Some people think that you have to choose between science and religion, but that is not the case. This is the story …
Revelation through nature
In theology there is the idea that God had revealed himself to us in different ways. One is revelation through inspired Scriptures, and another is the general revelation through nature. Some people refer to Creation itself as God’s first book of revelation. In Psalm 19:1 it says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (ESV), or as the Good News Bible has it “How clearly the sky reveals God's glory! How plainly it shows what he has done!” This is expanded in Romans 1:20 where it says: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”
Science and theology
Unpacking the Scriptures and working out what that they mean is theology. Unpacking the rules of nature and creation and how things work is science. For Christians, God is the author of the Bible and Creator of the universe, in other words he is the author of the laws of creation, which science is studying.
So, for believers theology and science are both working out the rules God wrote. If we believe that the revelations of God cannot contradict themselves, then conceptually it makes no logical sense at all to think that science and theology are in conflict.
Magisteria
There are different approaches to conceptualise the relationship between science and religion. Some see religion and science as separate or parallel, independent disciples, like sport and art, which are what Stephen Jay Gould calls “non-overlapping magisteria”. Historically many people saw science as unravelling God’s rules of creation which meant that science was a sub-set of theology. Others who saw science as just the full set of knowledge, saw theology as one of the sciences. Some see science and theology as running on parallel tracks, which overlap in ethics.
Where conflict exists
Where conflict might occur is in areas where theories of science and theology have developed independently of each other and therefore appear to contradict each other. This does not mean that religion and science are fundamentally in conflict, but it may mean that one scientific theory clashes with a particular theological interpretation of Scripture.
This has in fact happened a number of times through history, but a particular point of friction does not imply a general conflict. History shows us that the development of science and theology are intertwined and co-dependent. The influence is two-way, and there are examples of where theology has changed under the influence of science, and where science has been influenced by theology.
History of science
Modern science arose out of the monotheistic worldview that God created (Genesis 1:1) and designed the universe by his power (Jeremiah 10:12), that it was consistent, logical, ordered and was based upon rules (Jeremiah 33:25). For Christians there was the belief that God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), so the rules were likely to remain established, unchanged and secure (Psalm 93:1) through time (Psalm 119:160). Furthermore, He could not lie (Numbers 23:19), and creation was essentially good (James 1:13).
As a result, many of the pioneers of science have been churchmen, like monks and priests with a strong belief in God, trained in theology and driven by a desire to unravel the rules which God wrote. These men believed that the works of the Lord were great, and they delighted in studying them (Psalm 111:2).
God-fearing scientists
Key people in the history of science have seen no contradiction in believing in God and science. Roger Bacon (1214-1294), considered the father of empirical research, who is often credited with formalising the scientific method, was an English Franciscan friar who advocated finding God’s Laws of Nature.
Cardinal Baronius (1538-1607) remarked that the Bible teaches “how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go”. Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was an Anglican and a physicist who developed the science of gravity, but he was also a Christian apologist, obsessed with the Bible. He wrote more about the Bible than science.
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) was a church elder for a time in the Church of Scotland and later at an Anglican church in London. He believed that the Bible was the infallible Word of God. He is famous for his contributions in establishing electromagnetic theory and his work in chemistry such as establishing electrolysis. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was an Anglican who was going to be trained in the priesthood but was offered a voyage on the Beagle to the Galapagos Islands in 1831. He denied that he was an atheist and thought that evolution helped to explain the mechanism God developed to create life forms. He saw no contradiction with the Bible.
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an Augustinian friar in Moravia, who developed foundational research into heredity, the basis of modern genetics.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who was Jewish said, "I want to know the mind of God. The rest are details.”
In more recent times the Human Genome Project which decoded DNA was led by Francis Collins who is a Christian, and who went on to write The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief in 2006.
When science led to a change in theology
Sometimes science leads people to revisit their theology. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a Christian who developed modern astronomy and suggested that the earth rotates around the sun. In the seventeenth century, Galileo’s theory of astronomy was pitted against the Catholic Church’s theology. The Church’s religious belief was that the sun rotated around the earth. This was based upon a literal reading of Psalm 104:5 which reads: “He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved” (ESV), and Ecclesiastes 1:5 which says, "The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises."
Galileo, who also believed the Bible, used new telescope technology to observe the stars and planets, and he came to the view that the Earth and all other planets were revolving around the Sun. Galileo published papers to promote the heliocentric or sun-centred universe. This was enough to get him called to Rome by the Inquisition and be accused of heresy.
In 1633, he was convicted of being a heretic and sentenced to imprisonment. In reality his science was not in conflict with the Bible, but in conflict with a particular interpretation of the Bible, which was later revisited and changed in line with new advances in science.
When theology led to a change in science
On the other hand theology has also led to a change in science. Nearly a hundred years ago, Albert Einstein proposed a steady-state universe. A beginning of time did not satisfy him philosophically.
In 1931, cosmologist Rev Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), who was a Belgian Catholic priest, advocated that time and space had a beginning. This was later mocked as the “Big Bang” theory, which is how it is known today. Lemaître’s theory was initially met with scepticism from his fellow scientists (including Einstein), for supporting the biblical view of creation that there was indeed a beginning (Genesis 1:1), and that God was stretching out the heavens as it expanded (Jeremiah 10:12). Later science accepted this theory, which was influenced by theology. Lemaître saw no conflict between science and religion, and he served as President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for the last six years of his life. The Big Bang theory neither proves nor disproves God, but the idea that there was a beginning is both biblical and scientific.
When we differ
All through history, different Christians have held different interpretations of parts of the Bible. Attacking scientific theories because of a particular belief of what the Bible says is not defending the integrity or the reliability of the Bible, but it is defending a particular theological interpretation of the Bible. Other interpretations are also available. We should not be so arrogant as to suppose our own interpretation of God’s revelation in Scripture has to be the correct one, and well-established science therefore must be wrong.
Humility is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. As God said to Job: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me if you understand” (Job 38:4-7). We must have the humility to accept that our interpretation of Scripture might be wrong sometimes. It would not be the first time.
For many of the great scientists of the past, it was their faith that drove their science. They did not have to choose between science and faith, and neither do we.
