No Scientific Escape

I am not arguing that the scientific community is coming to Christianity en mass on account of the Big Bang paradigm.  While it is true that the number of scientists (especially astronomers and physicists) responding favorably to the Gospel is increasing for the very reasons I have described in recent blogs, resistance to religious faith remains strong.  Because our culture tends to measure value in terms of popularity and numbers, it is tempting to question religious belief (Christianity in particular) in the absence of the “scientific vote of approval.”  If the Big Bang has such strong positive implications in favor of God as creator (Genesis 1:1), then why doesn’t the chorus of Christian believers include more outspoken scientists?

It is important therefore that we hold scientists accountable by asking of them the right questions.  And scientists, in the name of the scientific method, ought to welcome this. The problem before us is not a matter of science against religion.  Neither is it a problem of faith in conflict with reason.  Science is a very laudable field of study (and a very broad one it is!).  The Bible actually demands that we pay attention to (and not suppress) the witness of the natural order (Romans 1:18-23).  The real challenge is instead that scientists are human beings just like the rest of us.  As with us all, scientists have the same kinds of private ambitions (including over protection of one’s turf) as the population in general.  In the same way that “possessing” a Bible is no guarantee that an adherent to their religion will act in a God-pleasing manner (Romans 2:17-24, so also the title “scientist” is no guarantee, in itself, that the same person will follow the scientific method consistently.  This is no slam against scientists!  This truth about human nature is the very reason the scientific method is held up as the goal, even as it is adhered to imperfectly.

When certain scientists argue that the Big Bang does not point to a transcendent Creator, we are all entitled to ask, “Exactly why?”  Certain kinds of answers tend to follow from the mouths of skeptics on this matter.  Exactly what these “answers” are will be examined next.