chapter begins by delving into the science fundamental to discussion between the scientific and religious ideas. In some chapters a rather brief introduction is all that is necessary whereas other chapters, such as the discussion of Big Bang cosmology, requires greater introduction. The style is to fairly evaluate the major themes as objectively as possible. Ideas from science that challenge conventional religious dogma are examined with the same level of criticism as religious implications of scientific discoveries. Although some author bias is inevitable, with the author having stated Christian convictions (see the epilogue), the intention is to provide a balanced presentation rather than presenting a compelling case for specific Christian beliefs or a scientific position.
Beginning with the Big Bang, the book examines the religious implications inherent in cosmology and evolution. Despite a widespread perception that science and religion are antagonists, history shows that science’s development was often motivated by religious belief. Although religious motives are usually absent from recent scientific pursuits, the discoveries often raise valuable questions that impinge on religious belief. Does the vanishingly small chance of a Big Bang point to the absence or presence of God? Does natural selection render God redundant or is the exploration of biological forms under divine guidance? Following the evolution of modern Homo sapiens and the differences between humans and their hominoid predecessors, the book explores the religious dimension by focusing on good, evil, and morality. How these religious issues relate to science is examined through consideration of the life of Jesus Christ. Christ’s life and teaching raises questions central to understand prayer, miracles, and the resurrection in light of modern science.
Historically, modern scientific discovery blossomed in Europe in Christian cultures that were undergoing tremendous religious change. Many early scientists held strong Christian convictions, viewing scientific study as a way to a true understanding of the world and an insight into God’s character. Following the lives of several major scientists, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, provides a brief history of science to show the influence of personal religious convictions, positive and negative, on scientific discovery. For Kepler, religious convictions provided the motivation for astronomical discovery, whereas deeper scientific study into biological evolution led Darwin from the priesthood to agnosticism.
New findings, particularly from physics and biology, are revealing a much stranger world than expected. The sun does not rise, man is genetically almost indistinguishable from advanced primates, and time and space are not what they seem. Advances in neuroscience reveal insight into human identity, causing a reappraisal of not only what being human means but personhood—the state of being a person with human characteristics and feelings. Understanding what or who controls the mental traffic in the brain impinges directly on fundamental issues of self-awareness, free will, and what happens at death. Science and religion are not only intertwined but provide mutually beneficial ways of knowing.
The Truth about Science and Religion provides a tour of how the world came to be and a framework for approaching existential questions. The book is intended to stimulate personal reflection more than providing an intellectual exercise, furnishing knowledge for personal reflection that in turn challenges core beliefs and provokes changes in behavior. Each chapter concludes with an overview that leads into a series of discussion questions for personal reflection or through a group dialogue of the religious or spiritual topics. The hope is that engagement with the ideas will facilitate individuals in developing a holistic religious and scientific mental framework for understanding of the world.
1. Is There Purpose to Life? Implications from the Big Bang
People long for understanding and meaning. Where did the world come from? What existed before there was a beginning? Is there a purpose to life? Does God exist? All attest to people’s fascination with one of life’s challenging questions: what, if anything, brought the world into existence? An intense explosion with precise timing and unimaginable force initiates a remarkable series of events that ultimately delivers earth: the blue planet, where butterflies dance between flowers and orcas breach seemingly for sheer delight. What a strange and beautiful world this is.
Two basic philosophical approaches have vied to explain the world’s origin; either the universe always existed or the universe had a beginning. Each approach has both scientific and religious implications. These philosophies have influenced science, but science cannot provide philosophical or religious proofs. Science provides a powerful method for investigating and revealing reality with which philosophy must wrestle. Although science and philosophy may seem esoteric, distant, and impersonal, at the root of these approaches are core beliefs that influence, or should influence, every person’s drive to live a life where actions are consistent with beliefs. Among the most significant of these questions is whether the world is designed and, if so, why? Alternatively, if the world is the result of chance, then how is purpose instantiated into each person’s life?
The Big Bang and the Bible
Big Bang theory states that the universe began from a very dense, very hot “singularity.” Elementary energetic particles called photons burst forth and spread out into the universe radiating energy. Cooling coalesced the photons into several larger atomic particles, quarks and gluons, that further coalesced into the three-quark structures: protons and neutrons. Over the following fifteen or so minutes, protons, neutrons, and electrons fused into the two most prevalent atomic species in the universe; hydrogen and helium. The entire sequence required less than an hour, indicating the remarkable ability of the universe’s early beginnings for self-organization and development. Physicists describe the extreme choreography of the Big Bang as being seemingly programmed into the very fabric of the universe. Physicist Fred Hoyle famously ruminated that “a superintellect has monkeyed with physics.”1
Many different pieces of evidence support the Big Bang theory. First, in the 1920s Edwin Hubble made the astounding observation that the galaxies were rapidly moving away from the center of the universe. If the universe is expanding then the natural conclusion is that sometime in the past the universe existed in a very compact form.
Scientists predicted that the enormous energy dissipating from the Big Bang would cause an afterglow in just the same way that a fire retains hot coals many hours after the last flames die. As sometimes happens in science, two groups simultaneously made the same discovery, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at Bell labs and Robert Dicke at Princeton; in this case finding the signature of the Big Bang as background microwave radiation. In a twist of fate, the scientists at Bell labs, while trying to develop better communication systems, found a constant background noise that could not be eradicated from their receivers. Inadvertently they had discovered the background radiation bathing the universe.
The rapid expansion of the Big Bang created an intense fireball with much of the radiation being emitted as light. God’s first creative act in the Bible’s opening chapter is the creation of light. Coincidence or correlation?
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.2
The grand opening lines of Genesis declare that God created the world, although without any explanation how. Believers try to harmonize the Big Bang with the Bible’s famous description of God creating the world in seven days. Abundant scientific evidence for an old earth forces believers to revisit their interpretation that Genesis is literally describing seven twenty-four-hour periods. Some people concerned with maintaining the Bible’s truthfulness have favored a close, literal reading of the text. For example, each “day” corresponds to millions
