Before I became a Christian I worshipped at the shrine of science. I believed that the more we studied science the more we would solve the mysteries of the universe. In my world there was no need for a supernatural god. Science had all the answers to the deep things in life or if they didn’t currently have them then in time they would. Little did I realize that by denying the existence of the supernatural I was placing all my chips in the basket of a science that does indeed have limits to what it is able to explain.
I think that Francis Collins, the eminent scientist and leader of the Human Genome Project, shared a very insightful comment on the limits of science when he said: “I had to admit that the science I loved so much was powerless to answer questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” “Why am I here?” “Why does mathematics work, anyway?” “If the universe had a beginning, who created it?” “Why are the physical constants in the universe so finely tuned to allow the possibility of complex life forms?” “Why do humans have a moral sense?” “What happens after we die?””1
You see if we deny the existence of the supernatural, which many scientists today do, then we are left with no mechanism or way to ever give an explanation to the many questions that Francis Collins shared in his quote above. And that is because science is not equipped to explain the supernatural world. Again, Francis Collins helps us understand the limits of science when he stated: “Science is… a powerful way, indeed – to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective… in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other.”2
Now as a Christian, not only do I believe that the supernatural exists, and that the God of the Bible – Jesus – is the only satisfactory answer to explain how our ultra-complex universe could ever have come into existence, but without an all-powerful God our universe and humanity cease to have any intrinsic meaning. The only way to make sense of who we are in time and eternity is to realize that God created us, sustains us, and that He placed down scientific laws to help us understand our natural world. To ascribe chance as the generator of everything in our universe, instead of God, in my opinion requires a leap of faith that is far greater than I could ever muster.
God and science are both very valid ways to explain our universe. To deny that both have explanatory value is not only irrational but without both we could never function as God meant us to be. But we must realize that as Francis Collins observed they both coexist and illuminate each other.
In closing perhaps, the great rocket scientist and past Director of NASA, Wernher von Braun, said it best when he spoke about the relationship between God and science: “Manned space flight is an amazing achievement, but it has opened for mankind thus far only a tiny door for viewing the awesome reaches of space. An outlook through this peephole at the vast mysteries of the universe should only confirm our belief in the certainty of its Creator. I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.”3
1 Does the Universe Have a Purpose? | Psychology Today
2 TOP 25 QUOTES BY FRANCIS COLLINS (of 80) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
3 Henry M. Morris, Men of Science: Men of God (El Cajon, CA: Master Books, 1988), p. 85.