Science v Faith
Does it have to be so?
Science and faith have always been thought to oppose each other when religious beliefs seem to contradict the accepted scientific laws and principles of the day. On one side there are the people who almost “religiously” accept and don’t waver from the science taught to them and who not just don’t believe, but refuse to believe the existence of a god because it complicates their view of the world being governed in a simple way following simple laws.
On the other side of the argument there are the literalists who believe every word of the Bible as it was written with little or no room for interpretation.
I have to admit that before I became a Christian I was very much the first kind and one of the biggest steps for me to take in becoming a Christian was to accept that the existence of a God was actually possible let alone true.
Though I have become a Christian I still consider myself a scientist just as much as before but now I believe that the two “beliefs” don’t have to be so contradictory.
I take as an example a topic which is most probably the most disputed apparent contradiction, that of creation versus evolution.
Ever since Darwin proposed the theory of evolution there have been constant arguments between sides both of which are reluctant to bend their views. I found it very hard to make up my mind about the subject as before I became a Christian I learnt about the theory and accepted it as I still do only questioning the extent to which it happens. But once I became a Christian I saw that if we and the Apes share common ancestors why is it that we have souls while the Apes don’t.
While thinking about this I came up with a possible solution. What if there was an exact time when one of our Ape-like descendants was given a soul?
What if the world was full of animals and all creation bar Humans (there still would be our ape-like ancestors but as they were without souls they would not be humans although they might have human form).
God then decides to give a male and a female of this species souls and so free will, creating Humans. This could be the story of Adam and Eve.
This would explain how Cain and Seth found wives as the wives could be soulless humans. This is the way that I see the passage about man being made in the image of God, not as man looking like God but as having a Soul and so have something of what God is.
I also feel that it was a consequence of Man being given free will that sin came into the world (maybe the biting of the apple from the tree of knowledge represents this transition).
I may be completely wrong on this matter but it was a thought that interested me and I feel shows that science and religion don’t always have to be so opposing.
Ultimately though there will be some disagreements, the main one being the feasibility of the existence of God himself, and when these arise for me a decision has to be made.
As I said before, I consider myself a scientist but more so I consider myself a Christian, and when such questions fundamental to the Christian religion arise such as whether Jesus was the Son of God, he died and rose again, I feel there is no room for interpretation (like that of Don Cupitt, or to a lesser extent, The Bishop of Durham) and I have to say “Yes, I believe”.
In reply to the article by Peter Carr in the previous issue, I hope it can be seen from what I have written above that confusion because of apparent contradiction is unnecessary. I feel that Science can never reach a point where enough is known to make a firm proof about anything such as the non-existance of God or his influence on the world.
Science will always change, new theories will always arise to make exceptions to old ones, but the message of the Bible won’t change, it may be accepted in a different way but the main message will stay. For this reason I am much happier believing in the existence of God and his power on this earth than anything I am taught in my Physics lectures.