Reconciling Science with Faith

Thursday 5/30/2013 9:01 AM

I recently read the book Quantum Leap, the story of John Polkinghorne, a nuclear physicist and Anglican priest who has reconciled his life of faith in God with his work in science.  I have also read the books Coming to Peace with Science by Darrel R. Falk, a biologist, and The Fourth Day by Howard Van Til, an astronomer.  As scientists they, too, attempted to reconcile their scientific endeavors in their respective fields with their faith in God as creator.

There are many in both the scientific and the Christian communities who would suggest that the realms of science and faith have nothing to say to the other.  Scientists find Christians to be misinformed ignoramuses who need to leave their noses out of science and Christians feel threatened by theories of evolution, be it stellar or biological, thinking somehow that would eliminate the need for God.  There are strong feelings on both sides of the issue and vitriolic language and behavior spew from both sides.

 I believe that God reveals himself in both the Bible and in his creation.  In Reformed circles, of which I am a part, these are called God’s special revelation and God’s general revelation respectively.  It seems to me that if God is revealing himself to mankind through both means there should be a common message rather than a divided one.  As Christians, I believe we should do all we can to inform ourselves with regard to both the Bible and the sciences so that we can wrestle intelligently with whatever paradoxes seem to arise.  Unfortunately, too often Christians are ignorant of both what the Bible and what the sciences say.  We need to search for the truth of God wherever it can be found and not shy away from the difficulties that may arise as we seek to reconcile any discrepancies.

In 1 Corinthians, Commentary, William F. Orr and James Arthur Walther suggest a similar tack.  They write, “One who participates in the life of the Spirit in the Christian fellowship examines all things, is free to investigate all things pertaining to God.  Paul proposed that there should be no censorship nor obstruction to the systematic search for truth.  This implies that the spiritual person is capable of evaluating properly the good and evil he confronts, of estimating what things are worthwhile and what things are not.”  I wish the Christian community, as a whole, would be less defensive of God and less offensive to the scientific community and have the courage to engage in reconciling the findings of science with their knowledge of God, as Polkinghorne, Falk and Van Til have done.