series of acts, the self-contradictory, impossible wish found expression. For all I can see, it might have concerned the literal eating of a fruit, but the question is of no consequence.”
