Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham - What Christians have at stake? (Do we want a God who can explain what Science cannot?)

What Christians have at stake? (Do we want a God who can explain what Science cannot?)

Part 3 of the Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham series

Another article on the Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham debate subtitled itself “giving credibility to nonsense (or, walking into an apologetic war machine).” I came to a similar conclusion in the first part of this series I’m writing surrounding the debate. The tensions are high surrounding this debate, so I want to take a closer look at what Christians have at stake in the upcoming debate.

Do we want a God who can explain what Science cannot? Well……kind of.

Yes, we believe in a God who is all-present and all-powerful, who has providence of creation. We believe a God who is providence of the naturally observable world and the supernatural, the physical and the metaphysical, the heavens and the earth.

Science only attempts to explain our physical reality. It is not out to disprove realities beyond that. (Yes, a few atheist philosophers may be but that’s not science.)

And even still there is plenty of reason to relax. Science has an incredible track record of explaining how natural causes work, but it is still very far away from being able to explain everything natural. 96.1% of the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy. Both are natural phenomena we cannot currently observe because they do not react to light, but are theories required by mathematics to balance an ever-expanding universe.    

That leaves us with only 4.9% of the universe that is observable, and we have barely scratched the surface of all there is to discover there. Further more, it is absurdly arrogant to think that science will ever be able to explain the entire observable universe. After all, it is constantly changing (evolving, if you will).

So Christians…..please relax. The threat is not nearly as imminent as you might think it is. You have little more than your pride at stake in the upcoming debate.

But back to my question, when explaining the natural and observable universe do we want a God who explains what science is not yet able to explain? 

Do we want to fit God into every gap in scientific theory?

No, we do not.   Scientific knowledge has exploded over the last few century and it will continue to grow. Atheists and Agnostics have often drawn the philosophical conclusion that science’s ability to explain the natural world has made God no longer relevant. Christians step directly into their philosophical framework whenever they put “God in the gaps” of natural science, because as science continues to grow God will continue to shrink.

We are better off to acknowledge God’s providence in what science can explain and what it cannot explain. As our scientific knowledge increases so does our understanding of God’s preferred methods (natural laws) of providence. God is not likely to change his mind on how nature operates, and nature will no less rely on God for its purposes. God does not shrink in the advance of science, but if we are open to Him he might reveal himself through it to those willing to wrestle with the findings.

For more ideas like those found in this blogpost read Origins by Deborah and Loren Haarsma.






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