Science and Christianity

To become a Christian, do you need to throw away your mind & ignore the findings of science? Au contraire!

 
One of my five (yes, five!) majors as an undergraduate was biology. As a biology student who was also a Christian, I struggled with how to reconcile the theory of evolution with my faith. I knew Christians who felt strongly that evolution was contrary to Christianity, but in biology, evolution was the foundation upon which classes were taught. I wanted to stay true to my faith but was unsure how to reconcile this apparent contradiction. The symbols in the picture in this post testify to the hostility between some who hold these “opposing viewpoints”, and represent a sort of warfare mentality of the relationship of science to faith.

For me, probably the thing that bothered me most was the link, at least in my mind, between evolutionary science and naturalism, a concept adopted by many atheists. Naturalism denies the existence of God and teaches that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the world and that nothing exists beyond the natural world; life is solely the product of random forces guided by no one (i.e., accidental). I read articles explaining the “evolutionary basis for morality” and “religion as a natural phenomenon”. In a nutshell, they argued that morality and belief in God exists simply because they helped our ancestors adapt to their environments and survive, and not because they are true. In effect, the things our brain tells us about God, morality, and even love and beauty are not real, but merely a set of chemical reactions which only have the purpose of passing on our genetic code (i.e., natural selection).

These assumptions seem reasonable at face value, which only intensified my quandary as an undergraduate biology student who was also a Christian.

My journey on this road was long, but for the sake of brevity I will summarize my view by citing from “The Reason for God” by Tim Keller, who addressed this topic as well as any I have ever heard. Here is a synopsis of his argument:

If we can't trust our brains to tell us the truth about God, as naturalism suggests, then why should we trust our brains in any area, including to tell us the truth about any scientific theory (including evolution)? For that matter, how certain can we be in our ability to apply reason to anything at all? Indeed, reason itself can have no power if it is only a product of natural selection. Charles Darwin himself saw this major vulnerability, writing “the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy” (1). If our brains are products of random, unguided evolution, then it is as likely we live in a sort of dream world as that we actually know something about ourselves and our world (2). It is disingenuous for naturalists to apply the scalpel of their skepticism to what our minds tell us about God, but not to what our minds tell us about naturalism itself. Conversely, if we believe God exists, then our view of the universe gives us a basis for believing that cognitive faculties work, since God could make us able to form true beliefs and knowledge. Also, if God exists, our intuitions about the meaningfulness of beauty and love are to be expected. If you don't believe in God then these things are profoundly inexplicable. When evolution is turned into an All-encompassing Theory explaining absolutely everything we believe, feel, and do as the product of random forces through natural selection, then we are not in the arena of science, but of philosophy, and it has insurmountable difficulties as a worldview.

You may be wondering what my position is on this topic after all my wrestling. I believe that scientific thought can be compatible with religious belief, which is important since I am a scientist! Many Christians do not believe the theory of evolution; after all, it is only theory. But many Christians do accept evolutionary theory, although in the sense that God created life with purpose and evolutionary processes do exist. Since Christians have differing viewpoints on evolutionary theory, skeptical inquirers do not need to accept one of these positions in order to embrace the Christian faith. Rather they should concentrate on and weigh the central claims of Christianity such as the person of Christ and the resurrection.

There is much more to say about this but I have already gone long. As always, I am interested in your thoughts on this, whether you agree or disagree. Please feel free to share your thoughtful comments!

(1) Charles Darwin, Letter to W. Graham, 1881, The life and letters of Charles Darwin: including an autobiographical chapter;  (2) Alvin Plantinga, "Is Naturalism Irrational?" in Warrant and Proper Function (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 218.

What is Truth?

Relativism says the only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth. Is that logical?

What is truth? Pontius Pilate asked Jesus Christ that question (1) right before he sentenced Christ to be executed. I always thought Pilate's question was ironic, because Pilate was asking a man who himself claimed to be the Truth (2).

Secularism has something to say about truth too. Namely, the truth of the matter is there is no way to know the Truth. Isn’t there a contradiction in that statement? More on that later…

Secularists (a.k.a. relativists) believe that what people believe as truth is strictly a result of the social environment in which they were raised, or “conditioned”. Therefore, the truth is relative according to one’s own conditioning and no one should claim they can know the Truth. Relativists argue that no one can judge whether one assertion about spiritual and moral reality is truer than another.

Timothy Keller, in his book entitled “The Reason for God”, pointed out that there is a significant problem (contradiction) with this view. Specifically, when relativists insist that no one can determine which beliefs are right and wrong, they are in fact making a comprehensive claim about everyone that they presume to be "true." When relativists state that no belief can be held universally true for everyone, they are ironically claiming that their (the relativists) belief is universally true for everyone! In other words, all beliefs except theirs are relative. The relativists claim to know an absolute truth...that all truth is relative. The contradiction (if it isn’t obvious) is that to make that claim, relativists have to exempt themselves from their own statement (that there is no way to know the truth) to make their statement true. But by what (or whose) authority do they make their claim, and why should we believe them any more than anyone else?

These topics make my head spin, but they are important and many people struggle with them in this age. Yes, our cultural biases make weighing competing truth-claims difficult. But we all make truth-claims, including relativists, and therefore we have no alternative but to try to evaluate them responsibly.

What are your thoughts about Truth? Is it knowable? Even if it is, does it matter? Is it worth pursuing? I believe it is. As a Christian, I believe we can know the Truth because the object of my faith (Jesus) assured us that we can know the truth and it will set us free (3). A long time ago I read and believed the words of Jesus (who claimed to be the Truth), who said seek and you will find (4). Does that sound like an invitation? It is! I accepted his invitation and have never looked back.

(1) John 18:38; (2) John 14:6; (3) John 8:32; (4) Matthew 7:7-8.

The Decline of the Secular University

Secularism hasn't had to explain itself for several generations and has become as muddled as religion was when it was simply dominant. 
C. John Sommerville

I recently read a book entitled "The Decline of the Secular University", which in part motivated me to start this blog. In it, the author (C. John Sommerville) takes on the secularism that has infiltrated universities in the last century. Secularism, which is an ideology in itself, has attempted to eliminate religion from the classroom. In doing so, however, Sommerville argues that universities have in a sense marginalized themselves in the eye of the public. True, science and technology have vastly improved our lives in many ways including in the areas of medicine, agriculture, etc. But he is talking about topics more fundamental that we all grapple with such as hope, trust, purpose, and wisdom. Because of the universities adherence to secularism, they even have trouble defining important topics such as justice, truth, the human, and the humane, because those topics all have inherent religious dimensions.

In his book, Sommerville quoted Chancellor Francis Snow, an entomologist at the University of Kansas (I won't hold that against him!), who believed that "the university should train body and spirit as well as mind and could do this by fostering an atmosphere conducive to spiritual development". I was surprised to hear that universities used to have a more overtly religious core that, along with learning, also included chapel as a place for obtaining vision and contemplation towards intellectual creativity; time in the chapel was considered perhaps as important as time in the lab! Michael Polanyi, a British chemist and academic, stated that science, mathematics, the arts, and religion all have a role in maintaining wonder and not just explaining it. Universities, however, have too easily assumed that their job was to dispel wonder. I touched on that topic in an earlier blog (Do I Really Matter?).

Secular rationalism itself is not a neutral, absolute position that rises above all faith commitments. Rather, it is a worldview among many. Unfortunately, universities have not been teaching about secularism in the sense that it is one view among many, but instead have been teaching secularism in the sense of indoctrination and requiring adoption of its assumptions (such as relativism...there are no absolute "truths"). Sommerville is not arguing that the university should be ruled by religion, but he does argue (and I agree) that universities not be officially secularist in the sense that religion is ruled out. He envisions universities whose goal is not to impose a privileged viewpoint (such as secularism currently is), but to understand, or at least give a voice to, all viewpoints that are able to win a hearing. Universities, by disdaining the standards of thought by students and the public (such as religion), may face increasing opposition including stingy funding and skepticism about various causes considered urgent by universities.

So what do you think? Has secularism ran its course? Has it resulted in a general decline in the authority and effectiveness of universities in the eye of the public? Should silenced voices be invited back into the classroom? If so, what would that look like?

God Romances You!

The other evening my wife Jannis and I were walking by a farm pond near our home and we heard the sounds of frogs (on the youtube video at left, or click: http://youtu.be/pN7RUy95N5c). As I listened to the melodious harmony I remembered reading in a book entitled "The Sacred Romance", by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis, about how cool it is that God often uses nature to romance us. Isn't is a wonder that bird songs (and frog melodies) are not so loud that they hurt our ears, or so soft that we cannot hear them, or so nasty sounding that they repulse us or make us feel like someone is scratching their fingernails across a chalkboard. Have you noticed a beautiful sunset lately? Or perhaps a panoramic view of green trees and rolling meadows or prairie, towering mountains, rhythmic waves at the beach, the delicateness of a flower, or grace of an animal running free in the wild? Perhaps humor or affection from your pet!? Brilliant stars or a bright moon in the night sky? Has God spoken to you today? Perhaps he did and you missed it? I encourage you to watch and listen for him today. He specializes in romancing you, wooing you through his creation!

The Great Rescue

What has your experience with the church been like? Speaking from my own experience, much of what I heard coming from the pulpit has been, of sorts, in the form of negative persuasion. For example, I often heard: "You are a sinner and have rebelled against God. Therefore, you must turn from your selfish ways and acknowledge your sin to God, to prevent spending eternity in hell". While I won't argue about the technical accuracy from a theological standpoint, I always struggled with some aspects that seemed inherent in that statement. First of all, "rebelled" is such a proactive term, and I didn't feel like I was in active rebellion against God. Sure, I knew I wasn't perfect, but I wasn't exactly shaking my fist at God in anger either. Second, it painted a picture of a God who was angry with me and who seemed harsh and demanding. It seemed like he wanted me to cry "uncle" and then, apparently, to start towing the line by walking a straight and narrow (straight-laced?) life. The part about hell sounded threatening, which made God seem all the more harsh. The truth was that while I didn't want to go to hell when I died, the idea of being a Christian didn't sound like that much fun either. For example, it seemed like God's condemnation of sin was a condemnation of anything that was fun. Somehow I interpreted the condemnation of "selfish desires" as a condemnation of any desire even if it was good. Billy Joel had a song back in the 70's that said "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun". Although I didn't like the overall message of that song, it seemed like there was some truth to that line, at least in what I could see in the church. It seemed like if I wanted to go to heaven, I would have to live a rigid, almost joyless life...a kind of self-imposed moral straight jacket.

But mine was a narrow and incomplete view of the Gospel. Sadly, it veiled so much of what is beautiful and stunning about the true nature of God. So what would a positive persuasion presentation of the Gospel be like?

I am no theologian, but I invite you to try a visualization experiment (no, it does not use the scientific method!). If you will, find a quiet place, still your thoughts, and allow your mind to release any negative, harsh preconceptions about God, or any oppressive religious dogma you may have heard. If you don't believe in God, allow yourself for just a moment to imagine there is a God as I briefly describe him here (although my description is woefully inadequate...a whole book has been written about him that describes him much better...the Bible). First, consider that out of nowhere and out of nothing, he chose to make you (1). That seems like a good thing, right? Then try to imagine what pure love would feel like, love that is directed towards YOU, that comes to you and and is totally unconditional...it doesn't matter what you have or have not done (2). Imagining that kind of love may seem difficult, but it seems worthwhile to try. Pure, radiant light that pierces the darkness (3). A sense that you are surrounded by tender compassion that gently heals your wounds and the hurt and broken places inside you (4, 5), like a mother who calms her child when they hurt (6). A God who is totally good (7), who is brimming with unlimited power and able to fight to protect you (8). One whom you can trust completely, who knows everything about you and who is closer to you than your own thoughts! (9) A marvelous Creator who made a whole world for you for adventure, to explore in wonder and delight...and who delights in seeing you so filled with wonder and delight (10, 11). That is a glimpse of what God is really like, and what you were made for.

But Christianity also teaches that something has gone wrong in our world. C.S. Lewis, prominent scholar and academic of the 20th century, wrote in his book Mere Christianity: "One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin...Christianity thinks that this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong." Later in the same chapter, entitled The Invasion, Lewis continued: "Enemy-occupied territory - that is what the world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king [Jesus] has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage." Before you dismiss me (Dale) as crazy, and lest you miss the point of this particular blog post, please bear with me a little longer; all of these things above are clearly described in the Scriptures (my statements within the text here are linked to them and referenced at the bottom of this post - perhaps you thought the Bible was boring?!). The Scriptures teach that this dark power viciously expends its efforts to steal and destroy all the good things from you that were described above (and then some) (12, 13).

The Great Rescue is the incredible story of the One who made you, coming for you, to rescue you from this evil Dark Power. God isn't standing in heaven with his hands on his hips, tapping his gigantic foot, and ready to throw anybody into hell who doesn't soon give in to his demands. He intervened in a world in which humanity had also gone wrong, way back at the dawn of time, and were left hopelessly under the dominion of this Dark Power; that is the state of the world into which we were born. By coming for us, he has rekindled the thrill of hope of restoration into His Kingdom. Jesus said that he came into the world not to condemn it, for it was condemned already. Rather, he came into the world to save and restore it (14). And the bottom line is that any of us can be rescued. We just have to want it enough to ask God for it (15). To acknowledge that we need rescued, that something is desperately wrong in our lives and we want it to be right again. That is where the "acknowledge your sin" comes from, mentioned earlier in this post. But repentance isn't simply crying "uncle" to God. Rather it is a beautiful act that allows God to forgive you and, in his eyes, erase all the accusations against you from shame, guilt, lies, harm you have done to others, etc. (16) Only then can the process of healing and restoration begin, and it is a process - an exciting process. He breaks the hold the Dark Power has had over you and sets you free to live a life with him (17). But God also honors our individual wills enough not to impose himself into our lives. He only comes if we ask (18).

If all of this sounds far fetched, keep in mind that millions of people throughout history have believed it, and many believed it enough that they felt it was worth dying for (starting with Jesus Christ). There is something powerful about this message. I encourage you to look into it. You don't have much to lose, and absolutely everything to gain!

Note: Since I am a scientist, I felt it was necessary to back up my descriptions above with citations to the original source. The links in the text above to biblegateway.com go to the following verses:  (1) Ephesians 1:4;  (2) 1 John 4:7-18; (3) John 8:12; (4) Psalm 86:15; (5) Psalm 34:18; (6) Psalm 131:2; (7) Psalm 100:5; (8) Exodus 15:3-13; (9) Psalm 139:1-18; (10) Genesis 1:27-31; (11) Zephaniah 3:17; (12) John 8:44; (13) John 10:10; (14) John 3:17-18; (15) Romans 10:13; (16) Romans 8:1; (17) Colossians 1:13; (18) Revelation 3:20

You Are Beautiful

Just a quick post to share a song with you that really helped me get through this week. It is called "You're Beautiful", and below are its lyrics along with a link to youtube where you can listen to the song yourself if you like. As you read or listen to the lyrics, let the words sink in and ask yourself what it would mean if they were really true.

Christianity teaches that these words ARE true! Has this been your understanding about how God thinks of us? I have to confess that until a few years ago, I didn't comprehend it. But it is a BEAUTIFUL thing to realize now!  Enjoy...

Listen to song on youtube by clicking on the link below (or here: https://youtu.be/7C2o0jHNRuU).

You're Beautiful (by MercyMe)
Days will come when you don't have the strength
When all you hear is you're not worth anything
Wondering if you ever could be loved
And if they truly saw your heart, they'd see too much

You're Beautiful
You're Beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're Beautiful
You're Beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're Beautiful

I'm praying that you have the heart to fight
"Cause you are more than what is hurting you tonight
For all the lies you've held inside so long
They are nothing in the shadow of the cross

You're Beautiful
You're Beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're Beautiful
You're Beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're Beautiful.

Before you ever took a breath
Long before the world began
Of all the wonders He possessed
There was one more precious
Of all the earth and skies above
You're the one He madly loves ENOUGH TO DIE!!

You're Beautiful
You're Beautiful in His eyes

YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL
You are meant for so much more than all of this
YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're Beautiful

You're Beautiful
You are meant for so much more than all of this
You're Beautiful
You're Beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His

Restoration, not Religion

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Blaise Pascal

Does religion hold the answers to life's questions? Religion is a term that undoubtedly has different meanings for different people. While many would emphasize its strengths and others its weaknesses, few could argue that religion does not have some negative connotations associated with it. To many, religion is a list of things you should do (like attend church regularly) and shouldn't do (like cuss, drink, or smoke). To be accepted and respected within a religion it seems you must live under their laws, which can be oppressive. Wars are fought over and injustices committed in the name of religion. Perhaps its no wonder the institution of the university in America has gone secular and restricted the voice of religion on its campuses. But in doing so have they thrown the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak?

Speaking from a perspective of Christianity, some may be surprised that Jesus Christ's sharpest criticisms were towards the leaders of the religious establishment. He criticized them because they were smug, self righteous, and badly misrepresented God in the name of God. Consequently, the religious leaders hated Jesus! Interestingly, the people who were most attracted to Jesus were the "irreligious", who, yes, probably cussed, drank, etc. Why? What did they see in him? He didn't endorse but in fact, often challenged their lifestyles.

They loved Jesus because his words resonated with them. They could sense his message was truth, but he spoke with a grace and love that they had never heard from any other "religious teacher" (not that any other religious teachers would have been caught dead in the presence of such "sinners"). Jesus taught that he came to seek and to save that which was lost. And all of them, as with all of us, had lost something precious. Jesus' message was one of RESTORATION, and not more oppressive rules.  And he backed it up by restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, mobility to the paralyzed, mental health to the mentally ill, and even raising people from the dead. His message was very personal to everyone he touched, and his message continues to be personal today to each person he touches.

Personally, I am interested in something life-giving rather than something that sucks life out of me. Is there something or someone that can take away the anguish of regret, guilt, shame, etc. and replace it with a genuine, deep down in our souls kind of hope, peace, and joy? This is a glimpse of the RESTORATION of life as it was meant to be. If your experience with or impression about the "religion" of Christianity has been negative, I challenge you not to cast your final judgement on Jesus until you take a little time to learn more about this amazing person (for example, by clicking on the links in this post). I think you will be not only pleasantly surprised, but may even find the revelation of the real Jesus to be life-changing. He has that effect on people,..yes, even those in the secular university!