Friday, December 4
Two reasons exist why science, which gets so many things right, gets origins so wrong: first, science, which studies the natural world, must look only to the natural world for answers; second, science assumes that the laws of nature must remain constant. Yet both these are wrong when it comes to origins.
Take the first one, which requires natural causes for natural events. That’s fine for hurricane tracking, but it is worse than worthless for origins that start out with “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1). What can science, which denies the supernatural in origins, teach us about origins that were totally supernatural?
And the constancy of nature? This seems to make sense, except that Romans 5:12 – “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” – presupposes a natural environment discontinuous, and qualitatively different, from anything that science now confronts. A world in which death did not exist is radically different from anything we can study today, and to assume they were very similar when they weren’t, also will lead to error.
Hence, science gets origins wrong because it denies two crucial aspects of the creation: the supernatural force behind it, and the radical physical discontinuity between the original creation and what’s before us now.
Discussion Questions:
1. In class, talk about the question of beauty. What is beauty? How do we define it? How might a Christian define and understand beauty differently from a non-Christian?
2. Christ could have come to earth as a brilliant scientist, to be richly compensated for His groundbreaking research. He could have garnered all fame as a musical performer. Instead, He came and trained as a humble craftsman. He was present at Creation, but He trained as a layperson and fulfilled His duties obediently. What encouragement does this offer us, wherever we may be in our educational or professional journey?
3. Although not every Christian is called to teach in schools, Christians can be ever teaching others in word and in deed, with intention or completely unaware. For this reason, what habits should the Christian cultivate, both as a student of Christ and as a teacher of the world?
