Ever since Galileo confirmed the findings of Copernicus and began to argue that the earth revolved around the sun—and not the other way around, as the church taught—there have been tensions between the scientific community and the community of faith. Many have suggested that these tensions finally reached their boiling point in the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. But while that trial did eventually reach a verdict, the issues at the heart of it were far from settled. And even today, many of those same tensions continue to simmer within our society.
But frankly, I’ve never understood why scientists and theologians cannot work together as partners in exploring and understanding our world. We may be speaking different truths, to be sure—but they are not necessarily contradictory truths. In fact, our respective truths ought to complement and inform each other, much as they would in a conversation between two people who are both sharing what they have come to believe.
For example, most astronomers will tell you that the universe started as a “big bang”—a primordial explosion flinging clunks of matter into distant space. When scientists speak this way, of course, they are taking the best data that they have been able to gather and blending it together with the best educated guesses that they can make, in order to tell a story of how the universe may have come into existence.
Where the theologian enters into this conversation is in suggesting that there may actually be a little more to that story. For people of faith, the universe is not just the detritus of an explosion, with its haphazard heaving of planets and stars; it is the handiwork of God. In other words, it is not just a universe … it is a creation!
To describe the universe as “the creation of God” does not necessarily pit science against faith. It simply says that if we want to understand how the universe truly came into being, we need to look at the whole story. And the whole story will require answering not only the question of how the universe came into being, but also the question of why.
Why did the universe come into being? The “big bang” theory falls silent at this point. It doesn’t have an answer. But the community of faith does. “Because God called it into being,” says the community of faith—that’s why!
But frankly, I’ve never understood why scientists and theologians cannot work together as partners in exploring and understanding our world. We may be speaking different truths, to be sure—but they are not necessarily contradictory truths. In fact, our respective truths ought to complement and inform each other, much as they would in a conversation between two people who are both sharing what they have come to believe.
For example, most astronomers will tell you that the universe started as a “big bang”—a primordial explosion flinging clunks of matter into distant space. When scientists speak this way, of course, they are taking the best data that they have been able to gather and blending it together with the best educated guesses that they can make, in order to tell a story of how the universe may have come into existence.
Where the theologian enters into this conversation is in suggesting that there may actually be a little more to that story. For people of faith, the universe is not just the detritus of an explosion, with its haphazard heaving of planets and stars; it is the handiwork of God. In other words, it is not just a universe … it is a creation!
To describe the universe as “the creation of God” does not necessarily pit science against faith. It simply says that if we want to understand how the universe truly came into being, we need to look at the whole story. And the whole story will require answering not only the question of how the universe came into being, but also the question of why.
Why did the universe come into being? The “big bang” theory falls silent at this point. It doesn’t have an answer. But the community of faith does. “Because God called it into being,” says the community of faith—that’s why!
posted by Dr. Robert Crilley at
2:05 PM
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