In 1 Timothy 6:20-21, Paul told Timothy to, “keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith.” In other words, Paul told Timothy to hold on to Scripture, and avoid the false science that opposes it, because some have embraced this false science and erred from the faith.
Our universe is enormous, and everything in it is complex. Science is the pursuit of knowledge about our universe through the collection of empirical evidence of energy and matter. Science observes how energy and matter interact, and boils these interactions down into laws, which are deterministic or probabilistic in nature.
We can visualize a deterministic law like this: When I throw a deck of cards into the air, they will fall to the ground–every time. We can visualize a probabilistic law like this: When I throw a deck of cards in the air some will land face up, and some will land face down, and it is possible to calculate the probability of x number of cards landing face up or face down.
Science does not end with the collection of empirical evidence, the formulation of laws, or the testing of laws in experiments.
No, this is the beginning of science.
Science advances through logical inference. A logical inference is a logical conclusion, explanation or judgment that is based on empirical evidence. There are two types of logical inferences: deductive and inductive. A deductive inference is a logical procession from the general to the specific, and an inductive inference is a logical procession from the specific to the general. A deductive inference can be proved to be right or wrong; however, an inductive inference cannot be proved to be right or wrong; hence, an inductive inference is said to be weak or strong.
Why is this important? It is important because the scientific models for the origin of the universe, the earth, the animals and us are based on inductive inferences that cannot be proved or disproved!
In our culture, scientists have a lot of authority. Scientists are respected because they have the intellectual resources that are needed to analyze empirical evidence and make logical inferences about reality. The problem is that our reality is a very big reality, and no one scientist can analyze it completely. At best, a scientist may become an expert in one or two fields, but there are thousands of other fields. This means that the world’s scientists must come together and paint a picture of reality for us non-scientists.
Here’s the problem with this: Where science ends, philosophy begins, and where philosophy ends theology begins. A person’s theology governs his philosophy, and a person’s philosophy guides the logical inferences that he or she makes about the empirical evidence that is collected from the universe.
Why is this a problem? It is a problem, because, in our day, a lot of scientists are atheists. Since these scientists have chosen to believe that God does not exist, they have adopted a philosophy called materialism. The philosophy of materialism excludes anything supernatural and includes only energy and matter as causal agents. These scientists focus on the empirical evidence that supports their belief (their theology) and make logical inferences that support their philosophy.
As a whole, the scientific community has agreed that God does not exist, and embraced materialism. The scientific community uses their logical inferences—that are based on their theology and philosophy—to paint a picture of a universe without God. The empirical evidence, and the methods of collecting it are too complex and technical for the public to understand. So the scientists filter the evidence, and collection methods through their theology and philosophy in order to come up with logical inferences that culminate in a model the public can understand.
Since the underlying “science” is so technical, the average person cannot sort through it to separate the empirical evidence from the biased theological and philosophical presuppositions, in order to formulate his or her own logical inferences and arrive at the truth. Consequently, the public simply accepts the scientists’ conclusions, because the scientists are a lot smarter than they are.
When the information that the scientists present to the public does not line up with the Scriptures, most Christians will reject it. Some misguided, but well-meaning Christians, will try to integrate this information into their understanding of the Scriptures by playing with words and their meanings. A few Christians, who do have scientific backgrounds, will sort through the information and separate the empirical evidence from the theological and philosophical presuppositions and arrive at the truth.
But any Christian Scientist, who dares to challenge the atheist scientists and their “public machine,” by examining the empirical evidence and offering logical inferences that point to God or the spirit realm is dismissed as an irrational “religious person.” These intellectual “dogs” are then thrown under the academic table where they have to wait for “crumbs of funding” to fall there way so they can support their position.
In sum, in the scientific community, believing in God and the supernatural realm is the “kiss of death”.
But, is it really irrational to believe what the Scriptures say about God and the supernatural realm? No, in fact, it is no more irrational than believing that there is no God or supernatural realm.
The scientific community looks at the expanding universe and infers that a big bang occurred billions of years ago and formed the universes. The scientific community says that the big bang formed the earth. The scientific community says that life emerged from energy and matter and differentiated, through the process of evolution, to create animals, and man is the highest animal. Can they prove that it happened this way? No. Can they collect empirical evidence and make logical inferences that support their position? Yes.
The Scriptures say that God spoke the universe into existence. The Scriptures say that God created the earth. The Scriptures say that God created the animals according to their kind, and formed man in His image. Can we prove that it happened this way? No. Can we collect empirical evidence and make logical inferences that support this position? Yes.
Invariably, when a Christian scientist says that God spoke the universe into existence, the secular scientist will ask where God came from, and what forces He used to create the universe. Of course, God did not come from anywhere, He has always existed, and He spoke the universe into existence. These are not scientific answers, however, and so the secular scientist charges the Christian scientist with the intellectual crime of invoking “God of the gaps” explanations to support his weak philosophical position.
Likewise, when the secular scientist says that a quantum fluctuation created “virtual particles”, which morphed into the elementary particles, and a super-dense point of these elementary particles exploded and formed all the matter in the universe, the Christian scientist may ask how the “virtual particles” that this energy flux produced endured long enough to morph into elementary particles? And exactly what forces morphed the short-life virtual particles into long-life elementary particles? Moreover, since space-time and the universal quantum field, which permeates it, did not exist prior to the Big Bang, how could there possibly have been a quantum fluctuation in space-time that produced the Big Bang?
The secular scientist may say that this universal quantum field did not come from anywhere, it has always existed. And some yet undiscovered forces acted on the virtual particles, and morphed them into elementary particles. These responses are not scientific, however, so the Christian scientist charges the secular scientist with the intellectual crime of invoking “naturalism of the gaps” or promissory materialism to support his weak philosophical position.
This same old intellectual dance is repeated over and over. The concepts are a little different when we debate the origin of earth, animals and man. In the end, however, science cannot settle origin questions. Here’s the bottom line: origin questions can only be answered by faith. The atheist chooses to believe that God does not exist, and puts his faith in quantum fluctuations. A Christian chooses to believe in God, and puts his faith in Him.
Science is unable to peek through the curtain (the Horizon), or analyze the conditions of mass, energy, time or gravity, as they approach it (the Singularity). Here’s the bottom line: We all have faith in something or Someone, and Who, or what we put our faith in is a matter of our heart, not our intellect. We see what we want to see, and our heart determines what we want to see.
A Christian has surrendered sovereignty over his heart, and life to Jesus. Hence, he wants to see God in His creation, because that validates the lifestyle he has chosen. In contrast, an atheist holds on to sovereignty over his heart, and runs his own life. Thus, he wants to see multiple universes in which there is no God because that validates the lifestyle he has chosen.
This is why we focus on the empirical evidence and logical inferences that support our worldview and minimize or reject those that do not. If we did not, we would be miserable because we would be living a conflicted life. Moreover, a Christian’s, faith would be ineffective because of their double-mindedness. (James 1:7) This is exactly why Paul told Timothy to hold to Scripture and avoid false science.
What is false science? Empirical evidence is evidence that we can perceive with our senses. This is not what Paul is calling false science. What Paul is calling false science is the logical inferences that unbelievers draw from the empirical evident, which do not line up with what the Scriptures say, because of the underlying theology and philosophy that the unbeliever has accepted as truth.
Contrary to what people claim, we are not witnessing a war between science and religion. We are witnessing a war between Yahweh’s Kingdom and the Kingdom of Darkness. We are witnessing a war between two supernatural kingdoms over the hearts of earthly men and women.
The war started in Eden when Eve put her faith in her senses and collected empirical evidence about the forbidden fruit and drew logical inferences that conflicted with God’s instructions (His Word.) The Serpent tricked Eve and she gave her heart to him and put her faith in his instructions, and Adam followed her so that he would not be alone.
What about you? Are you afraid of being alone? Are you afraid of being called an ignorant religious person and being kicked out of the scientific community?
The atheist has faith…faith in energy and matter, and that there is no God. A Christian has faith…faith that there is a God, and that He created the universe.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the heart, and the heart produces faith…..faith in our senses…..or faith in God…so when the Holy Spirit calls, take your pick.
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