Renewing Reason: What Science and God Have in Common

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science." Albert Einstein

"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done." Robert A. Heinlen

"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science." Edwin Powell Hubble

I love teaching science. As I said in my last post, I love the pursuit of truth. And that's what science is all about. Exploring, designing, experimenting, theorizing, pushing the limits of what we think we know and can do. Science is beautiful, dangerous, and amazing.

But there is a problem that has come about with science. The more humanity discovers, the more awesome we think we are.  We begin to worship ourselves for our accomplishments and we worship the science that we think got us to where we are. But that is so far from the truth. The ultimate scientist and designer is God. What God and science have in common is that God created everything on this Earth, including every single atom and molecule and tree and plant and bacteria and virus and animal and human and cloud and mountain. God is not surprised or alarmed by our science- He created all of it and it is all part of His plan. Every scientific discovery by a human is ultimately because God allowed that human to discover that knowledge, truth that ultimately came from God.

Job 12:7, "But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?"

I am not here to toot my own horn- that for some reason, I have all the answers. No. I was once dead in my sin and made alive again ONLY by the power of God and by no merit of my own. God is my source of truth. In God we have breath, we have life. God gives us science. He gives us discovery. He gives us answers. I am not here to knock down science. I love science, I am a science teacher! Go, explore, discover, experiment, test, hypothesize, create, design! But, know that God is the ultimate source of truth, not science. God reveals Himself to us through all of His creation and through science. To Him belongs the glory.

Many people believe that science is the ultimate and only source of truth. In other words, if it can be experimented and tested, then it is proved to be true and I will believe it. This is called scientism- the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or the most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints.

I want to look at how we as believers in Jesus Christ can reasonably, logically, gently, lovingly, and intelligently show that scientism doesn't work. There are actually two different forms of scientism one can land on- weak and strong scientism. I am not going to get into each of those, but just make some general objections to scientism.

1) Scientism itself is self refuting.
Other self refuting statements could include:
"There are no English sentences." or "There are no truths."
Scientism itself is a statement of philosophy, not science. You cannot prove scientifically that science is the only source of truth. In fact, no amount of scientific discovery or progress will ever make scientism more acceptable. It is not possible for scientism to be true, simply by nature of the viewpoint. There is no scientific test that will prove the existence of truth or that we have it.

2) Science itself rests on a number of presuppositions. Science cannot be practiced in nothingness. In other words, there are a lot of "pre-truths" that must be true in order that science can work effectively. These "pre-truths" have to be challenged, which is a task of philosophy and not of science. Some of these "pre-truths" or presuppositions of science include:
- the existence of truth
- the laws of logic
- the existence of values used in science (for example, testing theories fairly and reporting honestly)
- the belief that language is adequate to describe the world
- the belief that we can rely on our cognitive and sensory faculties to serve in gathering truth

3) Finally, read this excerpt from Love the Lord Your God With Your Mind by J.P. Moreland:

"Some propositions believed outside science ("red is a color," "torturing babies is wrong," "I am now thinking about science") are better justified than some believed within science ("evolution takes place through a series of very small steps"). It is not hard to believe that many of our currently held scientific beliefs will and should be revised or abandoned in one hundred years, but it would be hard to see how the same could be said of the extrascientific propositions just cited."

Certainly, if we still believed the world was flat, we would be in a lot of trouble. A good scientist knows that results aren't an end in themselves. We keep discovering, keep exploring, and keep scratching out old theories with new ones. And that's the beauty of science.

Psalm 19: 1-7:

The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 
Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect,

reviving the soul;

the testimony of the Lord is sure,

 making wise the simple.

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Renewing Reason: The Problem With "To Each His Own"

I have always been a seeker of truth. I like to figure out motives, intentions, and desires of myself and others. The truth can be a tricky thing, hidden behind expectations and emotions and years of lies. The truth can be scary. We may not be ready for it. But I firmly believe one thing about truth: it will set you free if you let it. There is relief and peace in truth. There is hope.

It seems more and more that "truth" is getting skewed. We are living in a culture and time where individualism reigns and "truth" is defined by each individual person. Right and wrong, even, it seems are defined by each person.

"That may be true for you, but not for me."
At the end of an argument, "Well, to each his own."
Let's "coexist". Let's "tolerate" and embrace everyone's viewpoint because... there is no truth anyways and we each get to decide our own right and wrong?

I will defend until the day I die that there is one truth and that one truth is God alone. The one God with a capital G.

One of my fears is that this post would come across as... judgmental. The good little Christian girl who has it all together sharing how much better she is and how she's got it all figured out. I am sick thinking about it because of all people, Jesus disliked the Pharisees the most. Pharisees followed the law and believed they were good men... but they missed it: Jesus wants us in our mess. He doesn't want us to come to him fixed up and good. He wants us to come to him broken and recognizing we never have it together. I know I'm sinful and messed up and need Jesus. And because of my need, I feel I must share what has set me free: truth. And truth that is found in Jesus Christ. Not in defining my own messed up sense of right and wrong.

Only God can bring the dead to life. Not me and not my silly little blog. But maybe, just maybe, someone out there reading can see the truth of my Jesus and my God. And that would be worth it to me. Because the truth is beautiful and life giving.

Moral Relativism is the view that moral judgments are true and false only relative to some particular standpoint (for instance, that of a culture or historical period) and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others. (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/moral-re/)

Basically: To each his own, define your own right and wrong because there is no ultimate right and wrong (this is determined differently for different cultures, throughout time, and essentially for each different person).

To define it further, an example is murder. A moral relativist might say that this is not plain and simple, but rather, society A believes this is true but society B does not. Cultural diversity causes differences in ways in which the moral rule is applied.

There are some definite objections to make with this very prevalent and currently popular view on morality.

1. It is difficult to define culture and society. If a man from society A murders a man from society B in a house from society C, how do we determine if the act was right or wrong?

2. How do we determine which society is right if we are part of several at the same time? Between our family, extended family, school, church, work, state, country, world- which is the relevant society? What if two societies I am a part of allow a certain action but one doesn't?

3. Read J.P. Moreland's words from Love the Lord Your God With Your Mind:
"Moral relativism suffers from a problem known as the reformer's dilemma. If normative relativism is true, then it is logically impossible for a society to have a virtuous, moral reformer like Jesus Christ, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr. Why? Moral reformers are members of a society who stand outside that society's code and pronounce a need for reform and change in that code. However, if an act is right and only if it is in keeping with a given society's code, then the moral reformer himself is by definition an immoral person, for his views are at odds with those of his society. Moral reformers must always be wrong because they go against the code of their society. But any view that implies that moral reformers are impossible is defective because we all know that moral reformers have actually existed!"

4. If moral relativism is true, how can one society be justified in morally blaming another society? If someone believes in moral relativism, you might try stealing something from them. If they get upset, you might remind them that morality is relative to them and stealing is fine through your moral code... I suspect they may think twice about their viewpoint.

It seems that right now a popular viewpoint is that morality (defining right and wrong) is relative for individuals in areas that are convenient, say for sexual morality, but absolute for areas that are not so convenient, say in whether someone should steal your iPhone or not. In other words... morality when it's convenient.

5. Finally, there is an absolute truth. God is truth. We can't know true right or wrong outside of knowing God. God's Word guides and leads our life and leads us in truth. See post here on why scripture is the most backed up piece of literature in the world: http://lifewiththeluikens.blogspot.com/2015/05/renewing-reason-most-important-literary.html

An act can be right or wrong (as defined by God) whether or not a society or culture says anything about that act.

At the end of the day, God saved me a sinner. I rejoice in that fact because I didn't deserve it!! He saves us when we are dead in sin and we become alive in Christ. Alive in two ways: 1) Life on earth is brighter, fuller, richer, and made more whole. 2) When we accept Christ, we are given (out of no act of our own) eternal life with Christ after we die on Earth.

In no way I am (a sinner) better than you. But I do believe that there is one truth. That one truth is God alone. In God alone, we are set free by truth.

Have you ever kept a secret for a long time? Remember how it felt to finally tell someone that secret?
Relief. Peace. Rest. No more hiding. No more guilt. No more shame.

That's what truth does. It sets us free. And I pray it may do the same for you.

"There is a way that seems right to a  man, but its end is the way to death." Proverbs 14:12

"The their comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10

"Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32 Pin It