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We are in a series called Doubting God where we have looked at different reasons why people doubt the existence of God. Today we are going to talk about science, and I am going to tell you right now that I am not a scientist. In fact, science was my least favorite class in school. I took what I had to in High School to graduate, but all I remember of science class was when we had to dissect frogs and sheep eyes.
Science has just never been my thing, so for me there is no conflict between science and faith. When I see the amazing pictures from the Hubble telescope, I don’t worry about how all those galaxies formed, I just stand in awe of God’s vast creation and think of Psalm 19:1-2. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
For many people, however, science and faith just don’t go together, you have to pick one or the other. People see science and faith as competing with each other instead of working in cooperation with each other. That science can cause people to doubt the existence of God is nothing new.
In the 3rd century, Augustine of Hippo, also known as St. Augustine was concerned that the educated people of his day would see a conflict between faith and science and would also reject their faith. In his writings, Augustine said that any conflict between science and faith was because people either misunderstood science or they were misinterpreting the Bible. What Augustine talked about 1700 years ago still is true today. When we see science and faith in conflict, it might be because we are misunderstanding science or misinterpreting the Bible.
While I am not a scientist, what I do know about science is that things changes. The definition of science is: the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained.
It only makes sense that as we learn more about our world, theories about how things work will change. For example, at one point in time science told us that the earth was the center of the universe and the sun, moon, stars and planets all revolve around us. That is what we observed so that is what science told us. But as we learned more about the world, things changed. In the 16th century Copernicus came along and proposed a theory that the sun was the center of the solar system. Scientific ideas changed. The more we learn about things, the more our theories and ideas about what we know to be true will change.
We saw this play out in front of our eyes these past few years as we learned more about covid-19. At first, we believed covid could be spread through surface contact. We wiped down all our groceries and you couldn’t find any clorox wipes in the stores. As we learned more about covid, we realized that it wasn’t surface transmission we needed to worry about but respiratory droplets, so masks were suggested, then mandated. And there is lots of science about the effectiveness of masks but I am smart enough to not go there.
Just as science changes as we learn more facts, so does what we know about our faith and the Bible. For example, if we don’t know that the Bible is full of poetry, we might think that the Lord is an actual shepherd tending a flock of sheep. And if we don’t know how to interpret the symbolic meaning of words we might think Jesus was an actual lamb who was slain.
The Bible contains several different types of literature and we can’t read them all the same. We read the prophets differently than the psalms, and the gospels differently from the letters Paul wrote to the churches. The more we learn about the Bible the more we understand about our faith and at times see things differently.
So if today’s science and faith seem to be competing with each other, maybe we don’t know enough about science, or maybe we have misconceptions or misunderstandings about our faith. Either way, we don’t need to throw out our faith when things don’t add up. Just because we don’t understand everything doesn’t mean we can’t believe in something. We don’t do that with science. I don’t know how a car works but I still drive. I don’t have any idea how a 700,000 pound airplane can get off the ground but I still fly - I just try not to think about it as the plane lifts off the ground. Just because we don’t understand everything in science doesn’t mean we toss it all out, and the same needs to be true with our faith.
Just because we don’t have an answer to every question we have about God doesn’t mean we can’t believe in God. Not understanding everything we read in the gospels doesn’t mean we can’t believe in Jesus. Just because we don’t understand everything doesn’t mean we can’t believe in something. When we struggle to see how faith and science can work together, we don’t throw out the faith and we don’t throw out the science. What we need to do is dig deeper into both.
For many people, the conflict between faith and science starts at the beginning, literally, the beginning of creation and the beginning of the Bible. Many people look at the creation story in Genesis 1 and say that this is a great example of how faith and science can’t be reconciled. Either you have to believe that God created the world in 7 days, or you have to believe that the world came into being over millions of years. Many say faith and science can’t work together in creation, but what if they can.
In Genesis 1, it says that in the beginning there was nothing but God. Then God spoke, and at that word the world came into being. This sounds very close to what science calls the big bang theory. Nasa explains the Big Bang Theory as the idea that the universe began as just a single point, then expanded and stretched to grow as large as it is right now—and it is still stretching!
300 years ago the authors of Genesis said the same thing. There was nothing, just a formless void, and then God spoke and bang - the world came into being. Science says that the world continued to grow and expand and that is what Genesis says too. Each day of creation, the world expanded. First there was water, then dry ground, then seed bearing plants. Notice they were seed bearing plants so that more plants could grow and sustain creation. All that had to take place before there could be sea creatures, land animals and then finally human beings. From a single word, a big bang, a world came into being. If we look at the big picture, science and faith go hand in hand.
What we get hung up on in the creation story is the word day. Was it 24 hours? Was it a thousand years? Was it ten million years? Does it matter? The larger biblical story of creation goes along with what science seems to say about creation. It’s just that for us it wasn’t a big bang but a powerful word. For us there is an intelligent and loving being behind what took place and many scientists are also beginning to believe that there had to be some kind of intelligent being behind creation.
As we look at the detail and precision of creation, more and more scientists are beginning to think that there has to be some kind of intelligence involved in our world. For example, there are more than 150 astronomical constants that are needed for there to be life on earth. Astronomical constants are things like how fast the earth rotates, how close we are to the sun, and the exact tilt of the earth’s axis. If any of these 150 things are off just a fraction of a percent, there would be no life on earth.
The likelihood of all these things randomly taking place was calculated by the atheist scientist, Sir Roger Penrose. He said that the odds of the earth accidentally forming the way it did to sustain life is 10 billion to the 123rd power. That number is so large that if you put a zero on every particle in the universe, you still would not be able to write it out because there would not be enough particles. You would have much better odds winning the lottery every day for 10,000 years. The late Christopher Hitchens, one of the most influential atheists of the 20th century called this the most compelling argument for the existence of God.
Instead of the creation story and the science of creation competing with each other, maybe they actually complement each other. We don’t have to give up our intellect to believe that God created the world. Many scientists have concluded that there not only was a single moment when the world began but that an intelligent being set it all into motion, or as we might say, spoke it all into being.
Another place where faith and science often collide is when we look at Jesus. Can we trust that there actually was a man named Jesus who lived and died in the first century? And is there evidence that this same Jesus physically rose from the dead? If there was not a Jesus who lived, died, and rose again, then truly, our faith means nothing. The Apostle Paul said, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 1 Corinthians 15:14
If Jesus has not been raised from the dead and if there never was a man named Jesus then truly there is no faith, but there is evidence for Jesus and His resurrection. From sources outside of the Bible and early Christian writings we know that there was a man named Jesus who lived in the first century. The Roman historian Josephus tells us this and that He was known to be a wise man who had a following of both Jews and Gentiles, and was put to death by Pontius Pilate.
These are solid facts we know about Jesus. Very few people dispute that Jesus is an actual historical figure, but what about his resurrection? Are there any facts to back it up? There are. We need to remember that the story of Jesus rising from the dead was not welcomed by either the Jewish leaders or the Roman authorities. These were the people who controlled everything throughout Israel. The easiest way for them to put an end to the Jesus movement would have been to produce the body of Jesus - but they never did. The Romans were the ones to execute Him and the Jewish leaders were the ones who wanted to silence Him so if His body could have been produced to stop the movement, they would have been eager to do it. But they didn’t. They couldn’t.
Some people say that the tomb was empty because Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, He just passed out. After a few days of rest in the coolness of the tomb, Jesus got up and simply walked away. This swoon theory, however, doesn’t hold up with what we know about Roman crucifixions.
The Romans were experts at crucifixions. The soldiers knew when someone was dead and they made sure there were no mistakes. A mistake might cost them their lives. The gospels tell us that the soldiers were surprised Jesus had died so quickly so they pierced His side and water and blood flowed out. They were making sure He was dead. There is no way Roman soldiers would have risked their lives and not checked to make sure that Jesus was dead.
Some people say that Jesus' body couldn't be produced by the Romans or religious leaders because the disciples stole it. Pastor David shared with us last week that the disciples wouldn’t have taken Jesus’ body, hidden it, and then died for what they knew to be a lie. If you knew that Jesus’ body was hiding in another tomb, you wouldn’t put yourself through some of the pain the disciples endured before their death. The disciples didn’t die of old age believing in the risen Jesus, they died because they believed in the risen Jesus.
While we don’t know exactly how every disciple died, tradition tells us that several of them were crucified, some were beheaded and one may have been flayed. We do know how the disciple James died. In Acts 12:1-2 it says
King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
It doesn’t make sense that the disciples of Jesus would suffer such intense persecution if they had not seen the risen Jesus.
But the greatest evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is the radically changed lives of the disciples and the Apostle Paul. Peter had been so afraid of the Jewish leaders that he denied even knowing Jesus, but 40 days later he was standing in the Temple courts in Jerusalem telling people that the risen Jesus was the son of God. That doesn’t happen without 100% believing what you are saying.
The Apostle Paul persecuted the early followers of Jesus and even stood by when Stephen was stoned to death. Stephen refused to give up his faith in the resurrection of Jesus and became the first martyr of the church. Paul was right there cheering it on and yet not long after that he had an encounter with the risen Jesus that changed his life. Paul went from persecuting the followers of Jesus to preaching that the risen Jesus was Savior and Lord. That doesn’t happen without having an encounter with the risen Jesus.
Part of the reason I believe in God and follow Jesus as my Savior and Lord, is because of the evidence I see. I look at creation and am convinced that it was not a random accident. I was listening to a lecture this week on Darwin’s Origin of Species and scientists who were not believers in Jesus said that the more we learn about how we are made, the more implausible his theory becomes. I believe in a creator God who made us in His image because as the Bible says, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Those words are backed up by science.
I follow Jesus because of the evidence that He was a real man who lived and died in the first century, and after looking at the evidence, I believe He rose again. I believe His words are true because the Jesus movement, first called The Way, began in the days after His death and resurrection. People who know Jesus and heard him preach shared his message and wrote down his words and that truth continues to this day.
I also believe because I have heard the voice of God. I heard God say to me that with Him there is life and without Him there is death. I trust Jesus because after I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord, my life changed. Sorrow was turned to joy, doubt became a new and living faith, and fear was replaced by hope and love. My life changed, and while I wasn’t made perfect in those moments, and while I still struggle with sin and failure in my life, I trust the words of Jesus who said, Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.
Science and faith might not always line up perfectly but don’t turn away from either faith or science, dig deeper into both and allow the truth, God’s truth, to set you free.
One final word to those who are looking for science to prove the existence of God and the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Don’t ask for more clarity and answers and proof, ask for the ability to trust. Trust the One who not only created the world with purpose but who created you for a purpose. Trust the one who has worked to reveal Himself to us in different ways. More answers and more proof will only lead to more questions and more doubt. Ask for the ability to trust. Ask the living God, the one you are searching for in science to speak to your heart and allow you trust the evidence God provides all around us. At some point faith in God is just that, faith. The conviction of things hoped for and the assurance of things unseen.
Next Steps
Doubting God - Science and Faith
What scientific “fact” has challenged what you believe about God, Jesus, or the Bible? How have you resolved this?
Why do you think we have to believe either in science or our faith (the Bible)? Is it possible to believe in science AND faith? Where do see cooperation and where do you see conflict?
Science and Creation
Genesis 1. Read the creation story.
How might this story and what science tells us about creation go together?
Science and the Resurrection of Jesus
Can we trust that Jesus actually rose from the dead? We can, by exploring the alternative theories of Jesus' empty tomb and how “science” might disprove them.
How might science disprove these theories:
● Swoon Theory
● Wrong Tomb Theory
● Hallucination Theory
● Theft Theory
Why do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus?
How has the risen Jesus changed your life?
To learn more about how to study the Bible, join Jeff Martin on Thursday nights at 7:30 during June & July.
