Viewpoint

Exploring faith and science

David Newstead continues a monthly series looking at how the Christian faith relates to aspects of life

IN the early months of 2020 countries around the world went into different forms of lockdown in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19. Christians and non-Christians asked the same question: where is God?

The best answer in my view was given in a paper to Christian leaders at Duke University Divinity School, North Carolina, in August last year by the eminent scientist and Christian, Francis Collins. He wrote: ‘Science has really risen to this challenge most notably with the development of safe and effective vaccines that have saved countless lives because of the ability of those vaccines to protect people against severe illness from Covid-19.’ To Francis the tools of science are a gift from God. He has said: ‘You get the chance once in a while, as a scientist, to discover something that no human knew before, but God knew it. It’s a little glimpse of God’s mind.’

Science and its many disciplines have often been seen as polar opposites to the Christian faith. The Bible has been treated by many Christians throughout history as the infallible word of God. However, it is important to remember that the books attributed to Moses in the Old Testament were written about 1,400 BC for a people who had spent about 400 years in slavery in Egypt. It is very unlikely for them to have been scientifically informed or for them to have anything more than a rudimentary knowledge of the natural world. What they needed most was to be taught the basic truths about God and the human condition. Through Moses, God spoke to the Hebrews in a manner in which they could understand at that time. Many centuries later Jesus spoke in a similar manner to his followers when he said: ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear’ (John 16:12). Revelations can only be made to minds that can accept them.

Albert Einstein characterised himself as ‘devoutly non-religious’ but, in his book Ideas and Opinions, expressed the view that ‘science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind’.

Probably the most famous dispute between science and religion was between Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) and the Church. Galileo had studied an earlier model of the skies by Copernicus and concluded that the sun, not the Earth, was the centre of the universe. The Church, however, interpreted the Bible as teaching that the Earth was at the centre of the universe and that everything else moved in relation to it.

Galileo did not intend to challenge God’s existence or the authority of the Bible, but he did seek the truth through observation and logical deduction. His findings closely resembled the laws of planetary motion established by his contemporary, Johannes Kepler.

The Church leaders wanted to maintain the position that faith in God was more important than any of the conclusions finite human minds could reach based on observations and theories that were not in keeping with Church traditions or teaching. Despite Galileo’s scientific breakthrough, even today we speak about the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening, although we know it is the Earth revolving on its axis.

People of faith from the 16th century to the present day have contributed greatly to scientific and medical knowledge, which we now take for granted. Commissioner Harry Williams OF, for example, was acknowledged as a pioneer in plastic surgery. The former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote in his book, The Great Partnership: ‘Science speaks with expertise about the future, religion with the authority of the past. Science invokes the power of reason, religion the higher power of revelation. Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean.’

That thought is echoed by John Coutts in a verse from the Army songbook:

What secrets of life new knowledge can tell! How strange is the strife of microbe and cell! Yet Christ is the friend of the tiniest flower. Rejoice without end in his goodness and power. (SASB 33)

DAVID NEWSTEAD

Cannock

Let’s talk about sexuality

Major Dr David Taylor, North West divisional commander and chair of the territory’s Moral and Social Issues Council, talks to Salvationist about conversations based on the resource Let’s Talk About … Sexuality and Relationships

WHERE DID THE LET’S TALK RESOURCE COME FROM?

A few years ago an international leaders conference discussed human sexuality. It recognised that several conversations were happening around the world about a range of issues – different subjects that related to particular cultures. For example, same-sex relationships is the number one issue in Western nations. It was agreed that material should be produced to facilitate conversations. The International Moral and Social Issues Council has had a key role in facilitating its development and a number of people have worked on bringing together the material on each theme.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE INITIATIVE?

The material enables people with differing views to hold a facilitated conversation. The subject of same-sex relationships can be divisive, but the aim is that people who take part in a Let’s Talk session will understand other people’s perspectives and so reduce some of the heat in talking about the subject. It’s always better to listen and to understand than to make assumptions. We need to think issues through carefully and weigh up the value of different perspectives and arguments. Each session has a facilitator whose role is not to steer the conversation in one direction or another but to ask questions about how we are faithful to God, the Christian faith and the Bible.

HOW HAVE PEOPLE RESPONDED?

My experience of the conversations is that people do have quite different perspectives. Clearly one of our aims as the people of God is to find the right sense of being in unity, and if we can’t fully agree then to disagree well. The sessions have clear ground rules of respect and a willingness to listen and enter into a mature conversation. That has very much been the case. People want to talk this subject through and genuinely want to try and understand where we are in this conversation.

HAVE PEOPLE CHANGED THEIR VIEWS AS A RESULT?

I’m not aware that people’s viewpoints have dramatically changed. But people do go away saying that it’s been an education to hear another point of view, to assess it and go away and reflect on it – and to see a slightly bigger picture. We do come with our assumptions, and a Let’s Talk session is a good place to be humble enough to allow those assumptions to be challenged and to think more carefully about what we believe and why.

Having personal experience of a subject such as same-sex relationships can be informative. It’s interesting to hear parents say that they had a particular point of view but when they discovered that one of their children had a very different perspective, that informed and changed their minds. I think that’s worth reflecting on.