Martyn Tinsley Science has defeated faith?
Sunday 12th March 2006
Verses for reading: Genesis 1:v1 - 2:v4 and John 1:v1-5 & v14
Introduction
My dad told me, that at the time he was a young lad, if someone had said that man would land on the moon, his friends would think he was utterly mad. But the fact is, that by the time my Dad was just 25, man had landed on the moon. Just one example of the rapid pace at which the World has advanced in this scientific age.
Surgeons can insert a thin tube through the skin, and into organs of the human body, for example the heart. A miniature video camera and instruments can be inserted into this tube to repair damage to the heart. After finishing, the only visible trace that there has been an operation at all, is a small hole that easily heals - hence the name, 'key hole surgery'.
On the 20th January this year, NASA, successfully launched a research probe to Pluto, the ninth and furthest planet from the sun, which will arrive there in July 2015. This project costing £400m, just goes to show the apparent need and desire for scientific knowledge, that man pursues.
Those are just a few examples, of the scientific advances and achievements man has made in recent years. When we hear about these on the TV or radio, it seems like we have the whole World worked out. With science we can achieve anything - we can if you like, conquer the Universe. Why would we have any need to believe in a God? Genesis 1 could appear to be nothing more than a ridiculous, outdated story, with no relevance to the scientific World we live in today.
That's why Michael Green's book 'You can't be serious!', which looks at the 12 most popular reasons for avoiding Jesus, has a chapter in it dedicated to this subject. Green calls the chapter 'Science has defeated faith!'
He writes,
"The astonishing advances in science induce such a feeling of confidence in our own human potential that the idea of God seems strangely dated"
I was really happy when Tim asked me to look at this chapter for today's sermon, because, of all the reasons in this book, 'Science has defeated faith' is the one I would once have given, before I became a Christian - I thought that science could explain everything that we see around us.
When I arrived at Sheffield University to start my studies for a degree in Physics, there didn't seem to be any compelling reason why my views and objections were likely to change.
However, if we look back at history, many of the leading scientists were actually Christians, and they saw no contention between the two. Take Galileo for example. Openly professing to accept Christ as his saviour, and also convinced that his work glorified God. He believed that the Earth was not actually the centre of the Universe, despite the opposition he received from the Roman Catholic Church of the day.
Since then, there is a huge list of famous scientists who have been committed Christians. Probably one of the more famous, who some would have you believe was a complete atheist, is Charles Darwin. In actual fact this couldn't be further from the truth, and in later life there is fairly compelling evidence that in actual fact he gave his life to God.
As for me, within a year of starting at Sheffield University, God had changed me, and I became a Christian.
But what about professional scientists in the World today. Well a recent survey showed that among top scientists, 40% are believers, the same proportion unbelievers, and 20% are not convinced one way or the other.
So already, the statement that 'Science has defeated faith', seems to be losing some of it's credibility. You see, these top scientists around the World have no problem pursuing their scientific career, whilst also believing fully in the fact that God created the Universe, made man, and later sent His only son to earth to save us. It seems science might not necessarily conflict with these beliefs. Could it be that many people who think science has defeated faith, might be mis-informed about science, mis-informed about the Bible, or maybe both. Lets face it, it's hardly surprising with all of the TV documentaries you see that appear to propel this myth. If, however, these people had the facts spelled out to them, then maybe they would see that in actual fact, Science is not at war with Christianity, quite as much as the media might have them think.
Well what I'm hoping is that at the end of this sermon I will have given you enough proof and examples that the Bible is in complete harmony with the vast majority of science, that you might be able to convey this to people who do have this unfounded opinion, that faith has been defeated by science.
So let's start looking at how science is in harmony with 'faith as a Christian'. It would be doing an injustice to attempt to cover all of the major topics of supposed contention between Science and Christianity in one 20 minute Sermon. But I think we need to concentrate on the issues that are most often the blocker for people like I used to be. Those who truly believe that science has defeated faith.
For that reason I have decided to look firstly at the Creation of the Universe, and secondly at Evolution: -
1. Creation of the Universe - Genesis 1
Genesis is actually a word that comes originally from Greek and means "beginnings", because the book is about the beginnings of God's creation, the beginnings of man.
A few years ago my wife and I spent about three months in Australia. We started off in the city of Perth, and the Museum there had a fairly large section that was dedicated to the beginning of the Universe; the early days of the Earth; and the beginnings of life. Now, as you can probably imagine there was no categoric mention of God anywhere to be seen in this exhibition. However, after spending about 4 hours reading every single piece of information (much to the dismay of my wife), I realised that actually, God was evident in almost every paragraph. I started to get quite excited: as I was reading each piece of information, it looked to me as though the discoveries of science had a remarkable correlation to this first chapter of the Bible. I'll try to bring just a few of these out today.
So let's start by looking at the very first verse of the Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Now it isn't until fairly recently that scientists proved that the Universe did have a beginning. Until then most had assumed that the Universe had simply always been here - for all eternity. And so the idea that the Bible portrayed, of the Universe actually being created - having a beginning - was thought as nonsense. And in fact it was only about 40 years ago that scientists noticed a phenomena which made them reconsider. When they observed the galaxies and stars through radio telescopes, they noticed that they were all travelling away from each other at great speed. And what's more they were all flying away from one central point. As though the universe has somehow exploded from that point. By 1969, the vast majority of scientists in the World agreed, 'the Universe did have a beginning'. Now it had been written in Genesis for 3500 years. But better late than never - the scientists caught up.
As Christians, we call this event Creation, scientists have a phrase called 'The Big Bang' which is a different name for the same physical event.
Now Genesis 1 is not a science textbook - so of course, as I was looking around the Museum of Perth, it wasn't always easy to correlate Bible speak with scientific speak. However, the Bible does portray events factually, and verse 1 illustrates this. What the Bible does is present scientific fact in a way that any reader can connect with (both today but also when Genesis was originally written, and of course in those days, the people had no idea about science as we do today.)
Let's move on and look at the next verses
The six days of creation has always been a great topic for discussion - was the universe really created in just 6 days? Well there are many theories.
The first is of course that it was created in six 24 hour days. However, it might just come down to the inadequacy of the English language that we consider it a 24 hour period. The Hebrew word Yom for day, also has a whole host of other meanings, one of which is "an indefinite period of time."
So this could fit in with another theory that each day of creation was actually a period of geological time, which is what I personally believe. Anyway, let's take a look at the six days in a bit more detail.
(DAY 1) On day 1, God created light - it always seemed odd to me that there was light in verse 3, but no sun until verse 14. However, remember that God has just initiated the very beginning of the Universe - 'The Big Bang'. And that's just what it was, the biggest bang there has ever been. Effectively all of the matter that exists in our Universe now, was compressed into something the size of a pin-head. Impossible to comprehend. But the force at which the explosion took place would have meant the temperature of this rapidly expanding universe would have been phenomenal. In fact scientists think it was One Hundred Million, Million, Million, Million, Million degrees C. And believe me that would have created a lot of light. "God said let there be light, and there was light." So far so good. Science and the Bible seem to agree.
(DAY 2) - With Day 2, God starts to put in place the fundamental requirements for life on earth, primarily the atmosphere and weather cycle.
(DAY 3) - At the beginning of day 3, we read that God gathered the waters in one place so that dry ground appeared. Scientists agree. Initially all of the continents as we know them today, were all together. A huge continent called 'Pangaea'. It is only since then with the movement of tectonic plates on the earths surface, that the continents separated into the map of the World we know today. In fact, today if you look at a map, you can fairly easily see how the continents used to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, but of course when Moses wrote Genesis 1 he couldn't obviously have a spaceman's view of the world like we do today. But yes, the waters were all gathered into one place.
Next on day 3, God turns his focus from the physical Universe and the Earth to the creation of life. What is it that scientists say? Well for life to appear scientists have all agreed that green things - green algae initially were the first life necessary - why? Because for the more complex life forms to exist they need Oxygen in the air that they breathe, and without green plants that take in Carbon Dioxide and give out Oxygen, this would not have been possible. And sure enough, the Bible agrees. Verse 11 says this: -
11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
So again, science agrees with what we are told in Genesis.
(DAY 4) - On to day 4. Verse 16 says,
16 God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
But hang on a minute, you're saying, didn't the sun come before the earth - any child could tell you that. Well yes, it did. But again this is actually a lack of ability for the English language to get the full facts across. You see, the tense that is used in the original Hebrew is the 'historic' tense. This basically means the Sun, Moon and Stars were already 'made'. It was just that at this point the atmosphere that was created on Day 2 now clears and allows the light to shine down to the earth. In fact it is interesting to note that all through the creation narrative, the observer is regarded as being on the earth's surface.
(J) After he had done this God said : "Whew! I just created a 24-hour period of alternating light and darkness on Earth." One of the Angels asked him "What are you going to do now?" God replied "I'll probably call it a day."
(DAY 5) - Moving quickly on to Day 5. We've already covered plant life. What do scientists think appeared on the earth next. Where did animal life start. Well they say it appeared in the sea. Verse 20 says,
And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures". The original Hebrew word for living creatures is 'Sherets' and this very aptly describes the trilobites, molluscs, and other non-backboned marine life which appeared very suddenly in great swarms - we can see this from the fossils that have been found. The funny thing is, in the rock strata just below these fossils (indicating the period of time immediately before), there is no trace of any such fossils. It seems, and even scientists agree with this, that life just appeared all at once. This happened in the Cambrian age, and you might have heard of the phrase scientists have given to this sudden appearance of life 'The Cambrian Explosion'. This even made Darwin admit that it looked like life had been suddenly created.
Now all of these creatures that appear in the fossil record suddenly are complete and perfect. The trilobites for example have jointed legs, breathing gills, articulated bodies, and an advanced type of eye. An article appeared in the Royal Anthropological Journal which stated 'How such an advanced creature could suddenly just appear from nowhere, is a real puzzle to scientists'. But of course it is only a puzzle to scientists that do not believe in a creator.
(DAY 6) - On day six the land animals appear, but note that it was only at the end of the sixth day that God made man in his own image. This also, very importantly agrees fully with science, which says that man is the last major species to appear on the earth. No new species has appeared since, and of course the Bible tells us that after making man, God rested from making anything else. Isn't that amazing?
One thing you can be sure of is that the author of Genesis - Moses - would certainly not have been able to visit the Museum of Perth or have any other way of getting this scientific knowledge 3500 years ago, when he wrote Genesis. Yet even so, he still managed to write in such a way that everything is factually correct, and the events are all arranged in the correct order. Surely this bears the mark of divine inspiration.
As an aside, I also find it amazing that in verse 26 we read: -
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…"
It almost seems here that the us and our is referring to the trinity, however, Moses and the audience would not have understood this. Again, perhaps evidence of divine inspiration.
2. Evolution
So we've spent some time on creation, which of course covers the emergence of life forms on earth. However, what I want to do now, is look at the subject of the 'evolution of life'. The reason I want to look at this specifically is because again, it's topical, it's something people talk about and discuss, there is the issue of what is taught in our schools, and if you have the facts, then you can talk about it from a Christian perspective.
(J) Incidentally, At one Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny, a child in the class, seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he was ill, she said, "Johnny what's the matter?" Little Johnny responded, "I have a pain in my side. I think I'm going to have a wife."
What does Green say about evolution [HOLD UP BOOK]:
"Let us be clear about the theory of evolution, because so many people have come unglued over it. The theory of evolution sets out to explain how varied forms of life have developed from more simple forms over millions of years. Belief in a creator sets out to explain that there is a great mind behind all matter. There is no necessary contradiction between the two."
Let me just repeat that last part. "There is no necessary contradiction between the two"
I was certainly relieved and happy that Green thinks this, because it happens to be my own belief. And there are many Christians who are scientists who believe the same.
You see, evolution actually has two sub-divisions: micro-evolution and macro-evolution.
Micro-evolution deals with changes within a species: that's why we have some 200 varieties of dogs - Micro evolution of this kind has been observed many times - there is no doubt whatsoever that evolution occurs at this scale.
Macro-evolution, however, deals with changes from one species to another - it tries to explain how amoeba became fish, which became reptiles, which became mammals. However, science has failed over the last 150 years to prove "macro-evolution". It is nothing more than an unproved theory. Even Darwin himself confessed the following. He said,
"There are two or three millions species on earth. A sufficient field one might think for observation; but it must be said today that in spite of all the evidence of trained observers, not one change of a species to another is on record."
By 'on record' Darwin of course was talking about the fossil record. Fossils did not exist that show an animal somewhere between a horse and a giraffe. Half way between a sheep and a cow. They simply didn't exist. In fact, even today, not one fossil that proves evolution between two species has ever been found. More importantly, a fossil has never been found that is half way between an ape and a man. People have thought they have found these in the past, but on closer inspection, and scientific analysis this has not been the case.
So be clear. Not all of Darwin's theories are wrong. Micro-evolution - changes within a species - have been observed many times. But Macro-evolution - between species - has not. A daisy never becomes a dinosaur. The fossil record (or lack of it) proves this without any shadow of a doubt. Additionally, as we saw earlier the fact that the fossil record shows that life suddenly appeared as if from nowhere, backs up creation of life, not evolution from amoeba.
What we have to do as Christians is look at the facts from the Bible, and the facts from science. We shouldn't be too brash to simply dismiss things such as evolution in their entirety. In fact if we do, we will be taking the same approach the Roman Catholic church took with Galileo, and risk alienating the people we are talking with.
Conclusion
So what are the main points we have covered today?
Firstly, Much of the media would have people believe that 'science has defeated faith'.
Tell that however, to the 40% of top scientists in the World today who are committed Christians. They will tell you that this is simply rubbish.
The next main thing to remember is that, in actual fact we see that there is an amazing harmony between modern scientific fact and what we read in Genesis 1. Science and faith are not at war. However many atheists like Richard Dawkins propel this mis-understanding for their own argument.
For areas where there is contention between science and faith - and of course the primary example of this is 'evolution between species' - man from ape, we can rest assured with the fact that this kind of evolution is nothing more than a theory. It is not fact. Not one fossil has ever proved this happens. When we read about evolution of this kind or see it on the TV, the media talk about this theory as though it were fact - wrongly.
So to conclude, if creation is true then we are here because of a Creator, not because of chance; we are not just overgrown apes - simply formed by years and years of evolution - but are created in the image of God! Made to be like God, to have a relationship with God.
When I accept creation, I accept a Creator. I become accountable to a loving God who promises me purpose in my life.
Amen
You can't be serious! - Chapter 4 - Science has defeated faith
Author: Martyn Tinsley
