SCIENCE SHOULD NOT EXCLUDE GOD FROM ITS ENDEAVORS

SCIENCE SHOULD NOT EXCLUDE GOD FROM ITS ENDEAVORS

NOTE: This mini article is compatible with the reading of the book: The Love of Wisdom: A Christian Introduction to Philosophy.

Science is both the discovery and theory of beliefs in how the physical world functions and/or is created. Without science, we wouldn’t understand the things that we do know about our physical world and how it came to be. Granted, a lot of the questions we don’t KNOW, nor do we have exact answers to; therefore, science should include God in its endeavors, in that how can small things like atoms or how the Big Bang theory came to be without something or someone greater creating it?

We only can get so far with science. I agree with the ID theorist, in that “only when a scientist can conclude that it is impossible for a given phenomenon to have a natural cause is it [then] appropriate to infer an intelligent cause.” At that point, it is safe to include God into its endeavors, but not up until that point. However, this does create a problem, in that how can we know when that point is reached or if we can’t discovery more or “avoid the God-of-the-gaps mentality” (Cowan & Spiegel, 2009)? It is difficult to know when the end of a theory has been reached, only to conclude that it is because of God. I feel that all research should be continuous, but to state that as of right now, it looks as if it is because of God and that there is no scientific explanation for a specific theory.

It is said that “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist” and to support theistic science (Kuntz, 2011). Darwin provided evidence that would suggest humans and other living organism were created through “random mutations and natural selection” (Cowan & Spiegel, 2009). This only goes against the biblical beliefs, however, it does not rule out God as the original living organism creator. At this point after the Darwin theory is accepted, or not by some, ID theorist would believe that there is no further scientific explanation as to where those living organisms were created. Therefore, it only could be conclude it was created by a supernatural cause from God.

Questions I was asked:

Q#1: I think that God should be included in our scientific endeavors, but what about the established church?

I completely agree, in that you state that God should be included in our scientific endeavors; however, we should make sure that the established church is not. Actually, when I read this I couldn’t help but think about the books written by Dan Brown called The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons. These are amazing books that I am sure you have heard of because they made a movie based off of them. They were based off of the fact that the established church was untruthful and hid information about biblical information and so forth. Even if we were to use the established church as guidelines to science, which church would be chosen among the countless amounts of religions out there? Who is to say which one is the correct one? I believe that we should include God in science, but “only when a scientist can conclude that it is impossible for a given phenomenon to have a natural cause is it [then] appropriate to infer an intelligent cause” (Cowan & Spiegel, 2009) . Therefore, as previously mentioned in this article, we should only include God into science when it is our last resort to find a scientific explanation.

Q#2: Is science a part of our life because I believe that God can’t be excluded from it? However, I can almost recognize science as a form of religion without God.

Science is indeed an essential part of our society and our way of life. It is true that without science we would not have the answers that we have today about how our physical world functions. Of course, we also wouldn’t have the technologies or the materialistic things in life that we have come to appreciate. You did mention that you could almost “recognize science as a form of religion” and state that it would be without God supporting it. How exactly is that because you state in the end of your post that God cannot be excluded from science? Did I misinterpret that? From any religious view point, whether it is Christian or not, I believe that we could conclude that God is indeed the sole part of science and that fact cannot be overlooked. I following the thinking of an ID theorist, in that “only when a scientist can conclude that it is impossible for a given phenomenon to have a natural cause is it [then] appropriate to infer an intelligent cause” of God being the original creator Cowan & Spiegel, 2009).

References

Cowan, S., & Spiegel, J. (2009). The love of wisdom: A christian introduction to philosophy. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group.

Kuntz, M. (2011). Answering as an intellectually fulfilled atheist. The ATLA Serials collection, 40(1), 17-27. Retrieved from http://0-web.ebscohost.com.library.regent.edu/ehost/