“The Bible is about religion, but science is a separate category.” (Quote from an editorial)
Response: Rather than viewing Christianity and science as two separate realms that have nothing to do with each other, or even compete, it is more useful to see how Christianity and science are different, but complement one another. Christianity claims that the sovereign, living God of the universe created the heavens and earth, and many of the earliest scientists saw science as a way to learn more about God’s creation. The following questions help us see how Christianity and science intersect, and how godless evolution is in conflict with both:
Occam’s Razor, a problem-solving principle devised by William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347) states that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions (i.e. the most direct and simplest) should be selected. Other, more complicated solutions may ultimately prove correct, but—in the absence of certainty—the fewer assumptions that are made, the better.
Using Occam’s Razor as a guideline (check all that apply)
1) If a frog turns into a prince, is it:
___a) Magic
___b) Science (you just have to wait a long time – evolution in action)
___c) Other:____________________________________
2) The Bible, written by 40 authors with widely differing occupations from 3 continents over 1,500 years, tells an integrated story that is woven together in a progressive story of human life, with God’s involvement over the centuries, including dozens of prophecies that are fulfilled. This unity is:
___a) by chance – the books just happen to have a common theme and story, and the prophecies just happened to have been fulfilled,
___b) the Roman Catholic Church commissioned all of this work to be done, and pulled it together,
___c) there was a common author (the Holy Spirit), who inspired and guided the writing of the books of the Bible,
___d) other:___________________________________
3) Over 130 cultures have stories / myths in their history that they are descendants of a family who was saved in a boat from a world-wide flood. This is best explained by:
___a) chance – it just happened that way. Their cultures also probably have stories about dogs as well.
___b) as evolution is based on the premise that every change must be advantageous to the organism for it to be adopted, there is a survival advantage to all cultures that developed the flood story versus those that didn’t.
___c) Noah really did build an ark, the Bible story is true, and these stories/myths are exactly what we would expect.
___d) other:_____________________________________
4) If we were hiking through the Black Hills and came upon Mount Rushmore, we would logically conclude that:
___a) it happened by chance – just a fluke of nature and erosion over time,
___b) it is a sign of design and intelligence; that one or more persons created it,
___c) some creature from outer space created it,
___d) other:_____________________________________
5) The human brain is more complex than the largest supercomputer ever developed. It came from:
___a) A long time ago, there was this thing that exploded, and some of the stuff that exploded joined together (all by itself) into order – tremendous order. Then it came alive (also all by itself), and eventually became a human being with a brain. Of course this took a long time. This is called “science”, and just goes to show what can happen if you wait long enough.
___b) Intelligence; design reflects intelligence, and tremendous design reflects tremendous intelligence. We were created by the sovereign, living God who was there, and tells us about it in the Bible, which He inspired. (Which would explain why an Intelligent Design movement is emerging, led by former evolutionary scientists.)
___c) We came from outer space (which raises another question – when we were in outer space, where did we come from?)
___d) Other:_____________________________________
6) The assumption that the origin of the universe and life as we know it is from material causes:
___a) is scientific – we can prove that natural causes were the forces that led to the universe, and that there was no super-natural cause involved.
___b) is a philosophical presupposition that cannot be proven scientifically because the origins of the universe and life were not observed by human beings and cannot be replicated.
___c) is false. The origin of the universe and life can only be truly known by observation, and only God was there to observe it. He then revealed this in the Bible.
___d) is fundamental to Marx’s theory of scientific materialism (which has led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people)
___e) other:______________________________________
7) Jesus was:
___a) a great teacher, and perhaps even a prophet, but not the Son of God.
___b) either who He said He was – the Son of God and part of the eternal triune God, or a false teacher and imposter, who claimed to be someone who He was not,
___c) who He said He was – the son of the sovereign, living God (which is why Simon Greenleaf, the nation’s greatest legal scholar on rules of evidence, ultimately converted from Judaism to Christianity, compelled by the evidence before him.)
___d) other:_____________________________________
8) Life or existence beyond the grave is:
___a) clearly beyond the reach of science,
___b) not beyond the reach of science if we could just figure out how someone could observe it and come back and tell about it,
___c) beginning to give us clues. Dr. Maurice Rawlings was a non-Christian cardiologist who lost many patients. As his medical skills improved, he was able to bring many of them back from the dead. About half of them did not want to come back, as they were experiencing great bliss. The other half were absolutely terrified that they were die again and once experience what they described as hell.
___c) other:_____________________________________
Best regards,
Life in the Spirit 