Not Just Science : Questions Where Christian Faith and Natural Science Intersect

This book argues that it is possible for our study of the natural world to enhance our understanding of God and for our faith to inform and influence our study and application of science.

Not Just Science
Copyright © 2005 by E. David Cook and Dorothy F. Chappell
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Not just science : questions where Christian faith and natural science intersect / Dorothy F. Chappell and E.
David Cook, general editors.
p. cm.
Summary: “A look at some of the questions students should be asking as they study the natural sciences
in relation to the Christian worldview and think critically about God’s creation”—Provided by
publisher.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-10: 0-310-26383-2 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26383-2
1. Religion and science. I. Chappell, Dorothy F., 1947- II. Cook, E. David (Edward David), 1947-
BL240.3.N68 2005
261.5'5—dc22
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C H A P T E R 1
Many authors have noted the close interaction between Christianity and science.
Although the two are often assumed to be in conflict, a more positive relationship
between science and faith is evident from their overlapping histories. The
direct influences of Christian ideas on the success of science are often difficult to
assess. However, their mutually supporting roles are evident in history, even when
they sometimes appear to be in conflict. In fact, the roots of modern science can be
traced to early Christian thought, and both science and faith can be seen as historically
interrelated efforts to understand the physical universe and its creative source.
Are natural science and Christian faith locked in conflict, or is there evidence of
cooperation between the two?
Perhaps the most typical view of the relationship between science and faith is one
of conflict or confrontation, even though the emphasis on this “warfare” model
has greatly diminished at the scholarly level. Historically, the idea of warfare
between science and Christianity developed during the latter half of the nineteenth
century with the rise of positivism and evolutionary theories. Before this time, a
close relationship between the two was evident from the number of pioneering scientists
who were Christians and the number of clergymen who participated in scientific
activities. The growing professionalism of science in the nineteenth century
led to a spirit of competition and confrontation with the religious establishment.
The increasing conflict and the formulation of a warfare model were supported
by two influential books. John William Draper published the first edition of his
History of the Conflict between Religion and Science in 1874. Andrew Dickson
White published his two-volume History of the Warfare of Science and Theology
in Christendom in 1896. Both books had a strongly positivist and antireligious view
of history, and both portrayed the natural sciences as the champions of academic
freedom and the liberators of humanity from religious oppression. The popular
interpretation of Darwinian theory in terms of the “survival of the fittest” seemed
to support this warfare model, with science replacing religious authoritarian claims
in the struggle for cultural supremacy.
In the first half of the twentieth century, logical positivism claimed victory in the
supposed warfare between science and Christianity. The positivist’s view was that
only empirically verifiable knowledge is valid and that all other kinds of knowledge
are opinion and emotion, literally “non-sense.” Of course, this view itself was
not empirically verifiable, but it became the dominant view for nearly fifty years.
In the second half of the century, increasing historical analysis of science began to
show the close relationship between science and culture and the way science
changes with shifting cultural ideas and values.
In the twentieth century, certain fundamentalist Christian groups who saw the
natural sciences in opposition to a more literal interpretation of the Bible embraced
the warfare model. For example, a recent book by Henry Morris, president of the
Institute for Creation Research, that attacks the theory of evolution is entitled The
Long War against God. The book treats modern evolutionary theory as the continuation
of Satan’s attempt to dethrone God. At times the popular media assume
the conflict view in discussing the relation between science and religion, often concluding
that science disproves religion.
Do cooperation and convergence offer a legitimate model of understanding issues
at the intersection of natural science and Christian faith?
A more fruitful and historically accurate approach to the relation between science
and Christianity is one of cooperation and convergence rather than confrontation
and conflict. This view emphasizes the Augustinian idea that “all truth is God’s
truth” and that advances in science should be seen as adding to God’s revelation in
nature. In such a view, the content of Christian theology will sometimes influence
and motivate scientific work, and discoveries in the natural sciences will sometimes
clarify and correct Christian thought.
Some of the most important features that distinguish modern science from its
ancient Greek heritage can be identified in the early centuries of the Christian
church, especially in the christological controversies that dominated Christian theology
for more than a millennium. Christian ideas have influenced scientific thinking
at several points in history. Such ideas are also essential in any attempt to
understand science from a Christian perspective.
An understanding of the divinity of Christ emerged early in Christian thought,
leading to a stronger foundation for theoretical science.

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Excerpted from Not Just Science: Questions Where Christian Faith and Natural Science Intersect by Zondervan Publishing Staff
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