The Natural Sciences (eBook)

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WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION IN THE SCIENCES?

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

The Apostle’s Creed

The best place for us to start is by noting that there is a Christian intellectual tradition in the sciences. Popular myths about the relationship between science and religion would have you believe that Christianity and science always were, and still are, at war with each other—but historians tell us quite the opposite: Christianity furnished the fertile soil in which science developed and flourished. In fact, at one time the church was the major sponsor of scientific work. So how did Christianity nourish and support science? By providing the correct worldview.

LAYING THE RIGHT FOUNDATION: PERSPECTIVE

In order to study the world fruitfully, you have to look at it the right way. If you think the world is full of gods who are constantly squabbling with each other and need to be appeased or avoided, you have no expectation that the world will behave in a regular way. Such was the universal polytheistic/pantheistic view that we find throughout the ancient world. But the Judeo-Christian perspective changed that: if there is only one God, and he is sovereign over his creation, then the universe is not run by a fickle committee. Nor are the physical things of the world gods, or manifestations of the gods. Stuff is just stuff, and it need not be feared. Matter doesn’t have a personality to be angry, sad, malicious, or cooperative depending on its mood. The Bible depersonalizes nature by describing the sun and moon as objects in Genesis 1, and it calms Israel’s fears about possible gods in the sky:

Thus says the LORD:

“Learn not the way of the nations,

nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens

because the nations are dismayed at them,

for the customs of the peoples are vanity.” (Jer. 10:2–3)

Moreover, God tells us in many passages that he set up the heavens and earth to work according to fixed patterns. Here are some examples:

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. (Gen. 8:22)

Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. (Jer. 33:20–21)

Thus says the LORD: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them. (Jer. 33:25–26)

Thus the first pillar of the Christian intellectual tradition’s foundation in science rests on God’s creation being impersonal and following regular patterns. What a relief that there is only one Being whom we need to concern ourselves with (Deut. 6:13)—not a frenzied zoo of powers—and that he and his creation are not capricious!

As part of seeing the world the right way, one needs to have the correct idea about time. Ancient cultures commonly had static or cyclical notions of time: either everything stays the way it’s always been or else things will eventually repeat themselves like the seasons do. But the Bible is rare, if not unique, in presenting a linear notion of time with a beginning, an unfolding story, and an end to that story. This proper sense of time instills the hope of progress and a value to learning, rather than a fatalistic resignation to whatever happens.1

LAYING THE RIGHT FOUNDATION: MOTIVATION

In order to study the world, you need the motivation to do so. If you think that physical stuff is evil or illusionary, then you focus your life on the spiritual world and mystical experience, as the Christian heresy of gnosticism once did and as many other world religions do today. But the Bible teaches that the study of nature is a worthy pursuit to gain wisdom and glorify God. God’s creation is certainly corrupted by sin, but we are encouraged to learn from it as noted in many passages:

Go to the ant, O sluggard;

consider her ways, and be wise. (Prov. 6:6)

It is the glory of God to conceal things,

but the glory of kings is to search things out. (Prov. 25:2)

But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;

or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;

and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Who among all these does not know

that the hand of the LORD has done this? (Job 12:7–9)

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Ps. 19:1)

The founders of modern science saw themselves as glorifying God as they studied his handiwork. Galileo remarked in his letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, “The glory and greatness of Almighty God are marvelously discerned in all His works and divinely read in the open book of Heaven.”2 Thus a second pillar of the foundation rests on the value of studying nature: it is a good thing to do.

The Christian tradition brings an additional motivation to this foundational pillar beyond the abstract pursuit of wisdom: “The relief of man’s estate.”3 Francis Bacon was among the first to encourage scientific studies, not only to glorify God, but in order to overcome some of the effects of the fall through better technology and medicine. This promise of a better future continues as a strong drive in the sciences and in our culture today, even in its secular context, but the application of scientific knowledge for practical and beneficial ends has its roots in the Christian call to relieve suffering and to help others.4

LAYING THE RIGHT FOUNDATION: APPROACH

In order to study the world, you need to be patient. Most of nature’s regularities are subtle and confounded by multiple effects that are all happening at the same time. For example, it is difficult to see the conservation of momentum using objects much bigger than individual atoms, because frictional forces obscure it. Years of work and study are necessary to develop the equipment and the mathematical tools that allow us to model what exactly is happening in the physical world. The Christian worldview teaches us, in an additional pillar of the foundation, that hard work is good and satisfying,5 that our senses are generally reliable, and that our efforts are worthwhile because there is truth to be found.

In order to study the world, you must expect the unexpected. Philosophers call this the contingency of nature: God could have created the world any way he wanted to, so we can’t figure out how it works by sitting in an armchair and applying human logic alone. God does whatever he pleases “in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Ps. 135:6, see also Ps. 115:3). Thus if we want to learn what God actually did and is doing, another pillar of the foundation is that we need to go out and look at it. Interestingly enough, many of the greatest discoveries in science were unexpected and came from doubting conventional wisdom. The physicist Richard Feynman once famously quipped, “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”6

In order to study the world, you need to trust others. While sometimes one can make progress by doubting the experts, no one has the time to repeat centuries of experimental and theoretical work, thus we must stand cautiously on the shoulders of our teachers and other scientists. For science to flourish, a community of trusted individuals must work together to share their insights and results. This requires, as the last pillars to the Christian intellectual tradition in the sciences, both collegiality and high ethical standards. Unfortunately, fudging or “selecting” data in order to obtain grants or publish papers is reportedly becoming a serious ethical problem in the sciences today. For example, pharmaceutical companies have lost millions of dollars in attempting to develop promising new drugs that were initially reported to work, but the “successful” results could not be replicated later by others. As the ethical standards of scientists (like the rest of our culture) weaken, scientific progress becomes much harder, because it is difficult to trust anyone else’s work.

In addition to these main pillars, there are subtle ones. Because the Christian intellectual tradition offers the most realistic picture of human nature, it provides the best cultural setting for science and technology to flourish for everyone’s good. For example, as selfish as it sounds, the promise of personal gain motivates almost everyone to work harder. The ability for inventors to get rich is something that our society has learned to protect through patents and copyrights, because otherwise this powerful drive to improve and innovate is lost. While we normally think of selfishness as a bad thing, if it is properly harnessed and rewarded, it encourages people’s creative drives in music, art, technology, and the sciences.

1 John Warwick Montgomery, The...