Saturday, May 5, 2018

A City Center Conversation: The Coherence Between Science and Scripture


Today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper has an article discussing my upcoming conversation in Little Rock, Arkansas at City Center Conversations. If you are near Little Rock and can attend this event on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at 6:30 at the Statehouse Convention Center, I invite you to come. City Center Conversations is an open interview and dialogue between Dr. Steven Smith, the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock and an invited guest. Steven's vision is to host speakers who are living out their faith in the public square to have open conversations about some big questions regarding God, life, and faith. In the past, Dr. Smith has invited Eric Metaxas and Lee Strobel to the first two previous events in this series, and I will be the third invited guest.

The article in the Democrat-Gazette was written by Francisca Jones who is the religion editor for that newspaper. My interview with her, as well as a recent comment left on my blog, highlighted once again for me how entrenched is the view among many nonbelievers and believers that science and the Bible are at odds. Many of the questions that Ms. Jones asked were about the apparent conflict between science and the biblical text and why I am among the few scientists who see no conflict between them. The comment left on by blog accused me of "bending" the biblical text to accommodate a 14 billion year old universe. (If I had a dollar for every time that accusation has been made I would not have to work anymore).

To be honest, it breaks my heart to see Christians who think that the clear record of nature somehow disagrees with the biblical text. Romans 1:20 is so plain when it states, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." God has made his very qualities so evident that all should see them, so much so that no one will have an excuse to not believe. As Romans 1:19 says, "what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them." It is not a human's responsibility to have to search for knowledge of God but rather God's responsibility to make himself known to them plainly.  If the record of nature is not perfectly obvious to those who don't believe, then they would have an excuse to not believe. One reason they do not have an excuse is because all of the observations and calculations show unambiguously that this universe had a transcendent beginning. It is plain. However, if the Big Bang did not occur, then nothing about God is plain from the origin of the universe because all of the information we have about the origin points to this singular event. Many scientists are uncomfortable with the notion that this universe had a beginning precisely because a beginning opens the door wide for God to be the cause of the universe. Yet, despite that "problem" the scientific community has been convinced by the evidence that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old and that it started out very hot and dense and has been expanding ever since. The willingness to accept this origin despite the theological implications shows how strong the evidence for the Big Bang is.

You may choose to believe that the universe is not billions of years old if you want. But to do so is to disregard the clear and plain evidence from nature that God says should point to him. You may also choose to believe that the earth is not basically spherical or that the earth does not orbit the sun. There are Christians who deny both those ideas based on a misunderstanding of scripture. If God wanted to set up a universe that clearly and plainly points to him so that humans are without excuse, then he could have not done much more than give abundant evidence that the universe had a beginning. That is exactly what he has done and that is exactly what he says he has done in Romans 1.

Since I have previous blog posts that address the biblical issues regarding the age of the universe including the days of creation and other issues in Genesis, I will not repeat those here. But I will repeat what I wrote in my blog post about my study of the biblical text, "time and time again the old earth interpretation of the Bible actually fit the original text better and more closely agreed with the unbiased reference works." One does not have to "bend" the text to accommodate a 14 billion year old universe. One only has to read plainly and take it at face value while doing some minimal research on the language and culture in which it was written. If someone is not willing to do such minimal research, then I would question how committed that person is to understanding the actual meaning of scripture.

For regular readers of my blog, this entry may seem a little more harsh or less gracious than my usual writings. That may be the case. Although I have many Christian friends, including leaders of the church I attend, who would favor a "young earth" interpretation of the Bible, those people who know me well would also confirm my commitment to proper biblical interpretation. One of the problems with interactions on the web is that accusations and statements can be made with anonymity and with little understanding of those whom the comments are addressed to. A better way to discover truth is a dialogue devoid of accusations that seeks to be civil and illuminate complex and controversial topics by focusing on the issues and the evidence. That is the tactic we hope to pursue this coming Tuesday night as we discuss science and faith issues with the people of Little Rock.

4 comments:

  1. Isaac Newton, who was a strong Christian, and an eminently intelligent individual, and incidentally, was the founder of modern day physics, was a strong Christian, who spent many decades studying the Bible, and probably did not believe that science and the Bible are in undecipherable conflict, and I agree (but who cares about my opinion). Probably the originator of the Universe also agrees. One point that is germane: Despite popular opinion and media basis, not all scientists are atheists and I have seen surveys and polls that purport that, actually, a large number of scientists do not see an impenetrable conflict between science and the Bible. The Bible is not a scientific textbook but gives many hints as to God's authorship of science if we but understood the Bible and God's laws better. A large majority of Americans are woefully lacking of the true nature of science (and also of the laws of Gods as manifested in the Bible).

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    1. You are certainly correct. Historically many scientists have been Christians or believers in God and there are many today, as well. But there is this very common perception that science and faith are in conflict, particularly biblical faith

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  2. Trust your discussion was persuasive to the audience. It seems God has so designed his universe and the creatures that inhabit it's privileged planet such that they can know Him personally and intimately. True science has revealed that God was not very concerned with the time and the process conforming with human views. He has approved of scientific progress in tens of fields, cosmology in the broadest sense being one. After all He created the intellects that made all such discoveries of truth possible. Imagine a Being that can take 100 or so elements and forge the mammalian human brain, imbue it with a consciousness and a soul that in turn seeks to understand and in many cases come into an eternal relationship with Him.

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    1. The conversation in Little Rock is now online at http://citycenterconversationslr.org/media/

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