Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye - Does Science explain Everything?

 Part 2 – of the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye series

In the upcoming debate Bill Nye (I can’t speak for him personally) for many people represents the stance that science can explain everything. Ken Ham for many represents the stance that the Bible can explain everything.

I want to look at what makes these two polarizing camps clash so hard against each other. But more directly I want to look at how the Creationist camp sometimes forgets a key aspect of their platform and therefor creates an unnecessary division. To accomplish this I will have to speak in generalizations to characterize these two ends of a spectrum.

The Nye-Evolution camp believes that natural laws of nature govern the way the world works. For example the law of gravity is observably unchangeable. All observable objects obey this law.

The Ham-Creation camp believes that God governs natural law. The fixed laws of nature are established and maintained by God’s constant doing.

Christian participants in Scripture vs. Evolution debates often forget this, so a new scientific discovery is seen as a challenge to an omnipotent God. So when the assumption is made that because some natural phenomenon can be explained via science, then that suggests that God is no longer needed.  This is offensive to our belief systems.

Science does a great job of explaining the natural world. But let us not forget that the Bible teaches that God governs natural ordinary events. He governs the physical as well as the metaphysical. In fact I think the distinction between natural/supernatural or physical/metaphysical creates and false dichotomy, but more on that in an upcoming post.

There is a little cross over but for the most part science helps us to understand how the world works, and the Bible helps us understand how God purposes the natural laws he governs.

I want to clear up, from a Christian perceptive, how we should best understand natural laws of science. It is less accurate to say science discovers the natural laws that God uses to govern the world. It is more accurate to say that God prefers to govern over nature using patterns of his preference, and those things which we call ‘natural laws’ are the degree to which we understand God’s preferred methods and patterns.

The conflict is not between how God reveals himself through scripture or science. The conflict lies at the level of human interpretation between science and scripture.

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

Check out my upcoming book at www.adhogan.com