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Contrary to what people think, modern science and Christian faith are not in conflict with one another because science can only answer certain questions, science addresses different questions, and there are some questions science can never answer.

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  Many people today assume that science and religious belief are locked in mortal combat with one another, and there can only be one victor. Ever since the enlightenment, people have insisted that as scientific knowledge increases, religious faith will decline. Ancient people, they say, believed in magic, spirits, and various gods because they didn’t understand how the world works. As modern people we no longer need foolish or childish ideas like God to fill in the gaps of our knowledge. So give it enough time and people will abandon belief in God and accept science as the ultimate authority on reality and the final arbiter of truth. Are the critics right? Will science dispel Christian faith?

  Many people today assume that science and religious belief are locked in mortal combat with one another, and there can only be one victor. Ever since the enlightenment, people have insisted that as scientific knowledge increases, religious faith will decline. So give it enough time and people will abandon belief in God and accept science as the ultimate authority on reality and the final arbiter of truth. Are the critics right? Will science dispel Christian faith? 

  Contrary to what people think, modern science and Christian faith are not in conflict with one another because 1. Science can only answer certain questions. 2. Science addresses different questions. 3. And there are some questions science can never answer.

  First of all, it is important to realize that science can only answer certain questions about our world because it is limited by its own process. Scientific inquiry advances according to the scientific method, which is a remarkable and invaluable tool, but it is a limited tool which can only give us information about the observable universe. Science can tell us about mass and energy, but it simply is not prepared to tell us if there is a supernatural reality beyond the world that we can see, smell, taste, touch, or feel. That is not a scientific question. If there is a God or “something beyond” the world that science observes, that supernatural reality would either remain unknown to us or would have to reveal itself in a completely different way.

  Science can only detect what it is designed to find. Let me give you an analogy. A metal detector is the ideal instrument for finding coins buried in the sand on the beach, but you can’t use it to detect anything and everything there is to be found. It won’t help you discover sea shells or driftwood, for example, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Science can only answer certain questions about our world, which implies my second point.

  Science and faith address different questions. Science addresses questions of how and when. Faith addresses questions of who and why. When it comes to the origin of the universe, science can tell us when the world came into being and how it works, but it can never tell us who created the world and why. That’s the reason why there is really no reason to pit science and faith against one another. Science can offer exquisite explanations for how the world works, but it can never tell us what it all means. As a prominent atheist once wrote: Our desire for meaning would remain unsatisfied even if everything could be explained.

  That leads me to my third point which is there are some questions science can never answer. Science can describe the natural world as it is, but science can never tell you: Why is there something rather than nothing at all? Or why does the universe have the order that it does, rather than something else? And why can we human beings understand at least some of its laws? It is a rather astonishing thing that what goes into our little heads actually seems to give us a true account of reality. As Einstein once said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible to us.”

  For all these reasons, science will never dispel christian faith. To the contrary, everything science tells us about the world provides us with good reasons to believe that what the Bible tells us about God is true. The fact that the universe is orderly – that it follows discernible laws – that it is filled with complex systems perfectly tuned to support human life – all suggest that the world was created with purpose, intelligence, and even love. And the fact that we can not only make sense of the world but also contemplate our own existence, suggests that there is a Creator who has imbued us with the ability to understand the universe, to discover its secrets, and, above all, to know and love the One who made us. 

  Written by Jason Harris
  Produced by Mary-Catherine McKee
  Filmed and edited by Andrew Walker