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Why Science & Christianity are not Natural Enemies

Why Science & Christianity are not Natural Enemies. Christopher Ullman Christian Life College. Egypt India China Babylon. Each had a worldview which was insufficient to incubate the scientific method. Why? Superstition and animism “All is god and god is all ”

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Why Science & Christianity are not Natural Enemies

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  1. Why Science & Christianity are not Natural Enemies Christopher Ullman Christian Life College

  2. Egypt India China Babylon Each had a worldview which was insufficient to incubate the scientific method. Why? Superstition and animism “All is god and god is all” Non-linear view of history Science was Stillborn in Non-Biblical Civilizations god

  3. Greece Rome Islam Their gods had power but not holiness “All events are predestined and inscrutable” Science was Stillborn in Non-Biblical Civilizations

  4. The Biblical Worldview is the Incubator of Science The Bible teaches: • There is order in the universe • This is a good world that God has made • God intended for humans to discover His creation • Our sensed perceptions can routinely be trusted • Like causes produce like effects • Everything God created has a purpose

  5. The Order Premise “There is order in the universe.” Science operates on this assumption, and it results in beliefs such as: • The physical world is real: it is what it is • Like causes produce like effects • Matter/energy is neither being created nor destroyed • In a closed system, net entropy increases

  6. The Order Premise Can’t BeDisproven To argue against it, one must first believe one stands firmly in the world of experience The world of experience is known to be real because it is orderly Therefore, one must assume the order premise to try to disprove the order premise

  7. The Best Basis for Believing the Order Premise is True: There is a rational, orderly mind who created the universe • John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Logos • Job 38:36 – “Who endowed the heart with wisdom?” • Isaiah 1:18 – “Come, let us reason together.” If God had not intended for us to know He is the source of the order in the universe, He would not have spoken to us

  8. The Biblical Worldview is the Incubator of Science This is a good world that God has made • Genesis 1:31 – It’s all very good • Jeremiah 10:12 – He founded the world • I Timothy 4:4 – Everything God created is good It is not the source of evil It is not a plaything in the hands of God It is not eternal: it had a beginning and it will have an end

  9. The Biblical Worldview is the Incubator of Science God intended for humans to discover His creation • Genesis 1:28 – “Subdue it” • Proverbs 25:2 – “Search it out” • Job 12:7-8 – “Ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds, they will tell you” • Romans 1:20 – “Understand, from what has been made” • Colossians 2:2-3 – Find the hidden treasures by finding Christ

  10. The Biblical Worldview is the Incubator of Science Our sensed perceptions can routinely be trusted • Proverbs 6:6-8 – Go to the ant … observe his ways • 1 John 1:1-2 – Heard … seen … looked at … touched … • Matthew 16:2-3 – “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky …”

  11. The Biblical Worldview is the Incubator of Science Like causes produce like effects • Proverbs 30:33, 26:21, 10:4 – the law of the harvest No effect is quantitatively or qualitatively greater than its cause • Hebrews 7:7 – The lesser is blessed by the better • Matthew 10:24 – A student is not above his teacher ( also John 13:16) • Acts 17:24 – God built the universe, and doesn’t need a temple built by human hands

  12. The Biblical Worldview is the Incubator of Science Everything God created has a purpose • Revelation 4:11 – By your will they were created • Psalm 100:2-3 – We are the sheep of his pasture • Job 36:5 – God is firm in his purpose • Proverbs 19:21 – It is the Lord’s purpose that prevails • Isaiah 55:11 – “My word achieves the purpose for which I sent it” • 2 Corinthians 5:5 – God made us for this very purpose • Genesis 1:26 – “Let us make man in our image”

  13. Christianity Gives Birth to Science • There is order in the universe • This is a good world that God has made • God intended for humans to discover His creation • Our sensed perceptions can routinely be trusted • Like causes produce like effects • Everything God created has a purpose Equipped with these truths, at the appropriate time in history the experimental method began to be employed

  14. The Christian Worldview as Science’s Womb Christian Europe became the womb from which each of the basic scientific disciplines emerged. Far from being an enemy of science, Christianity provided the necessary conditions for humanity that prior civilizations had lacked. The motivation of the early scientists: “To think God’s thoughts after Him”

  15. Christian Scientists • Each of the following scientists expressed faith in Jesus Christ and in the Bible • They were not blinded by their faith to the world of observation and experimentation • Their faith gave them the best reason to engage in scientific research • Most of them were the founders of the specific discipline of science in which they worked • Each one of them excelled and changed their field of science forever • Many of them wrote commentaries and articles defending the Christian faith

  16. Christian Scientists • Roger Bacon(1220-1292) • Oxford scholar and teacher who tried to summarize all the learning of the day • He promoted the use of experimentation to determine truth • Nicolas Copernicus(1473-1543), mathematician and astronomer • Astronomer known for concluding that the sun is the center of our solar system

  17. Christian Scientists • Johannes Kepler(1571-1630), Mathematician and Astronomer • The astronomer who explained planetary motion • “Science is thinking God’s thoughts after Him” • Jan Baptist van Helmont(1577-1644), chemist and physiologist • the founder of pneumatic chemistry • Wrote on the effects of the Fall of Adam

  18. Christian Scientists • Blaise Pascal(1623-1662), mathematician, hydrostatics • Discovered Pascal’s Law • Founded the theory of probability • Proposed Pascal’s Wager supporting belief in God • Robert Boyle(1627-1691), chemist • Discovered Boyle’s Law of gases • One of the founders of the Royal Society of science in England • Translated the Bible into Gaelic and Turkish

  19. Christian Scientists • John Ray(1627-1705), botanist and zoologist • One of the founders of the Royal Society • Wrote books on natural theology and the Flood • Isaac Newton(1643-1727), physicist, mathematician, astronomer, optics • Defended creation and the Bible

  20. Christian Scientists • Carl Linnaeus(1707-1778), botanist, physician, zoologist • Father of biological taxonomy • Attempted to delineate the Genesis “kind” • William Herschel(1738-1822), astronomer • Discovered planet Uranus • “The undevout astronomer must be mad.”

  21. Christian Scientists • John Flamsteed(1646-1719), astronomer • Founded the Greenwich observatory • Accurately calculated solar eclipses of 1666 & 1668 • Devout deacon and preacher • William Derham(1657-1735), natural philosopher • First man to measure the speed of sound • Wrote Physico-Theology and Astro-Theology on the being and attributes of God

  22. Christian Scientists • Michael Faraday(1791-1867), physicist • Developed the sciences of electricity and magnetism • Believed God’s creation to be purposeful and designed for man’s well-being • Humphry Davy(1778-1829), chemist • Discovered several alkali elements, did original work on the nature of chlorine and iodine • Bible-believing Christian and highly generous

  23. Christian Scientists • Charles Babbage(1792-1871), mathematician and engineer • Originated the idea of a programmable computer • Invented the speedometer, the ophtalmoscope, and actuarial tables • Wrote a mathematical analysis defending the Biblical miracles • John Dalton(1766-1844), chemist, meteorologist and physicist • Father of modern atomic theory • Researched color blindness • Was a Bible-believing Quaker all his life

  24. Christian Scientists • Samuel F.B. Morse(1791-1872), inventor of the Morse Code, painter • Created the single-wire telegraph system • First telegraph message quoted Numbers 23:23: “What hath God wrought!” • Wrote about the clear evidence of the “divine origin of the Bible” and “God’s remedy for fallen man” • Matthew Maury(1808-1873), oceanographer • Psalm 8:8 “paths of the seas” led him to discover and graph ocean currents

  25. Christian Scientists • Rudolph Virchow(1821-1902), biologist and pathologist • Originated the Cell Theory: “Every cell originates from another existing cell like it ” • Strongly opposed the evolutionary teachings of Darwin and Haeckel • Protestant who campaigned against the Catholic Church • Gregor Mendel(1822-1884), geneticist • Father of genetics • He was a creationist and rejected Darwin’s evolutionary ideas

  26. Christian Scientists • Louis Pasteur(1822-1895), chemist and microbiologist • Created the pasteurization process for milk and wine • Experimentally refuted the evolutionary theory of spontaneous generation • Henri Fabre(1823-1915), biologist • Father of modern entomology • “Without Him I understand nothing; without Him all is darkness.”

  27. Christian Scientists • William Thomson [Lord Kelvin](1824-1907), physicist • Formulated 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics • Opposed Darwin and uniformitarian geology • James Clerk Maxwell(1831-1879), physicist • Formulated Maxwell’s Equations & Maxwell’s Distribution • Refuted Laplace’s evolutionary Nebular Hypothesis

  28. Christian Scientists • William Mitchell Ramsay(1851-1939), archaeologist • Expert on the archaeology of Paul’s missionary journeys • Converted to Christianity after he discovered that all the historical facts of the Bible’s Book of Acts were confirmed • John Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945), electrical engineer • Father of modern electronics • Founded Evolution Protest Movement in UK

  29. Christian Scientists • Howard Atwood Kelly(1858-1943), surgeon & gynecologist • Foremost OB/GYN in America from 1900-1920 • Wrote A Scientific Man and The Bible: A Personal Testimony • George Washington Carver(1864-1943), botanist • Invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, soybeans, pecans, etc. • Opposed Darwin’s theory and believed the Bible’s creation account

  30. Christian Scientists • Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville Wright (1871-1948), aeronautical engineers • First successful airplane flight December 7, 1903 • Both received Jesus as their personal Savior as youths • Studied God’s creation in the form of bird flight to develop their own design for an aircraft • His father “never tired of relating the positive effect that the Bible had had on his children”

  31. Christian Scientists • Wernher von Braun(1912-1977), aeronautics engineer • Father of the US Space Program • Director of NASA • Developed the rocket that landed on the moon • “I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.”

  32. Scientists Who Believe in Biblical Creation: Groups Creation Research Society: http://www.creationresearch.org/ Discovery Institute: http://www.discovery.org/ Creation Science Movement: http://www.csm.org.uk/index.php Answers in Genesis: http://www.answersingenesis.org/ Creation Ministries International: http://www.creationontheweb.org/

  33. Scientists Who Believe in Biblical Creation: Groups One list of living scientists who accept the Biblical account of creation: http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4983 (all possess a doctorate in a science-related field) One list of scientists who dissent from Darwin: http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=660

  34. Friendship Rules for Science & Christianity • Be open to all five ways of knowing • The Empirical • The Rational • The Mystical • The Pragmatic • Authority

  35. Friendship Rules for Science & Christianity • Christians must believe that the Bible is inerrant in its original manuscripts, and infallible in all that it teaches. IT IS ALL ABOUT ME … AND YOU

  36. Friendship Rules for Science & Christianity • The findings of science must always be, to some degree, tentative

  37. Friendship Rules for Science & Christianity • The Supreme Court of truth claims must be revelation, not science

  38. Friendship Rules for Science & Christianity • God can use Science, Theology, and Philosophy working together to teach us truth about the universe THEOLOGY SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY

  39. Friendship Rules for Science & Christianity • Beware of the God-of-the-Gaps Fallacy: “We don’t understand this phenomenon, so it must be a supernatural act of God” • “God is our explanation for every gap in our present understanding” • RESULT: The more we understand, the less use we have for God! • A phenomenon we don’t yet understand is not therefore necessarily a direct supernatural event

  40. Friendship Rules for Science & Christianity • Science does not need methodological naturalism (“natural phenomena can onlybe explained by referring to other natural phenomena”) • Some phenomena have only a supernatural explanation • The Initial Creation • Christ’s Resurrection • Miracles • History’s great Christian scientists were not methodological naturalists

  41. Science and Christianity

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