God & Science
Hasn't science disproved God?
Short answer
No. Science studies how the natural world works; it cannot rule out a Creator who made that world. Many founders of modern science were Christians who studied nature because they believed it was made by a rational God. Discoveries like the beginning of the universe and its fine-tuning actually fit well with belief in God.
In simple words: Science helps us learn how God's world works. Many great scientists loved God, and many still do today.
Response
Science is a powerful tool for understanding the natural world. But it answers "how" questions, not every kind of question. It cannot, by its own methods, tell us whether anything exists beyond nature, why there is something rather than nothing, or what is morally right.
Historically, Christianity helped give birth to modern science. Figures such as Kepler, Boyle, Newton, Faraday, and Maxwell believed the universe was orderly and understandable because it was made by a rational God. Many leading scientists today are believers, including geneticist Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project.
Some scientific discoveries point in the direction of a Creator. The evidence that the universe had a beginning (the Big Bang) raises the question of what caused it. The universe also appears finely tuned: many physical constants fall within narrow ranges that allow life to exist.
There are real debates among Christians about how to interpret Genesis and how creation unfolded. But the claim that science has disproved God is a philosophical claim, not a scientific discovery.
Key evidence
- Many pioneers of modern science, including Kepler, Boyle, Newton, Faraday, and Maxwell, were committed theists.
- The standard cosmological model holds that the universe had a beginning.
- Physicists across worldviews acknowledge that the constants of nature appear fine-tuned for life.
- Science relies on assumptions it cannot prove by itself, such as the reliability of reason and the orderliness of nature.
- Contemporary scientists who are Christians include Francis Collins and John Lennox (mathematician).
Bible passages
- Psalm 19:1-4 "The heavens declare the glory of God."
- Romans 1:20 God's invisible qualities are seen in what he has made.
- Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
- Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of kings to search out a matter.
Quotes
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
C. S. Lewis, "Is Theology Poetry?"
Discussion questions
- What kinds of questions can science answer, and what kinds can it not?
- Why might belief in a rational Creator encourage scientific study?
- Have you felt you had to choose between science and faith? What would help?