A few posts ago, I wrote about science and faith, and how they are not incompatible. I stand by that statement. Yesterday, a writer friend I know only through on-line contacts posted this meme, which came from The Other 98%.

Let’s set aside for the moment the wall of separation between church and state. Let’s also set aside the implication that those of the church should have no part in things of the state. Those are subjects for different posts.

The part of this picture that I don’t agree with is “Science belongs here” with the arrow pointing at “State”.  This implies that science doesn’t belong in religion. Or, perhaps, that science is incompatible with religion because religion relies on faith, not scientific evidence and method.

To which I respond with a big, fat, “So?”

As stated in my last post, faith is belief in something for which there is no evidence. I can’t prove there is a God, who created the universe, of which mankind is a small part. But neither can the atheist prove there is not a God. Both rely on faith concerning God’s existence or non-existence.

But why would anyone say science doesn’t belong in the church, in religion? Do such people really think that Christians (or, as some people say in a non-sectarian way, religionists) should not study science, should not believe in science, should not rely on science. Or are they saying that if you are in the church (since the meme frames the argument in a church context, though it does in fact show a synagogue and a mosque though only mentioning “church”), you cannot possibly believe in science? What dreck. What utter garbage.

Of course, perhaps this meme is saying that the state is built upon science, or that science maintains the state.  That also seems like a strange conclusion.

It’s true that at various times in the past the church (i.e. the Roman Catholic church, perhaps others) strongly resisted advances in science and misunderstood how science and faith interacted and could exist very well together. Nowadays, I don’t think that is still true in the main. Those mistakes have, for the most part, been eradicated from the church. At least, it has from the part of the Church Universal that I belong to. I don’t try to keep up with all the branches of the Church Universal.

To paraphrase what I said in that last post, science is experimenting, observing, concluding, and reporting, bit by bit, and so expanding man’s knowledge about the universe. It is involved in what you can prove. Okay, some things that science tells us are theories, based on reasonable assumptions but still lacking some final piece of proof.

Faith takes over for things that don’t need to be proved. What a truncated existence it is for those who have no faith in anything or claims to need evidence for anything and everything.

I hope all Christians study science and so show the foolishness of this meme. Much of my career as a civil engineer was based on science and mathematics. The Other 98% seem to be saying that I can’t be a Christian. Sorry, folks, you’re wrong.

I find my faith to be enhanced by science. My practice as a Christian is so much more meaningful to me because I believe in science.

The wedge between Christians and science is not being driven by Christians, but by memes like this.

When we were recently in Lynda’s hometown, Meade Kansas, we went to a library surplus book sale. We don’t need another book in this house, but such a sale is an irresistible tractor beam, so we went. I picked up two used books for a quarter each. One was on the British romantic poets. The other was some correspondence of Bertrand Russell.

I knew nothing about Russell, other than the name and a vague idea he was an atheist, or an anti-Christian, but don’t know where I got that idea. I’ve read nothing he wrote, no biography of him, nothing. I suppose his name might have been in something I read, but if so, I don’t remember anything about him. But I knew he was an important man. I won’t go into a bio of “Lord” Russell in this post. Let’s just say I know more about him now than I did before, though not as much as I feel I ought to know. More research is needed. I’m only about 40 pages into the book.

In response to one letter to him dealing with his atheism, Russell replied (on 2 December 1964) with this statement.

I think that all religions consist at least in part of believing things for which there is no evidence and I think that in face of such beliefs loyalty to evidence should be substituted.

That got me thinking about religion and science. People are often categorized as being either of faith or of science. “He’s a man of faith,” is a statement frequently heard. Or, the converse, “He’s a man of science.” This latter statement is usually presented as science being exclusive of faith, while the former seems to be neutral on science, or so it seems to me. I guess my question is: Why can’t it be both?

Science is obvious, especially since the scientific method came into vogue. You observe, experiment, document, and conclude. The result is a snippet of information for which there is evidence. The moon is not made of green cheese. It’s made of rock. Barnacles don’t grow without parentage (i.e. via spontaneous generation) as once thought. They are spawned. Disease isn’t caused by evil spirits, but by germs.

We can’t see these germs with the naked eye, of course. It takes a microscope. I remember the fun in university science lab, where we looked at a wastewater sample under the microscope and a rotifer propelled itself across the part of the sample in view. Now that was exciting! While we haven’t seen the germs, we read that others have seen them, observed them, documented what they do, and conclude that germs are real. Faith isn’t required to believe in germs. Nor in atoms, nor the parts of the atom. Well, maybe a little faith that those who have done the experimentation/observation have accurately concluded and reported. But what with peer reviews, etc., not much faith.

Going out the other way, we now have powerful telescopes. They give us evidence of what stars are, how far away they are, the different types of stars, and a whole lot about them. They give us evidence of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the incredible distance from ours to others. Faith is not involved.

But where did it all come from? The most powerful space-based telescopes, seeing light from a long time ago, are starting to give us hints of the universe’s forming. But it really doesn’t tell us the why.

Science is constantly changing. I remember a college chemistry professor telling us what a professor of his had told him 25 years earlier. That prof had said, “Forty percent of what I teach you will eventually be proven untrue.” I think that prof was correct. As science advances, as more experiments are conducted and observations expanded, our knowledge changes. That’s not a negative. That’s a good thing.

But it does remind us that science, in general, is a moving target, constantly changing as knowledge increases.

On the other hand, there is faith, which for this post I’ll define as belief in something for which you don’t have evidence. Belief in God, in His sovereignty. That God created all that we can see and experience. How wonderful is faith! How wonderful it makes the world. How it expands on the enjoyment of all that is around us.

I suppose I get a bit irked when I see things such as “Evidences for God”. I don’t read them any more. I remember reading on-line the transcript of a debate between an atheist and a Christian. Both gave long opening arguments. Then they got into their main, prepared arguments. The Christian debater went to great lengths to prove mathematically that God existed. What? Who needs evidence? Who needs proof? I quit reading after a couple of paragraphs.

I prefer to believe in God by faith. I need no evidence other than that described by the apostle Paul in Romans 1.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

But that’s still a matter of faith, not of science. I’m sticking to faith, which enhances science. Does science confirm faith? Doesn’t matter. Faith needs no confirmation.

I’m going on in this life by faith. Come along with me.