Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Science and Proof
Daniel Jepsen writing at iMonk discussed five things that science cannot prove
Which brings me to a very important point. Science is not our enemy, it is our calling. If we do not want not be our enemy, the best way to do so is to engage in it as a Christian. That does not mean we develop Christian science centers that set out to disprove evolution - such is merely asking to be ridiculed. Our arguments need to be far more subtle and convincing.
The important thing to remember at this point, is science is not the enemy, but our calling.
Reality is rational.Jepsen understates how terribly important his initial observation is:
Now, I do believe reality is rational, for I believe it is the creation of a rational being. And I suspect the legacy of this belief gives a clue to why science developed more successfully in theistic societies than pagan, pantheistic or animistic ones. So I am not arguing that reality is not rational, but that science is logically dependent on a belief that it cannot prove. Unless reality is rational, science is not possible.This can end up as a variant of the cosmological argument, and I do not want to go there, but science in fact sprang from the notion that reality is ordered becasue it came from an ordered creator. To study that order is to learn of the Creator, and hence science is more than a field of study, it is a calling.
Which brings me to a very important point. Science is not our enemy, it is our calling. If we do not want not be our enemy, the best way to do so is to engage in it as a Christian. That does not mean we develop Christian science centers that set out to disprove evolution - such is merely asking to be ridiculed. Our arguments need to be far more subtle and convincing.
The important thing to remember at this point, is science is not the enemy, but our calling.
Jepsen's remaining points
- Reality is knowable.
- The uniformity of nature across time and space
- Causation
- The very existence of an external universe consisting of matter
Deep readers and thinker will recognize some of these as classic philosophical arguments. Jepsen is right about all of them. IF we are going to deal with science we have to know it. Its limitations and its successes.
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