"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.
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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