Monday, November 06, 2017

The Crooked Path of Nature


This is a bit of an advanced look at my new book, Mere Science and Christian Faith: Bridging the Divide with Emerging Adults, through a brief excerpt.

In the process of advocating for our listening to scientists because they describe creation and that helps us better grasp our Creator, I write this...

Through that listening we find praise and wonder and mystery. Scientists have also taught me honesty and a somewhat recalcitrant commitment to avoid easy answers by pondering intricacies we would have never guessed. (This may be why, in fact, some believers resist science—because scientists resist easy answers.) 
“Consider what God has done,” Ecclesiastes 7:13 says. “Who can straighten what he has made crooked?” 
Sometimes the works of God in the ways of nature are not as straightforward as we would like, even though science has figured out numerous things ancient thinkers and New Testament writers didn’t know. Nevertheless, through all this beauty, awesome display, and puzzling natural reality, we still somehow discover the “eternal power and divine nature” of our Creator (Romans 1:20). It strikes me that affirming the “eternal power and divine nature” offers both a wide place for scientific discovery and a respectful silence and patience for future answers. I believe that scientists ultimately lead us to admit our limits and declare the majesty of God, echoing what Paul exclaimed ten chapters later: 
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Perhaps as scientists should be, but is it how they are?

My Reflections said...

It's not how they always are, but here I'm trying to highlight what I've learned from scientists and why I listen. Does that answer your question?