I recently heard that an admissions committee at a medical school in the United States conducted a sort of inquisition (a hostile questioning) of a graduate from a Christian college. This young Christian was a topflight student and was reportedly grilled by a member of the selection committee about his views of the theory of Darwinian evolution. The student had been prepared for this potential line of inquiry by his undergraduate professors, and he reportedly handled the question nimbly and faithfully. I don’t know what exactly the student said, but he did get into medical school.
I’m sure that this student learned in college about different scientific theories. He also learned methods of testing scientific hypotheses through observation of the physical world. I gather that he was warned that scientific theories are often treated by some scientific authorities as unquestionable facts and that, if he didn’t also treat them as facts, he might be prejudged as narrow-minded or fanatical. His inquisition by the selection committee suggested that his Christian college background might make him not ready to train as a medical doctor. Similarly, I have colleagues at other universities who have professed to me that one cannot really be a historian and emphasize the evidence for the reality of miracles. I have other past colleagues who still say one cannot really be a scientist and teach college students the evidence for divine design of the universe. And so, in this way, a secular scientism (a worldview that only accepts empirical explanations and denies supernatural arguments) becomes viewed and imposed as a reality for everyone. It has become a lie some professors and universities live by.
But there is a different way. A way faithfully to study and practice science as both an honest broker of the facts of our world and a sincere follower of Jesus as revealed in Scripture. Where we can find this approach taught in a college, I think we should seek to retain it, and to restore it where it is not.
It is the way of Jesus, especially in his parables.
1. Jesus’ Vision to See our World
There is a way to teach and learn science like Jesus taught in his parables, with 1) true observations of the physical world that are, 2) comprehensive and forthright in their evaluation of the evidence, and 3) wise in application of these insights. Of course, the Bible is not a science book in the modern sense of the phrase, and the Gospels do not contain academic scientific treatises. But the master teacher pointed the way to study the world honestly, judging its nature insightfully and making use of these understandings to live a godly life.
For example, in two connected parables in Luke 12, Jesus observes literal, biological, sensible realities that are facts.
“Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn . . .”. (Luke 12:24)
“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin . . .”. (Luke 12:27)
At this empirical level of observation, it should be no surprise that a believer in God can and should make honest and helpful observations about the data of our world and universe. For millennia, some of the most groundbreaking scientific observations about the visible world have been made by men and women who believed in an unseen God or at least the possibility of a God: e.g., Issac Newton observed the effects of gravity, Albert Einstein observed the relationship between space and time, and Werner Heisenberg observed the relationship between a subatomic particle’s position and momentum.
Each of these scientists had different understandings of God, but they evidenced the truth that belief in God and insightful scientific discovery often do go together. As the physicist Max Planck once observed about the history of science, “it was not by any accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were also deeply religious.”
2. Jesus’ Moral Understanding of our World
There is another level of meaning in Jesus’ parables, which is more abstract than perceived facts of nature, but no less real. This level of meaning teaches what the world represents. It conveys the ideas that make sense of our perceptions.
In the parables, Jesus describes what the world points to beyond its material existence. This especially describes the world’s causes: the world’s origin, operation, and outcome. As we’ve seen, Jesus begins with physical events, places, people, and things that we observe in the world. Then, at another level, Jesus states what is right or wrong about these realities and the moral principles by which we should understand them. The key belief taught at this level is that God created, ordered, and cares for the world. This is the explanation that his listeners must believe to understand the meaning of the world:
“Consider the ravens . . . they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.” (Luke 12:24)
“But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven . . .”. (Luke 12:28)
The Gospels are full of stories that set nature side-by-side with the divine principles that govern them, e.g., God makes seeds grow up like the word of God in the heart (Luke 8:15). God makes weightier things in the world to draw us closer and faster than small things (Matt 7:3-4; 23:23-34). Being closer to God and his signs in the world changes our sense of time (Luke 12:54-56). And God alone knows all the sparrows and the number of our hairs as parts of a created order that we will never fully comprehend (Luke 12:6-7).
Jesus’ parables thus interpret the world within the frame of the kingdom of God. This is like scientific theories explain natural phenomenon and their causation. These rules are not observable in the same way we see or detect seeds, clouds, sparrows, proteins, and electrons. They explain their origin and action according to principles that are presumed and believed based on (more or less) convincing evidence.
Like Jesus explained the moral meaning of creation, scientists infer general laws that provide standards for explaining what we observe of objects in our world, like “physical bodies in motion stay in motion” and “their attraction is a product of their mass and distance” (Newton’s Laws of Inertia and Universal Gravitation). Similarly, scientists conceptualize theories that gravity is a property of space and time (Einstein’s “General Relativity”) and that there is a limit to knowing multiple properties of a subatomic particle (Heisenberg’s “Uncertainty Principle”) and that subatomic particles at a distance can affect each other without direct contact (“Entanglement Theory” in Quantum Mechanics).
These are all admittedly complicated interpretations of our material world, but they highlight two key points that are true of other scientific theories: 1) these are not facts of the universe but correctable understandings and explanations of nature, based on a belief in their rationality and general applicability. Einstein once observed that “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” And 2) these “laws” and “theories” are useful but have and will be modified through further scientific discovery. These “laws of nature” are never definitively conclusive, especially given the vast amounts of matter in the universe that is still relatively unexplored and unexplained, e.g., “dark matter” and “junk DNA.” As Marty Broadwell observed in a 1982 lecture at Florida College, “the believer . . . should remember that modern science will, in time, become what we ‘used to think.’”
There are at least two reasons for a student to see this difference between physical facts (level 1) and principled understanding of these facts (level 2). First, the difference shows the importance of your worldview (your beliefs and assumptions) to how you perceive and interpret the world. You must have “level 2” meanings to understand meaningfully “level 1” perceptions. Everyone brings beliefs and assumptions to their understanding of reality, and this includes both the secular scientist (for whom the natural world is all that exists) and the faithful Christian (for whom the supernatural world is evidenced by both physical evidence and moral revelation).
Second, the student who holds the Biblical worldview of the parables can make the most plausible sense of many scientific discoveries and theories. By adhering to the teachings of Jesus, the student’s worldview is more comprehensive and coherent than the worldview of “secular scientism,” which only allows for natural processes in the universe without divine cause or order. For example, a Biblical worldview (like in the parables) best explains the orderly functioning of the overall functioning of the universe because it is attributed to God’s creative power. The student with a Christian worldview can also best explain observations of the complex nature behind biochemical life systems that cannot be well explained by Darwinian evolution. He can most reasonably attribute to God’s design the complexities of life, for example, the intricate structure of the human eye and the little machines of molecular proteins and the exquisite structure and replication of DNA. Simply stated, the worldview of Jesus’ parable sheds light on every scientific observation and theory (even the misguided ones) by affirming the orderliness of the universe and its origin and purpose in God.
When we see the interpretive power of the parables (and the broader Scriptures) to describe and explain our world, it becomes apparent that the most thoughtful student of science and the best qualified candidate for medical school would be precisely that student who believes in the worldview taught by Jesus and who questions theories and worldviews that might undermine or impinge on the creative power and absolute authority of God in our universe.
3. Jesus’ Spiritual Application of our World
What’s the point of our world? Science that takes its cue from Jesus’ parables is well positioned to answer this vital question, which is admittedly a question that secular scientists often rule out of bounds.
The parables answer this question by providing a third, spiritual level of meaning. Jesus teaches God’s purpose in this world and prescribes both present and future belief and action. His parables consistently express a practical application of the realities being perceived in the world and conceived through God’s Word.
“Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Luke 12:24-26)
“But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.” (Luke 12:28-29)
Notice how Jesus’ observations about nature and God’s care are elevated to a spiritual level of application for the Christian’s life, namely, that we should not be worried because God knows and is in control.
In this way, Jesus’ parables routinely draw from observations about what we would call biology (soil and plants), climatology (sky and clouds), geology (rocks and mountains) and physics (light and gravity), connecting these to God’s universal power, and then add a further level of insight and application for our present and future existence. In the parables these applications range from patiently obeying God’s word in our lives (Luke 8:15); to focusing on the most important things (Matt 7:3-4; 23:23-34); to slowing down and paying attention to be ready for Jesus’ return (Luke 12:54-56); to fearing God and not men (Luke 12:4-7).
For the student of science who believes in Jesus’ parables, this third level of spiritual meaning provides a unique and exciting opportunity for Christian service through his or her scientific expertise. This is the opportunity to connect scientific discoveries and theories to the truths of the Bible. Humbly, carefully, and provisionally, scientists are relating discoveries and theories in the sciences to their Christian faith.
This is done both to confirm and apply gospel truths through comparison to scientific insights. For example, it is important to hold Jesus both large and fast in our life to stay moving towards him (based on a spiritual application of Newton’s Second Law of Motion that force is a product of mass and acceleration). Other scientists observe that, for every action in service toward God, we might expect an equal and opposite reaction by Satan (based on a spiritual application of Newton’s Third Law of Motion). More recently, our need to see the time of our life differently in view of God’s power and judgment has been compared by some scientists to the way time has been shown to slow down near objects of great weight and mass. (This is a proven fact near the core of the earth, as predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity). And more generally, the uncertain and paradoxical behavior of matter at the subatomic level in the field of “Quantum Mechanics” is compared by scientists to the unknowability and inscrutability of God’s whole creation and providence – a spiritual principle affirmed throughout the Scriptures from Job’s wisdom to John’s apocalypse.
To that young Christian in medical school, whom I introduced at the start of this article, I would both commend his faithful conviction and recommend his ongoing pursuit of the principles of Jesus’ parables in his scientific and medical study. The Biblical worldview he learned in the parables has well prepared him to study and practice science and medicine in all its breadth and full depth, because they teach him to be honest in observation and convicted about God in explanation.
My hope is that he will stretch himself to connect his professional insights to teaching spiritual principles in the Scriptures. If he does this like Jesus in the parables, scientific study and theory will undergird both the authority of God’s Word and its abiding relevance to answering questions of where we come from and what kind of people we should seek to be. In the end, the foundation of these efforts is the faith of a scientist who sees the world as properly viewed through the lens of God’s Word because it exists ultimately for the glory of God and the salvation of the human heart
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Well done and clearly expressed! Another insightful treatise by Dr Weaver!