The God of Science

The latest edition of Case magazine is out, and if you’re not a CASE associate then you’re missing out on some great articles. As I write in my introduction to this issue, at a time when Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins are seeking to negate the place of faith in understanding the origins and purpose of life, it is important to assert that there are varied views on the compatibility of science and faith.

The theme in this issue is ‘The God of Science’. This should signal that we believe that rather than God and science being in opposition, that science can help us to understand the ‘what’ of creation while still allowing us to accept that God is the ultimate answer to the ‘why’. God has knowledge of all the answers to the questions that science explores. The efforts of scientists to pose questions and then to try and answer them should strengthen our insights into the wonder of God’s creation. The aim of Case #19 is to stimulate discussion about the fundamental question, can faith and science complement one another, or are they inevitably in conflict?

Articles and reviews on the theme

Kirsten Birkett offers a valuable historical foundation in her piece 'I Believe in Nature' and explores how naturalism became entrenched as the predominant discourse. She shows how key scientists managed to drive a wedge between science and faith to create the common perception that science is all that there is.

Michael Murray’s article ‘Belief in God: A trick of our brain?’ considers scientific evidence that humans are naturally disposed towards religious belief, ritual and moral behaviour as an outcome of natural evolutionary processes. Atheists like Dawkins take this evidence and conclude that religion is a by-product of the built-in irrationality mechanism in the brain, and that humans would believe in God even if he did not exist. But Murray suggests that all the science demonstrates is that natural causes are involved in the origin of religious beliefs. He concludes that there is no evidence to counter the Christian belief articulated by John Calvin 400+ years ago, that God as creator built within us a desire to know him.

Dennis Alexander argues in his article ‘God and Evolution’ that science and faith are complementary and that Darwinism is not at odds with belief in a creator God. His article will challenge some readers but like Birkett, Lennox and Frankenberry, Alexander argues for compatibility between faith and science; that science and faith can coexist. Alexander suggests that you can accept the science as an explanation of the origins of biological diversity on the earth, but still see it as the outworking of God’s will as creator. “If there is a personal God with intentions and purposes for his creation, then we expect order, directionality and the emergence of personhood.”

Alexander’s position is that man evolved from an archaic species of homo sapiens, and that God in his grace, chose a couple of Neolithic farmers to reveal himself to mankind. He called them into fellowship so that we might know him as a personal God. These he argues were “divine humans”, who the Bible gives the names Adam and Eve. But rather than being the ‘first’ humans, they were chosen to be representatives of a new humanity. There will be dissenters from this view. As well, there will be some who will question whether Alexander’s view can be reconciled with the Scriptures.

Lewis Jones concludes our discussion by bringing us back to a fundamental point, that science cannot answer questions about the purpose of creation. Jones suggests that the relationship between science and purpose is more rightly seen as the relationship between the nature of things and the rightness of our actions. “God is the sole revealer of his purposes for creation."

We also have two reviews on books relevant to the theme. Andrew Kyme reviews John Lennox’s book 'God’s undertaker: Has Science Buried God?' Patrick Chan reviews Nancy Frankenberry’s book ‘The Faith of Scientists: In their own words’ which offers an insight into how twenty one scientists relate matters of faith to their science.

Collectively, the writers who have contributed to this edition of Case support the truth that God is the God of Science as well as creation:

“The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers” (Psalm 24:1-2).

Our God owns all and founded all. Furthermore, as Paul reminds us in Colossians 1:15-16, God sustains all things by, for and through Christ:

As the writers in this issue demonstrate, knowledge of science need not weaken faith; in fact it might just strengthen it. It is possible to understand what science teaches and to seek to reconcile this to our knowledge a God who seeks to reconcile us to himself through Christ.

Related links

You can read Roberta Kwan’s reflections on the topic as she worked on this edition of Case (here)

From the CASE vault - Cells and Souls, Kirsten Birkett (here)

From the CASE vault - Can Science see the end? Ross McKenzie & Greg Clarke (here)

Don Carson's Publications online

Andy Naselli recently completed a bibliography of Don Carson's many publications on the Gospel Coalition website. While the books simply link to Amazon, the real bonus is that 237 of Carson's articles are now available on the site for free as pdf downloads. But that's not all. You can download lots of his sermons as MP3 files as well as conference presentations, book reviews, courses and other things.

While the sermons, conference papers and some other resources have been available on the Gospel Coalition before, this new section brings all of Don Carson's many contributions together in one place.

Here's the link HERE.

HT: Patrick Chan for directing me to Andy's post.

The glory of God: 25,000 orchids have their say!

I’m currently in Asia doing work on behalf of my college. The trip started in Singapore where I had the chance to visit The National Orchid Garden. I’m an amateur orchid grower so when I noticed the garden was close by I had to visit. Orchids are an amazing flower. The Orchid family (Orchidaceae) is the largest family of the flowering plants. It has been estimated that there are 880 genera and nearly 22,000 accepted species. However, the exact number is unknown and has been estimated at 25,000. This is four times the number of species of mammal. The variety is incredible; orchids vary in size, colour shape, number of blooms and frequency of flowering.

As a Christian I believe that God created these flowers. But why? Why 25,000? Would 2,000 have done, or even 20? Genesis 1 is helpful and helps us to understand that God takes pleasure in his creation. In Genesis 1 we not only have recorded the order of creation, we see here that God looks at it with pleasure. He stood back (so to speak) and “..saw that it was good" (Gen 1:4, 12, 18, 21, 25). And when he had finished all of his creative work he declared that “…it was very good."


God seems to be delighted in his work; it gives him pleasure. The Psalmist also helps us to gain a sense that God takes pleasure in his creation, indeed, he rejoices in it.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever, may the Lord rejoice in his works (Psalm 104:31)

The works of God are an expression of his glory, and as long as God’s glory endures (and Psalm 104 suggests this will be forever), he will take pleasure in his works. And the wonderful thing is that the 25,000 varieties of orchids, and in fact all of creation, brings ongoing praise to God. In fact the Psalmist (Psalm 148) calls on creation itself to praise the Lord:

Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD from the heavens,
praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for he commanded and they were created.
He set them in place forever and ever;
he gave a decree that will never pass away.
Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and maidens,
old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendour is above the earth and the heavens.
He has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his saints,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the LORD.

God’s 25,000 varieties of orchids bring praise to him simply by being what they were created to be in all their amazing variety. As well, they reveal the wonder of his knowledge and wisdom (Psalm 104:24):

How many are your works, O LORD!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

And God’s creation should also move us to look to the one who created them (Is 40:26):

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

As I marvelled at God’s orchids I was moved to consider how great God must be. If his work in one family of flowering plants is so amazing, just how amazing must God be himself. Again, the Psalmist (Psalm 104:31-34) has some words that point us in this direction:

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works-
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
I will sing to the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the LORD.

Related posts

The wonders of space: Seeing the creator in images of the universe (here)

Environmental warriors on a religious crusade?

While I am committed to environmental issues and believe that all of us must be good stewards of God's world, like many others, I am often surprised by the religious zealousness of some environmental activists. Critique of the almost apocalyptic language of the environmental movement has recently come from some surprising sources.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald this week (12-13 July 2008) Michael Duffy penned these words:

The rhetoric surrounding global warming is drawing increasingly on notions of religion and war. As has been often noted, environmentalism in its more extreme forms is deeply appealing to those of us with a need to believe in something, but who have decided that science has killed off Christianity.

(Bob) Brown with his apocalyptic talk of cataclysm, exemplifies this. Ross Garnaut’s use of the term “diabolical” when presenting his report pressed the same button. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse certainly get a good gallop in the report, with predictions of war (geopolitical instability), famine (collapse of agricultural productivity), pestilence (dengue fever) and death (all the above, plus heat-related fatalities).

ABC TV’s political editor Chris Uhlmann, picked up on the religious element in the carbon crusade…… “One of the things that strikes me most strongly about this debate is its theological nature – and that’s essentially that we have sinned against the environment, that we are now being punished and the only way we can escape that punishment is to wear a hair shirt for the rest of our lives”

I pray that Brown, Duffy, Uhlmann and others can join the dots between human selfishness, greed, exploitation, pride, power, environmental decay, sin and rebellion against God, and perhaps read Genesis and Revelation with eyes opened by the Spirit of God. My hope is that in the midst of these difficult times when the environment is under threat, and we face significant challenges from global warming, that they might realise that science does not control the world and that God is not dead!

Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord, And glorify your name?
For you alone are holy. All nations will come
And worship you,
For your righteous acts have
Been revealed.
(Revelation 15:3-4)

Above: Port Stephens (NSW) at dawn yesterday where I'm holidaying

The wonders of space: Seeing the creator in images of the universe

Praise the Name of the LORD

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!

Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the LORD!
For he commanded and they were created.
And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

(Psalm 148:1-6)

I grew up as a child during the great US and Russian space race of the 1950s and 1960s. Like most young boys I was fascinated by it. I collected cards, cut out every clipping I could find in the papers, read everything I could find on space. There was no TV at first but by the early 1960s black and white TV brought space travel even more to life. Like almost everyone who had a TV I watched the first moon landing live on July 20th 1969. I was not a Christian but I still marvelled at the vastness and mystery of space and the human achievement.

For a young boy this was the age of cracker nights, home made cracker guns, serious skyrockets, and the challenge of contests to see who could blast a tin the highest using a tuppenny bunger. My fascination with space exploration had two dimensions. The technology achievement of blasting men into space in tiny capsules atop giant rockets seemed unbelievable. And the images of earth viewed from space for the first time and those of the relatively inconsequential moon that were viewed on cinema screens and black and white televisions sets were amazing.

In the intervening years since the US Apollo program ended, space exploration and travel has seemed much more boring (notwithstanding the great work of astronomers and the achievements of the Hubble Telescope etc). But the Mars probe has rekindled my interest and the images have inspired me in new ways.

Image above: Mars North Polar Cap in summer [Image courtesy of Malin Space Science] Systems)

Residents at the university college I lead (New College, UNSW) were fortunate to have Dr Fred Watson as our guest at our end of session dinner recently. Dr Watson is Astronomer in Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Coonabarabran, where his main scientific interest is gathering information on very large numbers of stars and galaxies. He is the author of "Stargazer - the life and times of the telescope", and is a regular broadcaster on ABC radio. His new book "Why is Uranus upside down?" is based on listener questions, and was published in October 2007.

His address included a fascinating visual presentation of images primarily from Mars (it has obvious currency). His focus was the significance of the most recent Mars landing by NASA. The images he shared and thousands of others are available on the NASA website.

The landing on Mars by the NASA probe is another significant human achievement. The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth. The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface. It has already begun examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life. There have been many attempts to explore Mars dating back to the 1970s, but the greatest successes have come in recent years. We now have three functioning pieces of equipment on the surface of Mars beaming signals back to Earth: the Spirit rover, the Opportunity rover, and the most recent is the Phoenix lander.

Dr Watson painted a vivid picture of the universe in all its majesty and wonder. He spoke of stars being formed and time spans of billions of years. The little boy in me was again captivated by the technology that sent the little landing vehicle to this distant planet and the wonder and enormity of space. The images of the Red planet captured my imagination. But while Dr Watson kept talking of the vastness of the Universe, the billions of years he believed that it had taken for the planet as we view it to be formed, I kept thinking of the creator who was responsible for all that we were viewing and the vastness that was still hidden from even the most powerful of telescopes. As amazing as the Mars landing is, in cosmic terms, it is barely a trip to the other side if the street, and the best of our images of the universe, collected by our most powerful telescopes, are little more than a view of the next set of hills.

As a Christian I believe that God has revealed himself through his word, that his plan for humanity is described in detail in the Bible and that this is revealed perfectly in the sending of his son Jesus Christ to die for us. But I also believe, as most of the great scientists did in the 17th Century, that God's creation also points to him and that science and religion don't have to be seen as in conflict. I'm grateful to astronomers who help me to understand the complexities of a universe that I believe God created. Their discoveries lead me to marvel at God and his work, not to doubt his existence. The latest edition of Case (a quarterly magazine that I Edit for CASE) has an interesting piece by Larissa Johnson titled "Redeeming Natural Theology" that argues that science and religion can co-exist and that science can be a useful apologetic.

As Dr Watson spoke, I kept wanting to shout Praise God! It is little wonder that astronomers marvel at the stars in the heavens and spend their lives seeking the secrets of the universe. I too marvel at it, for it declares the Glory of God.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hand

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard
(Psalm 19:1-3)

Above Image: The cliff in this image from Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) is informally named Cape St Vincent. Scientists suggest that the rocks at Victoria Crater once represented a large dune field, not unlike the Sahara desert on Earth, and that this dune field migrated with an ancient wind flowing from the north to the south across the region.

Image above: Image of Victoria Crater showing Rover Opportunity's tracks as viewed from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft (26.6.07).

Image above: The image above is inside Newton Basin on Mars and shows numerous narrow channels run from the top down to the floor. Many scientists hypothesize that liquid groundwater can sometimes surface on Mars, erode gullies and channels, and pool at the bottom before freezing and evaporating [Photo Credit: Malin Space Science Systems, MGS, JPL, NASA]