“Faith and Science”
January 26, 2025
Genesis 1:1-5
Heart of the Rockies Christian Church
David A. Shirey
In honor of Chuck Ryan, Kevin Foster, and Tom Ensign: men of science and faith
I had three men in our church in Arizona who were fluent in two languages: faith and science. We talked about the two. Chuck was a retired chemist from Eli Lilly. Kevin is a nationally renowned burn doctor. Tom worked for 3M, an acronym for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, whose products are quite diverse. Tom was one of the brains behind Post-It notes. Heart of the Rockies has its share of people of science: engineers (Wendy being one), number crunchers, mathematicians, health care workers. So, this being the Season of Epiphany and we being on the lookout for some epiphanies – some insights – let’s ponder the relationship between faith and science.
Which is to say faith and science are not mutually exclusive. Adversaries. Irreconcilable worldviews. To the contrary, I’m with Galileo who said, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same god who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.” He believed that understanding the world through science is a way to understand the mind of its Creator (an act of faith).
But not everyone shares Galileo’s willingness to embrace science and faith.
In 1633, Galileo was found guilty of heresy by a church court for advancing Copernicus’ theory that the earth revolves around the sun in express contradiction to Scripture’s teaching in Psalm 19 that “the sun runs its course” across the sky (as it circles the earth) or Joshua 10:13 where it says “the sun stood still” (stopped circling the earth) as Joshua did battle. Galileo was forced to recant his heretical science and apologize for his apostasy.
A century ago, 1925, in a Tennessee courtroom teacher John Scopes was put on trial for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in the public schools. The so-called “Scopes Monkey Trial” was turned into the movie Inherit the Wind starring Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly and the evolution – creation controversy has continued in acrimonious reruns ever since.
While at the Grand Canyon years ago, I stood with a group listening to a park ranger provide geologists’ explanation as to how the strata of the Canyon were formed over millions of years by the Colorado River at the end of which the man next to me harrumphed and growled, “He must not have read Genesis!”
This is to say faith and science have a troubled history. For some Christians, if science says it, they reject it. For some scientists, if the Bible says it, they reject it. To the point that a young woman asked her pastor, “Can I be a scientist and a Christian?” So I ask you, Can she? How do you answer her?
At risk of oversimplification, let me chart out three options for relating faith and science in regard to explaining how the universe was created.
One option is called Creation Science. So-called Young-earth Creationists say the universe – the stars, planets, and galaxies as well as the breathtaking diversity of plant and animal life, human beings included – was created in six twenty-four days as narrated
in Genesis 1. Young-earth creationists believe humankind’s family tree can be traced to the book of Genesis so they add up the ages of the people whose names and ages are recorded there, taking those ages literally. Adam lived to be 930; Seth to 912; Enosh to 905, through Abraham and Sarah, Moses to David and Jesus to us and conclude the universe is less than 10,000 years old, thus rejecting scientists’ postulations of billions of years.
For the young woman who asked if she could be a scientist and a believer to embrace Creation Science she’d have to deny the theorems/perspectives of every branch of modern science including physics, chemistry, cosmology, geology, biology, anthropology, and genetics.
A second option for her to consider is at the other end of the spectrum from Creation Science: call it Atheistic Evolution. Evolution means “change over time.” It refers to Charles Darwin’s theory that all life forms in existence today evolved over billions of years from simpler life forms through a process marked by mutation, adaptation, and selection. Subscribers to atheistic evolution believe the creation of all that is took place without any external influence or direction – that is, with no God involved.
But I can imagine the young woman who wants to be a person of faith and science, though she may accept the science of evolution, may question the thought of creation without a Creator. For instance, she might ask, “If all there is evolved from lower life forms and the lowest life forms came out of a primordial soup, who made the soup?” Or she might say, “I understand the Big Bang Theory. But where did the dense matter come from that went bang! And who lit the fuse?” Which reminds me of the mad scientist who announced to God, “I’ve discovered how to create life. You are no longer needed." To which God said, "Great, let's have a competition. Let’s you and I each make a human being.” Whereupon the mad scientist bent down and started to mold some dirt into a human form when God said, "Hey, make your own dirt!"
I can imagine our faith and science friend say, “I can’t believe the whole evolutionary process just happened because scientists have detailed all the conditions that had to be present for life to be possible on this planet and mathematicians say the odds all those things could take place by some ‘cosmic coincidence’ are a thousand times greater than my winning the Powerball every month the rest of my life. It’s much harder for me to believe life happened without a Creator than with One.”
She could say, “Though atheistic evolution answers the question of how we got here, it doesn’t answer why. That’s beyond the realm of science, I know, but rather than life on this planet being a cosmic coincidence, I believe there’s more to life than respiration, metabolism, excretion and reproduction. I get the evidence of humanity’s kinship with primates given we share 98% of the same DNA. But there’s something different about human beings I can only understand in terms of a soul and a Soul-Giver[1].” Our would-be woman of science and faith says, “Creation Science denies science as I understand it and Atheistic Evolution denies faith as I espouse it. Is there a way that honors both faith and science?
There is. Call it Theistic Evolution from the greek word theos for God – Godly Evolution. Simply stated, God is the Creator. Evolution is how God created. Back in 2006, Dr. Francis Collins, the scientist who directed the Human Genome Project and was director of the National Institutes of Health from 2009 to 2021, serving under three presidents, wrote The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. In an interview, he said[2], “In some faith traditions, evolution seems to be a threat to the idea that God did it. I don’t actually see it as a threat at all; I see this as answering the question of how God did it.” He wrote, “Think of DNA as a software program[3]” that along with the laws of nature and physics guided creation. God, if you will, is the creator of the software that booted up the universe.
For Collins, a man of science and faith, scientific discoveries are “an opportunity to worship" the wondrous way God created all that is – science as an invitation to awe and wonder. Which reminds me of a hymn written by a Lutheran pastor[4] that sings praise to God for the marvels of creation. The chorus soars with the words, “God has done mar-ve-lous things!” and one of the verses begins, “Classrooms and labs, Loud boiling test tubes Sing to the Lord a new song!” Some scientists look through microscope and telescope, see the handiwork of the Holy, and break out into hymns of praise!
Theistic Evolution is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church, many mainline Christians, and many evangelicals. It’s my personal belief, but please know it need not be yours. No one of us, this preacher included, has a monopoly on the truth. In Disciples of Christ churches we honor each other’s thoughts and opinions. Learn from each other. Are enriched by each other. Stand corrected by each other.
That having been said, someone might ask, “David, what do you do with the Bible’s creation stories? Don’t you believe the Bible? To which I respond, “Oh I believe the Bible with all my heart, soul, mind, and might. I just don’t believe it’s a science book or that it was ever intended to be. It was written in prescientific days by people who understood the natural world in the ways people of their time did. Flat earth with the sun revolving around it. A three-tiered universe. We understand the universe differently now. But that doesn’t diminish the Bible for me because the Bible doesn’t intend to teach the how and when of creation, only the who and why. How and when are science questions. Who and why are the stuff of faith. Galileo said in his own defense 400 years ago: “The Bible teaches men how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.” The Bible was written to reveal who God is and to teach us about ourselves and God’s purposes for us and all creation, not to reveal the laws of physics, chemistry, geology or biology.
Let me ask you a question: Don’t we need and aren’t we blessed by both the language of science and the language of the soul? A scientist’s description of the Grand Canyon’s geologic formations and a poet’s words evoking the Canyon’s grandeur and majesty. A meteorologist’s understanding of what makes for winter, spring, summer, and fall and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. We’re blessed by both science and faith – scientists and serums as well as preachers and sermons (Well, at least some sermons and some preachers ) We’re blessed by the best of both science and faith. A boundless curiosity over the how and when of this world – science. And a boundless reverence for the Who and why – faith.
Ever been to Westminster Abbey? It was designed by a practitioner of architecture – a science – to lift human eyes, hearts, and thoughts heavenward – an act of faith. Do you know who’s buried there? In one area is Poet’s Corner where soulful, faithful wordsmiths such as William Blake, Robert Burns, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Brontë sisters, and Jane Austen are buried. And not far away is … Scientist's Corner. Laid to rest there are Isaac Newton. Charles Lyell, the father of geology. Astronomers John and William Herschel. Physicists James Prescott Joule and George Stokes. Joseph Lister, the pioneer of antiseptic surgery. And guess who else is buried in Westminster Abbey? Charles Robert Darwin. Imagine that: poets and scientists buried together side-by-side in a monument of faith.
The young woman asks her pastor, “Can I be a scientist and a woman of faith?’
I say, “Absolutely!
For the sake of understanding the science of creation and embracing God’s call to care for creation, be a person of science and faith!
For the sake of understanding the causes of illness and embracing God’s call in Christ to be healers of body, mind, and spirit, be a person of science and faith!
For the sake of understanding the science of construction and embracing God’s call to build neighborhoods of the beloved community, be a person of science and faith!
I could go on and on illustrating how science’s “know how” can inform faith’s mandates to do how God wants us to, so I’ll just say, “For heaven’s sake, be a person of science and faith!”
Humbly submitted by David Shirey, who went to college as a pre-med major, could not get through Organic Chemistry, and ended up majoring in Religious Studies.
Let all people of faith and science say, AMEN.
[1] Jane Goodall, in Reason for Hope: “Perhaps God saw that a living being had evolved that was suitable for His purpose. Homo sapiens had the brain, the mind, the potential. Perhaps,” I said, “that was when God breathed the Spirit into the first man and the first woman and filled them with the Holy Ghost.” p. 179
[2] https://www.pewforum.org/2008/04/17/the-evidence-for-belief-an-interview-with-francis-collins/
[3] Francis S. Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, The Language of God, (Free Press, New York, NY), 2006, p 102.
[4] “Earth and All Stars,” Herbert Brokering, 1964.
