SCI 03 – FOUNDATIONS
Basic Principle: Cause & Effect
- There are 1595 “If … then …” sort of statements in the Bible, showing cause & effect
- God labors to teach humans cause & effect … why what happens (Le 26, De 28)
- “If you obey commandments / love God / walk in his ways > then life & blessing But if your heart turns away / bow to other gods > then death & curses”
- The Bible is a 1000 page explanation by God of why what happens and which action leads to which consequence … this is a major, major emphasis
- Bangladeshi proverb: “Je jototuk jole nambe she tototuk bhijbe”
- C.S. Lewis: “You may or may not jump into the water, but if you jump, you must get wet”
- Cause & effect is the basis of science. Science is precisely the discovery of the connection between cause & effect, the understanding of the rules it happens.
- God wants to teach us to see the relationship of events, the principles by which it happens, the rules by which reality is understandable, even the formula by which we can predict outcome.
- > God teaches science
Foundations for science from Genesis
Creation is worth knowing
- Ge 1:1 … God creates and wants this physical world. Ge 1:31 … God calls this creation good. Ge 1:28 … God gives creation into the hands of man to take care.
- this creation is good, important, worth knowing, worth the investment, worth the research & work
- > grounds for science
Creation is not divine
- God creates the world, wants the world and is reflected in his world.
- But creation is not divine, it is not God > therefore man can touch it, can try out things, can investigate, can innovate
- > science is allowed
Creation is given to man
- The earth is given to man, under man’s leadership
- Ge 2:15 … Man is commanded to till the ground, to look after the world
- Ge 2:20 … Man is commanded to name the animals, which would include investigation, classification, ordering.
- Ge 1:28 … Man is commanded to fill the earth, which includes geographical spread, discovering new places, new climates, new ways of agriculture
- > science is commanded
Creation is lawful
- Another foundation for science is God’s character itself:
- God fulfils his promises. God keeps his covenants. God’s word always stands. God is faithful. God obeys his own law.
- Therefore, a creation that is his handiwork, can reasonably be expected to be be lawful as well … and looking to find lawfulness in creation is what science is.
- > science is rooted in the character of God
Multiplication and Science
- Ge 1:28 … God commands multiplication. Population growth automatically will lead to a greater need for science.
- Example: Defecation … if only 2 people in the whole world, then ‘jekhane shekhane paykhana’ is not that problematic. But if there are 2 crore people, then systems are needed
- Example: Housing … now we live in multi-story buildings, families on top of each other, people 200 years ago would have found that a funny idea.
- Example: Country borders … centuries before barely defined borders, now graphed land with boundary stones down to the inch.
- Population growth spells the need for science … and since God commands population growth, he welcomes science to accommodate for the growth
- > science is needed
Positive view of work
- Ge 2:15 … Work was part of the perfect, unstained world. Work was before the fall. Work is not a punishment for sin. Work is good. God himself works. God commands work. The reward for good work is more work.
- No science without serious investigation, trial & error and much work
- > science is supported
Science as honor, joy, fear of God
- Pr 25:2 … “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out”
- Science is pictured as fun, inquisitive, curious, awed, childlike attitude. Illustration: Children searching for the Easter eggs their parents hid.
- Johann Keppler upon finding the laws of planetary motion: “What a joy to think one of God’s thoughts after him!”
- 1 Ki 3:16-28, 4:29-34 … Solomon’s wisdom & involvement in judgement, poetry, philosophy, education, art, botany, zoology
- Again the picture is a positive view of knowledge, of intelligence and of science
Not chaos, but an ordered universe
Isaiah 45:18-19 … “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it, he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!); I am the LORD, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness, I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek me in chaos.” I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right.”
- God created an ordered world, an understandable world, an inhabitable world
- We humans cannot live in a random world, if nothing that was true yesterday is true tomorrow, I cannot live. If nothing is real, if everything is arbitrarily changed, nobody can make sense of this world.
- How about miracles? God can do miracles and does do miracles, but he seems to for the most part run his universe by laws. God’s miracles are not arbitrary, nor does he routinely remove consequences of actions.
- A completely miraculous world is not a biblical concept, nor would it do humans good. How will you learn responsibility, if the result of all your actions is always wiped away? For example: How will I learn stewardship if nothing I do today still exists tomorrow?
Comparison of the World views
What is the nature of the universe?
Eastern thinking
- physical world is less real than the spiritual world, less
important > therefore less worth the investment of science - physical world is influenced by good and evil spirits
- events are arbitrary and not run by natural law
- no expectation of laws in the natural world
- no authority to touch things
Western thinking
- physical world is the only reality
- physical world is limited and finite
- no interference from outside (no God, no morality)
- run by natural law > > high focus on science
- but no conscience to check or limit science
- fascination with own power and ability
Biblical thinking
- physical world is real, good, worth the investment
- physical world is created by God, reflecting him
- open to God’s blessing and interference
- run by natural law
- God can interfere supernaturally
What is man’s relationship with nature?
Eastern thinking
- nature is inhabited by spirits or gods
- nature is superior to man
- man worships nature
Western thinking
- man is superior to nature
- man consumes nature
- there is no accountability
Biblical thinking
- Man is superior to nature
- Man looks after nature for God (stewardship)
- Man nurtures & develops nature
Biblical Foundations for Science
- God: Cause & Effect … if > then
- God keeps his word
- God is himself law abiding
- his creation is law abiding
- expectation for orderly creation that follows law
- science is the finding of these laws
- no science unless law
Hinduism
- Nature is divine & superior to man
- Nature is run by arbitrary spirits
- no lawfulness expected
- no science possible
Buddhism
- Nature is not real, not important. Suffering is acceptable. Suffering is an illusion.
- The solution:
- overcome unreal physical things
- be united with spiritual reality
- No reason to work for and no point understanding the physical world
- No incentive to change physical reality ((Buddha statues: eyes closed, inner world)
Monism
- God’s will is sovereign, unquestionable … nature doesn’t run by law, but by his will
- Anything could happen or not happen
- What worked yesterday, may not work today
- no real expectation of lawfulness
- no real power in science
- God’s will is sovereign and arbitrary
- no command to innovate / research
- no freedom to change / improve
- If God had wanted it different, he would have made it different
- fatalism
- science is almost interfering with God’s sovereign will
Systematic natural science arises in the West
- Systematic science arises in post-reformation Northern Europe
- Most of the 16th, 17th, 18th century scientists were committed believers
Science & Technology's temptation
- Dangers with science?
- fascination with human ability and power
- pride, independence, determinism > unbelief
- whatever can be done will be done, right or not
- overstepping moral lines
- selfish use of technology
- Example: the post-christian West, going from reformation
- science
- unbelief
God’s answer
- Science is commanded
- Science is limited