The Problem : Week 4 : The Problem of Science

Problem of science.

So question for you, how many of you know someone, maybe it's a family member, maybe friend, coworker, neighbor, maybe it's one of your professors in college or teacher in high school, that for them, this is the big issue, the issue of science as to why they choose to not receive Christ or even consider the claims of Christianity.

How many of you know somebody like that?

Let me see your hands.

Okay, a lot of you, that same last service, a lot folks this is a big deal right so and I would imagine most of us at least are connected in some way to somebody falls into that category here's what is so sad about that to me it doesn't have to be that way Science doesn't have to be a roadblock or a barrier to God.

It should actually, when understood properly, should be a doorway to God.

And so it just makes me sad that that's the case for a lot of people.

A couple of things as to why that is.

First, I just want to say this.

Science cannot prove there is no God and that Christianity isn't true.

So if you're asking of science to prove the existence of God, of God you're asking science to do something it cannot do you're asking science to work outside of what its purpose is right it's impossible for science to prove or disprove the existence of God or whether or not Christianity is real and true it's like asking me to be a Warriors fan okay It's impossible.

That is impossible.

It can't happen.

I just got a thumbs up.

All right, good.

All right.

It's impossible.

So the whole Christianity or science debate or I believe in science, so therefore I can't believe in God or Christianity, it is a false dichotomy.

It doesn't have to be one or the other.

I don't know if you know this, but maybe this will help.

Historically, and we're going to talk more about the history of the church in a minute.

Historically, it was their Christian faith and their belief in God and their love for God that caused many of the founders of modern science to study the creation.

Science can offer alternate theories, perspectives to the claims of Christianity, but it can't absolutely prove there is no God and that Christianity is false.

Here's why.

Here's why we're asking science to do something it can't do.

Here's why.

Because science focuses on the natural world.

What we can see, what we can touch, right?

It can only observe, measure, and experiment on what exists within the natural world.

Science can't provide definitive proof or disproof of concepts that are not part of the natural world.

Okay, now we're talking about actual scientific fact.

You can come up with theories, but you can't come up with fact.

Okay, and we'll talk about the difference of that in a minute.

Okay.

If God exists, now of course I'm saying if as a question because we're talking with possibly skeptics or non-believers, so we'll keep it in that if realm.

I obviously believe in God.

God exists, if he exists, he is not natural.

He is supernatural, right?

By definition, God is supernatural.

So therefore he is outside of the natural world and therefore not subject to scientific testing.

So scientists, if they are being intellectually honest, cannot say that they can prove there is no God by using scientific methods or any other methods.

So that's why it makes me sad that people say, well, I believe in science, so therefore, no, science can't tell you there is a God or not a God.

Number two.

Many people reject Christianity because they have only experienced Christians who come across as either opposed to science or afraid of science.

How many of you know somebody like that?

A Christian or at least a person who professes faith in Christ, but they are opposed to science or afraid of science.

We see those hands.

Yeah, there's a few out there, some of you.

And the reality is there's no need for either of those responses.

Don't have to be opposed to it as a Christian, and we don't have to be afraid of it.

The truly Christian understanding of science is that if something is to be proven as a scientific fact, and we'll show you how you do that in a minute, then that is God's truth.

If something is an actual scientific fact, then that is God's truth, and we can claim it as another way God is revealing himself to us through his creation.

We have nothing to fear as Christians.

Christians, hear me.

We have nothing to fear as Christians when it comes to science.

All true science actually does is affirm that God is the creator of all things, okay?

So we have nothing to be afraid of.

So I have a very simple, very straightforward goal for my talk this morning.

Here's my goal.

It's to try to dispel some of the myths that are out there in our culture regarding Christianity and science.

So I'm hoping if there's some type of wrong view of Christianity and science and how those work, I'm hoping that gets dispelled so you can be more open to the claims of Christ.

And at least convince you if you are a skeptic, you are an unbeliever, to give Christianity, give Jesus a chance.

I'd hate for you to completely walk away from Jesus because you have thoughts and opinions about Christianity.

You have thoughts and opinions about science that just aren't based in reality, okay?

So here's my big ask of all of you, all right?

Will you do something for me for the next minutes?

Um...

I'm not going to give you a time because some of you like get the stopwatch out.

All right.

Here's what I'm asking.

Will you stay with me through this talk?

Now, if you've got to go to the bathroom, I understand.

I'm just saying, don't leave.

Don't get frustrated.

Don't get mad.

Listen, I am not going to answer all the questions.

There's no way you can do that in a sermon.

And that's not the point of today.

It really is not about answering all the questions.

It's just to hopefully open the door for some people to say, oh, I don't have to check my brain at the door when I investigate Jesus.

Actually, to be a follower of Jesus means to engage your brain and think deeply about things, right?

So stay with me through the talk.

Hear me out.

And then if you still have questions or something you want to throw back at me or argue about, reach out to me.

I would love to have that conversation.

I would love to have that talk with you.

So I'm going to give you my email.

Reach out.

Send me an email.

Look, see, I do believe in technology.

I do believe in intelligence.

Science.

I Email me.

Here's my email, chris at crossroadsturlock.com.

And just like the last service, nobody wrote that down.

That's okay.

I'm trusting you guys will reach out to me if you have questions.

So chris at crossroadsturlock.com.

Send me an email, and here's my promise.

I promise you I will respond, and I promise you we will get together when it's best and convenient for you to talk and try and answer some of those questions.

Is that fair?

Woof, I've said a lot and haven't even got started yet.

All right, here we go.

So we're going to dive in.

Here's the structure for the talk.

Here's how we're going to go at it today.

We're going to look at four foundational principles for the science versus Christianity debate.

Okay?

Four foundational principles.

Again, we are not even going to try and answer all the questions because you can't in one message.

It would take...

dozens and dozens and dozens of messages, right?

So four principles.

First one is this.

Everyone has faith.

We're going to start there.

Everyone, no matter who you are, has faith, all right?

So now, I never thought I'd say this in a sermon, but I'm going to risk it.

I'm going to step out there and ask this question.

How many of you have ever seen the movie Nacho Libre?

Can I see the hands?

These are the truly godly people in the room.

I love it.

Everybody else, you didn't raise your hand, you're lying.

That's okay.

You just don't want to admit it in church.

All right, so here's the premise.

Starring, of course, one of the greatest actors of all time, Jack Black.

He's Nacho.

Nacho is a Catholic priest, but he also wants to be a luchador.

which is a Mexican wrestler, if you didn't know that, that wears masks.

And so he wants to get into wrestling and he finds a partner to be on his team.

The two of them will do, you know, there'll be a duo.

I forgot what that's actually called in wrestling when you have two.

I'm sorry.

Tag team wrestling.

That's it.

Sorry.

It's been a while since I've actually watched wrestling.

So tag team wrestling, right?

So his partner's name is Steven.

And if you remember the story, they go through all this stuff and they finally get some wrestling matches.

And they're back in the locker room having a conversation.

And somehow it just comes out that Steven hadn't been baptized.

And Nacho's like, why have you not been baptized?

Yes.

You guys remember this now?

You remember this now, don't you?

And Stephen gives the classic answer, because I believe in God.

Science, right?

He said it way better than I just did it.

But anyway, his response to why he hadn't been baptized was because I believe in science, right?

I believe in science.

So why would I be baptized?

And then if you remember the rest of the story, not just he sneaks up from behind with a bowl of water and just slams his face down in there.

You have been baptized.

Now he can wrestle with him.

This is great, right?

Of course, what Stephen's implying there is it's got to be one or the other, right?

Either you're a person of faith or a person of reason, logic, and science, meaning I believe in facts.

You believe in myths or things that can't actually be proven.

That's the underlying truth.

response, right?

Which begs the question, what does it take for something to actually be a scientific fact?

So if you aren't sure, well, how do we determine what a scientific fact is?

It's different than a theory, but what is a fact?

If you want to write this down, feel free.

Go back to sixth grade science or eighth grade, whenever you learned it.

Here's what it takes to be a scientific fact.

Something that is observable and repeatable, right?

I still can see my science teacher telling me this.

Something that is observable Observable and repeatable.

So here's what I want you to do.

Just do a little mental exercise right now.

Think about all the things you've heard through your life and maybe you heard this week that are declared to be scientific fact.

Are those things observable and repeatable?

If they're not, they're called scientific theories, not scientific fact.

Now, we can get to theories from facts that we actually see, but if it's going to be a fact, it has to be something that is observable and repeatable, okay?

Just to kind of get there real quick, and we'll come back to it later, that means that the origin of the earth, the origin of all things...

Is it observable?

Anybody here when that happened?

Yeah, okay.

So hold on to that and we'll get to that later on.

Okay.

So many will say, I can't believe in God because I can't see God, right?

Not observable.

And can't do tests in the lab to prove there is a God, right?

Observable, repeatable, you can do, you can't with God.

So that's what people say.

So I can't believe in God.

So the opinion is Christians base what we believe on blind faith, and then everyone who trusts in science, they're the ones who use reason and logic to deduce what they know to be true.

You don't believe that that's how it's kind of spun out there?

Listen to the words of two of the leading proponents of what became known as the new atheism, which was huge in the mid-2000s.

It's actually kind of dying off now, praise God.

But it's still around, still influential.

Two guys, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris.

Listen to what Richard Dawkins says about this.

Faith is like a mental illness.

Wow.

Richard, tell us how you really feel, right?

Right?

It's a great cop-out, the excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.

That's his opinion of what Christianity is.

Couldn't be further from the truth, but that's what he thinks.

Sam Harris.

We have names for people who have many beliefs of which there is no rational justification.

When their beliefs are extremely common, we call them religious.

Wow.

Wow.

Otherwise, they are likely to be called mad, delusional, or psychotic.

He thinks you're crazy if you're a Christian.

He thinks you're even psychotic.

You're out of your mind.

But what Dawkins and Harris and whoever else thinks like them fails to see is that they themselves have a faith.

Even the most strident atheists in our world actually have faith.

It's a faith that their way of observing the facts is the right way.

And there is no other conclusion, right, that could come from their scientific facts other than there is no God and Christianity can't be true.

However, they actually have a worldview.

That's their faith, right?

They have a faith system.

It's one that believes that the material is all there is.

Just what you can see, right?

Tangibly, what you can study.

And everything we need to know and care about is found within that material reality, right?

And that worldview, that faith, shapes and guides their view of everything.

It is technically their religion.

It is technically their functional God.

Notice this.

I want to show you.

I'm going to show you from their own words.

A quote here, a very honest quote by a guy named Richard Lewontin.

You can look him up, Google him.

He was a biologist, a professor at Harvard University.

Atheist.

Notice how he lets the cat out of the bag.

He's honest about it.

Look what he says.

When it comes to how we do research, when it comes to our conclusions, he says this.

We have a prior commitment to materialism.

So what's his worldview?

Materialism.

Materialistic view, right?

It's not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world.

So you hear what he's saying?

He's saying science didn't lead us to materialism.

Our materialism leads us to the conclusions we have.

The materialism is what...

causes me to observe facts and come up with certain conclusions.

It's not the science.

It's the worldview.

It's the faith.

Interesting, right?

And this is a really smart guy.

He's opening up to this.

On the contrary, we are forced by our prior adherence to material causes.

So because we're materialists, We can only come up with material causes.

Why is that?

Look, we can't allow a divine foot in the door.

Because if we allow for the possibility of God, that changes everything.

And it's going to ruin their book sales, right?

So they got a problem.

There it is.

Everyone has faith.

First principle.

We all have a way of looking at the world that shapes how we see everything else, okay?

The Apostle Paul actually pointed this out 2,000 years ago by telling us we're all gonna worship someone, we're all gonna worship something, right?

If you will, turn in your Bible to Romans chapter one.

Romans chapter one, page 911, if you're using one of the Bibles that are provided for you there.

And just real quickly, notice what Paul says about this.

It's interesting.

We would think if somebody looks at the creation and doesn't see that there has to be a creator, then they would become what we might call atheists.

okay or or they would become non-worshippers the reality is if we don't worship the creator that creation points us to we just choose to worship something else not having a faith and not being worshipers is not one of the options as human beings we can't we have to worship someone or something because we were created for that that's actually what explains it all right so look at Romans 1 18 the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all all the godlessness and wickedness of people, look at this, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

What's that mean?

It means to push away the obvious truth that is all around them.

So their sinful hearts, their desire is to push away the truth that is all around them that's actually revealing God, and they're going to choose to worship something else.

So keep going.

For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities.

Remember, God is a spirit.

You don't see God.

He's invisible, right?

His invisible qualities, though, referring to his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen.

So there is observable material things that you can look to and actually see God and see God.

some of the attributes and the character and nature of God in the material world, okay?

So we can actually study it, we can observe it, we can do science with it, right?

Being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse.

According to God's word, nobody has an excuse to say there is no God because God is shouting to us from creation, okay?

For although they knew God Deep down in their soul, they actually know there's a God.

God is presenting himself through creation.

They neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, so they didn't receive creation as evidence of God.

But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

Interesting, have you ever been called foolish because you believe in God?

Have you ever been called ignorant because you believe God's the creator?

I have.

Many of us have.

Here, God's word is saying it's actually the opposite.

Interesting.

So although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for what?

Images?

and made to look like a mortal man, a human being, and birds and animals and reptiles.

So what is the response of kind of not allowing creation to reveal to you, God, it is not atheism.

It is not not worship.

It is actually you choose to worship something else.

And what is a created thing of God?

Science.

It only deals with God's creation.

It deals with the natural world.

So people who say, well, I don't believe in God.

I believe in science.

You're saying your religion is science.

And you've got all kinds of faith in science to do for you what only a God could actually do.

Okay?

So everyone has faith.

Principle number one.

Number two, I'm gonna have to go quick, sorry.

Christianity begins with the premise that God has revealed the truth in two books.

All right, so everyone has faith and Christianity begins with the premise that God has revealed the truth in two books.

Now, Christians, before you call me a heretic, make sure you hear what I'm saying.

I'm not saying there's another set of scriptures that are equal to the Bible, okay?

I'm not saying that.

Make sure you hear me.

I'm not saying that, right?

Did you know that one of the ways that Christianity was described by observers at the very beginning of Christianity in the Roman Empire, one of the ways Christianity and Christians were described was that they were bookish, that Christianity is a bookish faith, that they were people who used their brains.

They studied, they researched, they thought.

These were intelligent people, not dumb people.

It was called a bookish faith, okay?

It was understood that these were people who were deeply committed to logic, reason, research, and thinking.

They were readers.

If they had access to the scriptures, they would read.

They would at least listen to them read.

They would think deeply.

They were shaped and formed by the scriptures, okay?

They're not people who just lived by blind faith.

That's not how Christianity began.

So what were those two books that fueled worship for God?

First one is creation.

Did you know creation is actually a book?

It's a It's the way God reveals himself.

Scholars will call it general revelation, just meaning it's generally available to everyone.

And we can learn big general concepts about God from the creation itself.

So creation is actually something we can read and study.

From the beginning, Christianity has viewed the creation as a means of knowing and learning more about God.

It's something to be read and studied more.

Its natural end should lead us to glorifying and worshiping God.

In other words, creation displays the glory of God, right?

So back to Psalm 19, where we heard that read earlier.

First half of Psalm 19 is all about this book, creation.

And look how he says it in Psalm 19, 1.

The heavens declare the glory of God.

The sky and all the stars and planets and galaxies, and we're learning more and more about that through scientific advancement as satellites and telescopes go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and farther and farther and farther and is able to look back and we're seeing universes and galaxies and planets and we're learning so much now.

It's crazy what we're learning now, what we're seeing now.

One thing we're learning is God is huge.

God is massive.

God is incredibly powerful because he's holding all that together in the palm of his hand.

Amazing.

The skies will claim the work of his hands.

Day after day, they pour forth speech.

They're communicating to us.

Night after night, they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech.

They use no words.

No sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun.

It's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other.

Nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Notice again, Romans chapter one, since what may God's revealed himself plainly through creation because God has made it plain to them.

So that people are without excuse.

Nobody's going to be able to stand before God and say, God, you never told me that you existed.

He's going to say, creation.

Creation.

That's how I told you.

And we do see this principle through scripture.

When you respond to the light that God gives you, he gives you more light.

All who seek him will find him.

And for a lot of people, it starts with creation.

Looking at the trees going, man, somebody had to do that.

Looking at the mountains going, that can't just have happened, right?

That's what the scriptures are saying.

Christianity isn't based on blind faith.

Christians see incredible intelligence and design within creation, which we believe points to a creator, to a designer.

If there is a design, there is a designer.

That's how it works everywhere else in creation.

Why wouldn't creation begin that way?

Just so illustration.

Yesterday, my wife and I went to Lowe's to get a bunch of plants and soil and rock and flowers.

We're doing work in our backyards, the time of year, right?

So we're doing that.

On the way home, we're driving home and My wife has her phone.

She's looking through Facebook.

And she lands on this incredible post that I got to read to you.

She's like, Chris, did you know about this?

Let me find it real quick.

And she starts reading it to me.

And she shows me the picture.

Show the picture up if you would.

All right, so...

That's a crow, okay?

And if you can see, if your eyes are better than mine, you can see that there are black ants just crawling all over the crow.

And what this little article is about, this little post is about, is informing us on this thing called anting.

How many of you have ever heard of birds anting?

Anybody?

A few people.

Okay, all right.

Here's what anting is.

When crows feel unwell, they engage in a behavior called anting, where they deliberately seek out ant hills.

They spread their wings wide and remain still, allowing ants to crawl all over their feathers.

This does not sound pleasant.

This is because ants release formic acid, which is a natural antiseptic.

What?

Just so happened.

Just so happened.

Which helps to kill bacteria, fungi, and parasites in the crow's feathers.

This behavior is a form of natural self-medication.

And what do Christians see when we see that?

Intelligence, design, amazing, right?

Mysterious.

There's no way that kind of stuff just happens.

It's amazing what God has done.

And that's what the scripture is saying.

You can look at that crow standing over an ant pile, allowing ants to bite them as God hardwiring into the creation a way to care for his birds.

Amazing.

And then the next time you think about, you know, throwing gas on the ant hill and burning it up, remember, they do serve a purpose.

Maybe it's just me, maybe I need counseling, I don't know.

Christians believe that God is revealing himself through the book of creation, okay?

We also believe that God reveals himself in a unique way, in a special way, different than how he reveals himself in creation, and he does that through the Bible, which scholars will say is special revelation.

So what are the two books?

Creation and the Bible.

General revelation, special revelation.

For those of you who are new, you realize I have tattoos on my arms.

Here's the theme in case you didn't know.

My left arm is special revelation because it's a picture from Revelation chapter seven.

This arm is actually a bunch of animals from Africa that I really think are awesome.

General revelation, general revelation, special revelation.

I actually thought through that strategically because I think I like it.

But then also it allows me to have confidence conversations with people I never would have conversations with about the gospel.

I cannot tell you how many times in a barber shop or at, you know, a mechanic or something like that, playing golf or something where somebody's like, so tell me about the tattoos.

What's the story?

I'm like, are you sure you want to hear?

Here we go.

Gospel, you know, boom and throw it down.

It's been amazing.

And I'm not saying go get tattoos so you can share the gospel.

Of course.

I'm just saying I like tattoos.

But that's the theme, right?

That God reveals himself in two books, creation and the Bible, special revelation, right?

So Christians have historically believed that God reveals truth about himself, about us, about the world in the pages of scripture.

We won't read it because we just don't have time, but in Psalm 19, write this down, verses 7 to 12.

It's amazing that you see both books presented in Psalm 19, right?

First half is about general revelation, how God reveals himself through creation.

And then the second half is how God reveals his character and nature through scripture.

Right there in Psalm 19, you got them both.

You also have Jesus saying in John 17, 17, sanctify them by the truth.

Look at this.

Your word is truth.

This word is truth, right?

God reveals himself through two books.

If you would, write this down and hear me out on it.

Don't go too far down the rabbit trail.

Based on this, here's what we know.

All truth is God's truth.

Okay, write it down.

I know you're already arguing in your head.

That's okay.

All truth is God's truth.

Now notice, notice I didn't say, All truth claims are truth.

I just said, if something is actually true, literally, we know for a fact it's true, that's God's.

If something is true, either proven to be true as a scientific fact, which means it's observable and repeatable, or true because it's in God's divinely inspired word, the Bible, or just simply proven to be true historically, then that truth is God's truth.

Okay?

Which means there's no battle between true science and Christianity.

That's a false dichotomy.

If something is true in science, then it's God's truth.

Because where does science come from?

His creation.

Who created creation?

God.

So of course it reveals truths about the designer.

Of course it reveals truths about the creator.

Are we all hanging?

We good?

Okay, good.

So we're looking at four foundational principles about the Christianity science debate.

First, everyone has faith.

Second, God's revealed himself in two books.

Here's the third one.

Christianity is not anti-intellectual or anti-science.

That is a myth.

Okay?

sometimes founded in experiential truth for individual people, but Christianity itself, true biblical Christianity, is not anti-intellectual and is not anti-science.

Now, that point logically flows from the last point.

Historically, Christians believe that to practice our faith, we have to learn, right?

Right?

It's what it means to be a disciple.

Did you know disciple means learner?

So instead of saying, hey, we are here to make fully committed followers of Jesus, we could also say we're here to make fully committed learners of Jesus.

It's what disciple means, to be a learner.

That's true Christianity, okay?

We learn, we study, we observe.

Of course, there's more.

We practice, we do things, we feel things.

But in the realm of what we're talking about here, we don't check our brains at the door.

We worship the one who said, here's the greatest thing you can do.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

Amen.

That's how you love God, with your brain.

You think deeply about God, and that is an act of worship.

Now, there are religions that tell you to check your brain at the door, Buddhism being one, Hinduism being one.

When they talk about meditating, they're telling you, empty your mind.

And don't think about anything.

And we all know the danger of emptying your mind.

There will not remain a vacuum.

It will be filled with stuff.

And that's where we get in trouble.

Christian meditation, according to the Bible, is you actually use your brain to think deeply about God and you fill it with good, beautiful truths about God so you can know him more, so you can love him more, so you can live better, more in alignment with him.

Huge difference.

Huge difference.

That's the opposite of being anti-intellectual or anti-science.

Now, okay, here's where, you know, stereotypes, where there is smoke, there has to be fire, right?

There are some stereotypes that there's some truth that led to stereotypes, right?

So that doesn't mean, that doesn't mean that there aren't people who profess to be Christians or churches that profess to be Christian churches that aren't anti-intellectual and anti-science, right?

Of course there are.

You know, don't point anybody out in the room if they're in here or whatever.

But how many of you know somebody who would say, yeah, I think they're kind of anti-science, even as a Christian?

Raise your hand.

You know anybody like that?

A few people?

Anti-intellectual?

Yep, some of us.

Okay, right.

So we know some people like that.

But that's not the general posture of historic Christianity and most Christians.

Definitely not the way it's been.

Okay, through history.

Proof of that.

How many of you who claim to be a follower of Jesus have ever been to a doctor?

Raise your hand.

How many of you have ever taken any form of medicine?

Okay, awesome.

How many of you have ever used a cell phone?

How many of you have ever cruised the internet?

You all believe in science.

Look at you.

None of you are anti-science.

None of you are anti-intellectual, right?

We all, we get that, right?

Alvin Plantica, one of the great Christian philosophers of our day, says it like this.

The thing we presently call modern science was actually conceived and born and flourished in the matrix of Christian theism.

Isn't that awesome?

I'm going to support that in a minute, but Christianity and science are not at war.

If that's the one thing you take away from this today, take that away.

Christianity and science are not at war.

The one naturally flows from the other.

Now, hear me out.

This is going to be controversial for some, but the reality is Christianity isn't opposed to science.

It's actually the foundation to science.

Put it another way.

Write this down.

Science needs Christianity in order to work.

Shots fired.

That's a bold claim, right?

That science needs Christianity in order to work.

What do I mean by that?

Well, this thought came from a book that I'm reading.

It just made so much sense.

It's called Surviving Religion 101.

it's written by Michael Kruger definitely recommend it it's written as if it's a dad writing to a daughter who's going to university and her faith is going to be attacked at university so he's doing it he's trying to be a good dad and prepare her for that one of the chapters is on science and he kind of makes this claim that after I read it's like oh that makes perfect sense what do we mean by that that science needs Christianity in order to work here's what Kruger said The entire scientific enterprise is actually built on certain philosophical principles.

Principles that themselves aren't drawn from science.

Put differently, science could not function properly on just any worldview.

Like a Hinduistic worldview, Buddhist worldview wouldn't work.

It needs a worldview...

In which the universe operates in an orderly, predictable, uniform fashion.

What scientists call the uniformity of nature.

There has to be uniformity in nature for science to actually work.

Because then it's predictable, observable, and repeatable.

He goes on with that question and says this.

Which worldview...

provides this uniformity of nature.

Certainly not the atheistic evolutionary worldview.

That perspective holds the belief that everything just happened through random unpredictable chance.

Right?

And then finally he ends the argument with this.

If all the universe is random and unpredictable, beholden only to chance, then we have no reason to affirm the uniformity of nature and thus no reason to think that science would work at all.

The atheist is free to assume it, but he does so without any basis.

It effectively is a blind leap of faith.

And this is where the argument goes.

Actually, it takes more faith to be an atheist than to believe that there is a creator.

Ooh, I couldn't be an atheist.

I don't have that much faith.

That's the argument.

It's amazing.

So Christianity is not anti-intellectual or anti-science.

It's actually the opposite.

The history, write this down, the history of science is part of the history of Christianity.

Did you know that?

The history of science is actually part of the history of Christianity.

It's amazing.

Let me just give you some names.

And I'm going to do this pretty quick so you can get on Google today and Google these names and find out about your Christian history in regards to science.

Richard Bacon and William Ockham, they're strategic in developing the scientific method, how we actually determine what are science facts and what are science theories.

Unbelievable.

Johannes Kepler, laws of planetary motion.

Robert Boyle, the first modern chemist.

Blaise Pascal, mathematics and science, first mechanical calculator.

He came up with the first mechanical calculator, Christian.

How can he do that?

Because the principles of math are hardwired into creation.

And all you have to do is study it and see that it's repeatable, it's observable.

Isaac Newton.

You guys remember that Saturday cartoon where the apple would fall?

Yeah, that's Newton, right?

Laws of motion.

I'm dating myself, I know.

Laws of motion and universal gravitation.

That's Newton.

A believer.

Gregor Mendel.

Laid foundation for modern genetics.

Galileo.

Astronomy and physics.

Now, there was some problems with Galileo in the church.

There was a misinterpretation of one of the Psalms, and so the church of the day back in the 1500s, whenever that was, 1400s, 1500s, believed that the earth was actually the center of the universe rather than the sun, and that everything revolved around the earth because they misunderstood and they forgot that the Psalms are very often written poetically.

using language that isn't necessarily always meant to be taken literally.

And they literally took in something that was meant to be metaphoric.

And so they came up with a whole doctrine and Galileo got persecuted because of it.

But it's been fixed.

It's been rectified.

Let me answer the question.

Has the church ever made mistakes?

Absolutely.

Let me ask another question.

Has science ever made mistakes?

Can we go back a couple of years?

Can we just like, not to get, you know, controversial or anything, but...

why how come the church makes mistakes how come science makes mistakes because people are involved and none of us are perfect and we don't always see everything exactly correctly so yes science has made mistakes in history the church has made mistakes in history but the two do not have to be against each other right So here's the last thought on this point.

One can disagree with a particular theory without being anti-science.

Now I'm going to push a little hard on the skeptic atheists in the room.

I love you.

You're in church, so you're on my home ground.

So that's how it goes.

I got the microphone.

I get to talk a little bit more.

Here's the deal.

And gladly have coffee with you later and we can talk.

Think of it like this.

If the church says scientific fact, or Christians say scientific fact can't be scientific fact because of whatever reason, then they would be wrong.

But listen, but listen to this.

What does it take to be a scientific fact?

It has to be observable and repeatable.

Other than that, if you come to conclusions, it's a theory, scientifically speaking.

It's just a theory.

So I can disagree with your theory, but I can't disagree, disagree with fact because remember all truth is God's truth.

There's a huge difference between disagreeing on a particular theory and disagreeing with scientific fact.

Okay.

So one can disagree with a particular theory without being anti science.

Scientific fact and scientific theory are not the same thing, which leads to our last point.

The conflict between Christianity and modern science is a conflict about origin pretty much every time.

In other words, how did everything begin?

Where did everything come from?

That's really the argument.

That's really the battle, okay?

And when I say modern science, I'm talking about non-theistic evolution, okay?

It's an important differentiation because there's a different kind of view on evolution that we'll talk about real quick, okay?

So Christianity believes that God created everything.

That's like the Christian stamp, right?

We believe God created everything.

And just so you know, some of you don't know this, but there are in-house debates, right?

Meaning within the church, debates, okay?

About whether or not God used some aspects of the evolutionary process to complete his creation.

Some Christians, based on how they see science and how they study it and learn and all that sort of thing, think it's possible that God might have used some bits of the evolutionary process to fill out his creation, okay?

I'm not endorsing that.

I'm just saying that is a view of a lot of people who love Jesus and love the Bible, okay?

But at the end of the day, Christianity teaches and Christians believe that God created everything.

No matter how we did it, they believe God did it.

So very first verse in the very first book of the Bible.

In the beginning, there is nothing.

And then there's a beginning that God created the heavens and the earth.

Who did that?

God did.

John 1, 1 through 3, just write the reference down.

We won't go there, but write this reference down.

And you're going to see specifically it was the Son, second member of the Trinity, who did the creative act.

Jesus in the, like for us, Jesus in the flesh.

Before he's in the flesh, he's the second member of the Trinity.

He's the one who created.

And you read that in John 1, 1.

It can't be any more clear than that.

The Bible states and Christianity teaches that God created all that is.

Obviously, that's not accepted by everyone, right?

Here's what Richard Dawkins, one of the leaders of the new atheism, says.

It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, or insane.

Wow.

That's not very tolerant.

That's not very welcoming and affirming.

I don't feel loved in that statement.

I don't feel tolerated in that statement at all.

Right?

So you can see there's strong opinions out there.

So here's what I'm going to do.

I want to end this message not by having a debate about Christianity versus atheistic evolution.

We're not going to do that right now.

We don't have time for that.

But rather, I want to ask this question.

What are you gonna do with Jesus?

Virtually every, now we're gonna go into history.

So we're dealing with science, now history.

Every serious, legitimate historian in the world, and that's not an over-exaggeration, do the research yourself, believes that Jesus was a historical figure who lived roughly 2,000 years ago in Israel was crucified by the Romans, was killed on a cross by the Romans, was buried in a tomb, and then the claim was, and this is historical fact, three days later, the tomb was empty.

And then you had eyewitnesses going around, hundreds of them, this is a historical fact as well, hundreds of eyewitnesses going around saying they've seen the resurrected Jesus.

What will you do with that fact?

historically proven fact.

Non-believers, atheistic folks will push back and say, yep, those are all true.

But here's how the tomb is empty.

And they give different theories.

Notice not facts.

They give theories.

Here's some of the theories.

They went to the wrong tomb.

Which is amazing because it's not like, oh, wait, no, you guys went to the wrong tomb.

We know the guy who owns the tomb.

Let's get him.

He'll take his...

Yeah.

Another one that Jesus actually didn't die on the cross.

He just fainted.

This one's actually.

It's so silly.

It's called the swoon theory.

And that he didn't really die on the cross.

He fainted, loss of blood, all this heart exploded.

You know, I think you probably would faint after something like that, right?

And then he was buried in the cool tomb, revived him.

And he had the strength to push a couple thousand pounds stone out of the way.

Come on out.

Hey, everybody, I'm alive.

Isn't that awesome?

Like, okay, that's one of the leading arguments by scholars, right?

Remember that?

I'm not going to say that.

That's not appropriate.

Okay, anyway.

The third one, the disciples stole the body.

The cowards took on a bunch of Roman soldiers, knocked them out, maybe put something in the wine that night, you know.

They got sleepy, fell asleep.

I don't know.

Stole the body.

Then the last one I'm going to give you, this is what Islam teaches.

They teach that it wasn't really Jesus on the cross being crucified.

It was his stunt double.

It was his fill-in.

It was his stand-in.

It was his look-alike.

I'm not making that up.

That's literally what they say.

So they don't deny all those other historical facts, but they've got to come up with theories as to why the tomb was empty.

See the difference between fact and theory?

None of those answers are satisfying enough to the person who truly researches and studies the historical facts.

So what does it say about the person who predicted he was gonna die the way he did, who predicted he would rise from the dead the exact way he did?

What would that say about that kind of person?

Who is that person?

Those are important questions.

At the very least, if he could predict his death and resurrection and then carry it off, you probably would wanna listen to everything else that person had to say.

So here are the words of that person who did all that, provided for us by the eyewitnesses who actually saw all these events, referring, this is Jesus speaking.

I am the way, the truth.

I am the scientific fact.

I am the historical fact.

I am the fact of all facts.

And I am the life.

I'm the only way to eternal life.

No one comes to the Father.

No one gets to heaven except through me.

I'm the door.

I'm the way.

I'm the truth.

I'm the life.

At the end of the day, the issue isn't Christianity versus science.

Hopefully we've shown you that's a false dichotomy.

It's not one or the other.

At the end of the day, the issue is, what will you do with Jesus?

You can't ignore him.

He's a historical reality.

You've heard a lot of the facts.

There's more out there.

What is your theory going to be?

Only one response leads to the way, the truth, and the life.