Christianity and Science

In my God Is Real: Answering Objections to Christianity class, we just held an introductory session on Christianity and science. This was an overview of the major types of objections that are raised. Here's the list we looked at together. How well did we cover it? We didn't try to cover all these topics last weekend--and if we tried to do it here, it would quickly become overwhelming! We're coming back to each of these later. But if we missed something, or if you have a general comment to add, please jump into our discussion with us here.

Our list (so far) of the issues, as the objectors state them:

• Galileo, Copernicus, and more: "The church stood against science"

• Dogmatism: "Christians close their mind to new ideas because they think they have it all figured out already"

• Miracles: "Miracles are impossible because they contradict the laws of nature"

• The explanatory gap: "Using 'God' as an explanation doesn’t really say anything the way science does"

• The flood: "It didn’t happen"

• Six-day creation: "It didn’t happen"

• Evolution: "It did happen, and it didn’t need God to guide it"

Then there's the important question for a group like the one I'm leading: does this really matter to ordinary church people? Josh McDowell says,

"In past years, between 55% and 66% of churched young people have said that the church will play a part in their lives when they leave home. Now only 33% of churched youth say that." (The Last Christian Generation, page 13).

"Thousands of non-religious teenagers who were interviewed said they were raised to be 'religious' but had become 'non-religious.' These teenagers were asked, 'Why did you fall from the faith in which you were raised? . . . The most common answer . . . was intellectual skepticism." (ibid., p. 79)

And now on the NY Times Bestseller List, #4, after 9 weeks on the list: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion. Publishers Weekly says,

"Dawkins . . . says it's the scientist and humanist in him that makes him hostile to religions . . . that close people's minds to scientific truth, oppress women and abuse children psychologically with the notion of eternal damnation. . . . The most effective chapters are those in which Dawkins calms down, for instance, drawing on evolution to disprove the ideas behind intelligent design. In other chapters, he attempts to construct a scientific scaffolding for atheism . . . ."

This is strong evidence that this is a live issue even for "ordinary" churchgoers. There are good answers to all of these objections, by the way--but that's later.

1. Christianity and Science

2. Is Christianity Opposed To the Pursuit of Science? (Part I)

2. Is Christianity Opposed To the Pursuit of Science? (Part II)

Posted: Tue - December 5, 2006 at 07:25 PM |

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Christianity and Science

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson