Theology was once considered the “queen of the sciences” by the academy. Western Christian society invented the modern higher educational system. Its belief that truth is one led to the undaunted pursuit of all truth, reexamining every last presupposition held. This is science. The scientist, the one who unflinchingly abandons all bias and reaches new conclusions, was born.
The thing is, though, that these scientists were still human. And, despite their inability to account for them, the realm of spirits still very much influence these people.
For a time, most scientists continued belief in a Creator God of the bible who bestows meaning and purpose upon our lives. They believed their discoveries were a testament to the truth of this God, and that the hands of a master craftsman had shaped all we see and know. Yet over time this belief became passé, and a now dominant orthodoxy of atheism claimed the field.
It became a basic assumption among many different fields of science that the ancient stories could not possibly be true, that supernatural explanations were insufficient and false, that we were on the precipice of new knowledge that would radically augment human life. As with so many things tied to the evil one, there were half-truths. We do seem to have accomplished new things technologically, while creating some great bodies of understanding in a number of fields. However, have we really created a new humanity? Have we left behind the shackles of the past?
While Transhumanism continues forward unabated, we continue to find that we are still very much attached to our premodern, pre-civilized nature. We cannot seem to be able to medicate ourselves out of basic existential anomie. We cannot seem to innovate such inventions as to fully satisfy the yearnings of the human heart. We cannot seem to distract ourselves effectively enough to no longer fear death. We cannot seem to intimidate citizens of authoritarian governments enough to keep them from the desire for freedom. The human spirit does not seem to be subject to negotiation. Rather, attempts to control and systematize humanity have revealed the most depraved and desperate of conditions.
It has been fun to watch as science has brought about this sort of horseshoe effect, validating the supposed bigotries of past eras. Archaeology regularly validates the historical scriptural witness of the Kingdom of Israel and the Hebrew people, as well as the stories they have passed along. Medicine is proving out that God designed our immune systems and microbiomes to function in ways that are finely tuned to fight the hostile world around us, rather than constant medical intervention being necessary. Social science shows many of the teachings of the bible to cohere to human nature, such as the flourishing of children between two parents of the opposite sex, and the requisite marital bond being essential for longterm function of a family unit. The invention of the pill and huge efforts and social reprogramming have not been able to decouple sex from procreation and family, nor has increased selfishness of parents changed the emotional needs of children. We have found that government/school cannot replace the essential role of parents. The wasteland of modern society is a constant proof, validated by many fields of science, that God’s ways are perfect and inscrutable.
Even so, I hesitate to give any role to science beyond being able to confirm what we already know to be true. Fine, scientists can and should innovate in the realm of technology. Yet it was a great mistake for us to imagine that science could in any way fill the hole that true religion fills, or that it might be able to disprove fundamental Christian beliefs. We were fools to ever entertain the notion that the bible could be false, and that we might discover/create a better method for human flourishing. We must return to the premodern knowledge of God the Father as a loving and benevolent master, who has built us to conform to the regenerate way of life pioneered by Christ himself.
Because the thing is that the Creation is fallen. We are told this in the first pages of our holy book. Heavenly and earthly rebellion caused a corruption in our world. While much of God’s goodness remains in the creation, it has been distorted. The creation is not a perfect reflection of our perfect God, but rather more like a distorted mirror. Science will only ever reflect that distortion. Human interpretation of scientific truth will always be distorted.
So in the end, while I appreciate many of the technological innovations of science, and I gloat when science validates things the bible teaches, in the end I have to dismiss what it has to offer as important. The bible is true, not because science says it is, but because it is. We shouldn’t care what science says. We have been told what is true. Fine, examine how it is true. Come to your own personal knowledge of how the Christian faith is true. But if you imagine that you, or some human smarter than you, can elevate us above its constraints and convictions—you are lost. Return. Repent.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
-Romans 8:20-22
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
-1 Corinthians 2:14-16
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
-John 14:6
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
-James 1:27
I’m an Environmental consultant for the state of Tennessee(science degree) this is a great post. Science is simply a method a Christian Can use to test things but some have made it a god. They say “trust the science”. I say “trust God whose uniform and consistent physical laws make science possible”.
I was actually thinking of making a similar post myself. About how science just proves God's existence and that's why the science "changes" so much is because it's wrong. It ignores God and tries to replace him.