The Double-Cutting Edge of Science
previously published in October 2004
Since I work as an astrophysicist, I spend a lot of time studying the stars. My friends like to joke that I walk around with my head in the clouds. When asked about science and Christianity, I used to feel a little uncomfortable because I wasn’t sure how to answer. With time, I have become more willing, even excited, to share what I believe. I certainly can’t answer all the questions you may have, but I can offer what I do have, which is my insider’s view of science. The conflict between science and the Bible is a stumbling block for many, but the natural world reveals God through His works and it can strengthen our faith in Him.
In ancient times, science used to be as much philosophy as science, and “I think” used to have as much weight as “I observe.” Through the centuries, science has become more precise and more rational, which why it seems so hard to resolve its conflicts with the Bible. Modern science has an air of truth because scientists are supposed to prove their claims. How can we reject something so rational? Certainly, we shouldn’t reject science as a whole. One thing to remember, however, is that while scientists try not to be biased, we have to make some assumptions to make progress. These are based on what we think we know and what we want to test. Usually we choose the simplest reasonable picture, but it is always possible to come up with something more complicated. This is familiar to all of us from everyday life.
We all make assumptions, whether we realize it or not, and if you think assumptions aren’t important, think about the last time you misunderstood someone because you assumed something that turned out not to be true. Most scientists today (especially biologists and geologists) do accept and work within the evolutionary scenario, and this influences what assumptions they make and how they interpret their results. For example, one comes to very different conclusions about how long it took to build up a layer of sedimentary rock if you assume it progressed at a slow steady rate than if you allow that some violent event occurred during the process.
The scientific evidence in the debate about creation versus evolution is more than you or I, or anyone else can fully digest. From physics and astronomy to geology, chemistry, and biology, it spans everything we know about science. God has certainly revealed a great deal to us, yet we should remember that even this vast amount of knowledge is still very incomplete. New and surprising discoveries are being made every day. The question of creation versus evolution today is like a silhouette that shows two people facing each other if you focus one way, or a candlestick if you focus another way. What would make it clear what the picture really shows? We would know if we could see the eyes and nose and mouth on the faces or the design on the candlestick. Someone who is looking for evidence to support a belief in evolution is certainly going to find it, and science is a favorite weapon of the atheist who denies God’s existence. Christians sometimes shun science for this reason, but the person who believes in the God of Genesis 1 will find enough scientific reasons to justify his belief. Though this may seem contradictory, it isn’t. When our knowledge is incomplete, it is possible to explain what we do know in more than one way, just like the picture in the silhouette, and what we end up seeing will also depend on what we’re looking for.
What has science revealed to us about the Universe? The psalmist has written: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork,” but the Universe that he knew was very different from the one that we know today. The glory that was revealed to him was much less than that which we can see today! When David looked up at the night sky, he saw only the few thousand stars in our neighborhood of our galaxy. In the four hundred years since Galileo first turned a telescope to the night sky, we have set up telescopes orbiting around the earth and sent probes to other planets. Our knowledge has exploded. We have discovered moons around other planets, swirling clouds of gas from the births and deaths of stars, and finally the far-distant galaxies. It turns out that the Universe is much bigger than we are able to conceive, and yet the Universe is even bigger than the part we can actually see. It is complex and full of surprises, though it appears to obey the known laws of physics.
Most astrophysicists study the Universe as a whole within the framework of the Big Bang theory, which states that the Universe started out infinitely small and infinitely dense. The model has been adjusted and elaborated over time so that it can explain much of what we know about the Universe quite well. What it cannot do, however, is to explain how it all started—what set up the Big Bang in the first place and where all that the matter and energy first came from. It does take a lot of faith to believe that God created the world, the Universe, and mankind by the power of His Word—but it takes no less faith to believe in a Big Bang that just happened. It takes tremendous faith to go on to believe that atoms arranged themselves by chance into complex proteins that work like perfectly designed machines inside cells, or that those cells then formed specialized organs and tissue of just the right kinds to form living creatures including human beings that think and feel and wonder about their origins.
Does the Universe reveal God? Absolutely. Can the scientific study of it, or of other aspects of the natural world, challenge our faith in God? Obviously the answer is yes. Can a scientist have full faith in the Word of God? My answer is absolutely yes. Science cuts both ways. It has been used to deny God, but it is God’s gift and revelation to us, and He intended for it to draw us closer to Him.
What we believe about God is ultimately a matter of faith, based on our knowledge of ourselves, the world around us, and especially the Word of God. My own belief truthfully doesn’t rest on what I’ve learned from carrying out research, or the evidence on either side of the debate about creation versus evolution. It has much more to do with recognizing His providence in my life, experiencing His power to change lives, both mine and others’, and my growing understanding of God—infinite in power and wisdom, who loves undeserving humans with infinite love. God has not revealed everything, either about the natural world or His dealings with each of us. There is going to be conflict until He comes again. He does test our faith, but He is gracious and has given us enough to live by.
Una Hwang is an astrophysicist working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington, D.C.