Christianity and Science – Resolving
the Apparent Conflict
How does a person of faith
reconcile the apparent conflict of ideas such as Creation and Evolution? I know of
three approaches:
1. Two Boxes: Religion Box
and Science Box. There are certain things like prayer, compassion, and love
that are placed in the Religion Box. Most other things in life are placed in
the Science Box. Religion Box has relevance only when you go to church or
participate in work connected with church. Science Box defines how key decisions
in life are made. Questions regarding origin of life or the universe are only dealt
with in the Science Box and therefore, there’s no conflict.
This approach has basic problem of lack of intellectual honesty.
2. Faith that does not
subordinate to Science: This approach is best explained by quoting from a book
“Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”, by
Dr. Paul Brand
and Philip Yancey.
I have known many times of
doubt. In
In medical school I was taught by such secular biologists as J.B.S. Haldane and H. H. Woolard, pioneers of evolutionary theory. I noticed that some churches nourished a kind of intellectual dishonesty on this subject. In the university their students took exams and recited the theories of evolution; when they joined the church, they declared their faith in a way that contradicted their exam answers. Ultimately this dichotomy led to a sense of intellectual schizophrenia.
Only after much research and long periods of reflection was I able to put together what I had learned at church and what I had learned at school. But in the meantime I determined that my faith was based on realities that could stand by themselves and that did not need to be subordinated to any explanation of science. Either I would discover that evolution was compatible with the God of my faith, or I would find that evolution was somehow wrong and I would stay with my faith. I operated on that assumption for years during which I was unable to fill in all the blanks about how creation and evolution fit together. (In recent years, new understanding of the nature of DNA has made the possibility of chance evolution so unlikely that the position of one who believes in supernatural intelligence has been tremendously strengthened.)
3. Intelligent Design can be
scientifically proven: There have been
great intellectual debates about Creation or Intelligent Design vs. Evolution. There’s an excellent book by Phillip E.
Johnson – “Darwin On Trial”. This powerful book is not easy to read. As Paul Brand said, as we better understand
the nature of DNA, the concepts of Creation or Intelligent Design are only
being strengthened. An excellent example is a talk by Perry Marshall: “Does a computer
networking expert have something new and important to say about the Evolution
vs. Intelligent Design Debate?" You don’t
have to be a networking expert to appreciate Perry Marshall’s insights.