Reason #6: The Church is Anti-Science

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Good morning Chapel family. We are living at a moment in history when more and more Americans are deciding they’re done with church. The trend is very clear. So we’re taking six weeks to look at some of the main reasons this is happening. In my 25 years at The Chapel, I don’t think there’s been a series that has generated as much discussion and interaction and debate and emotion as this one has. And I think that’s a good thing. Because these are some of the real issues that are turning people away from church. And if we care about people—if we love them—we will listen to them and humbly consider their thoughts and concerns. And this series has been an attempt to do that—a very imperfect attempt, but an imperfect attempt is better than no attempt at all.

I know for some of you, this series has raised some questions in your mind. And we want to give you the opportunity to ask those questions and continue grappling with this. So this Thursday, at 7pm, on our Online Campus, we are hosting a “Question & Response” session. You can submit questions in advance by emailing them to questions@thechapel.org. Or you can ask your questions real-time this Thursday night. And I’ve asked a group of Chapel leaders to join me in responding to your questions. So I look forward to a great conversation this Thursday night.

Okay—today we come to the sixth and final reason that some people are done with church, and it’s this: the perception that the church is anti-science.

I have distinct childhood memories of visiting the American Museum of Natural History, and walking through the Hall of Human Origins. Have you been there? And I would look at the different fossils and skulls and diagrams that showed the development of life on earth, and how life evolved over billions of years to where we are today. And every time I was there, it stirred up this strong dissonance in my mind. Because I attended a church that taught that evolution was a myth. And so here I had this renowned museum, not to mention all my science teachers in public school, telling me one story with great confidence. And I had my church leaders telling me a completely different story, also with great confidence. And I’m not saying that it dominated my thoughts, but it bothered me. And it bothered me more as I got older. Can anybody relate to that?

So now, fast forward a few decades. In 2011, a researcher named David Kinnaman conducted a major study of young people who grew up in the church but decided to leave in their later teen years. People who were done with church. And one of the top reasons was that they perceive the church to be out of touch with or antagonistic toward science. A pastor named Dan Kimball recently spoke at a youth event, and he talked about getting a letter from one of his former youth group kids who had become an atheist. And in the letter he said, “When I realized that my youth pastor and my parents really didn’t know what they were talking about, being armchair theologians and scientists, I started to doubt and could no longer trust what religion has taught me.” He speaks for a lot of other young adults, and some older ones too.

So this has become a really important issue, and we need to talk about it. So let’s begin with today’s Scripture reading—Psalm 19, verses 1-8. I invite you to hear the Word of God…

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. This is the Word of the Lord.

Let’s talk about three things today: The Gift of Science, The Rejection of Science, and The Limits of Science. The gift of science, the rejection of science, and the limits of science.

So, first: The Gift of Science. For centuries, Christian theologians have talked about God communicating truth to us through “two books”: the book of Scripture and the book of nature. And probably the biblical passage that brings that out most clearly is the passage we just read from Psalm 19. In the first six verses, it says that when we see a brilliant night sky, or a spectacular sunrise, or—like we saw last week—ice-covered branches against a backdrop of a pink and tangerine sky as the sun sets, it does something in our soul. Without using words, it speaks to us, and tells us there must be a Creator—and the Creator must be awesome. This is what the philosopher Alvin Plantinga calls the sensus divinitatus—the sense of the divine. Just from looking at nature, we learn truth—maybe not specific details about God, but important truth.

And then, starting in verse 7, it talks about the written word of God, right? The statutes and precepts and commands of God. So, by reading Scripture, we understand truth about God and about the world.

So you have God’s world and God’s Word. Nature and Scripture. Those are the “two books” that God has given us to reveal truth about reality. And since they’re both from God, there’s obviously no conflict between nature and Scripture. Right? They’re both truth!

But here’s where it gets tricky: when we start to interpret nature, that’s called science. And when we interpret Scripture, that’s called theology. And as we all know, there can be all kinds of conflict between science and our theology.

There is a classic historical example of this. Do you know what it is? The way the church treated the astronomer Galileo in the early 1600s. Up until that point, the church believed that the earth was the center of the universe. And the reason they believed that is because of their interpretation of certain biblical passages. For example, Psalm 93:1 says The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. Ecclesiastes 1:5 says The sun rises and sets and returns to its place. So the church said,

“Scripture is teaching that the earth is stationary; we’re at the center of the universe, and the sun moves around us.”

And Galileo wasn’t trying to cause trouble. But he had built this telescope, and the more he looked into the sky, the more he agreed with this radical thought that had been proposed by Copernicus a few decades earlier: that we’re not at the center. That we—along with all the other planets—actually revolve around the sun. And the Church didn’t like that. So they basically forced him to recant his view, and they put him under house arrest for the rest of his life. So looking back, everybody knows that the church was wrong and Galileo was right.

So: does that prove that Scripture contradicts science? Not at all! It proves that the church’s interpretation of Scripture was wrong. When Psalm 93:1 says The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved, that was never meant to be a scientific statement; it was a poetic statement about the enduring quality of the world. When Ecclesiastes 1:5 says The sun rises and sets, that was never intended to teach that the sun actually moves. It was describing the way things appear when we look at the world. So because the early church failed to recognize that, they thought they were defending the Bible, but they were actually defending a wrong interpretation of the Bible. Are you following?

So we need to be very honest and say, “Yes—throughout history there have been times when the church has been very anti-science, and we need to learn from those mistakes.”

But here’s the exciting thing: when we’re interpreting the Bible responsibly and accurately, there’s a beautiful harmony between faith and science. So rather than looking at science as a threat, we should look at it as a gift. We should be so grateful for biology and chemistry and physics and all the other wonderful tools we have for understanding our world. Those don’t threaten our belief in Scripture; if anything, they may help us understand Scripture better—and that’s a good thing. All the way back in the 4th Century, St. Augustine said, “All truth is God’s truth.” So if we’re really interested in truth, we should celebrate truth wherever it’s found—in the Bible or in the lab.

Just last week, there was a really good article in Time magazine about Francis Collins. I encourage you to read it—it’s the February 4th issue. Francis Collins is the only presidentially appointed Director of the National Institutes of Health who has served under multiple administrations. He held that position under Barack Obama, under Donald Trump, and now under Joe Biden. No matter who the president is, they all agree, “We want this guy.” He’s that good at what he does. Years ago, Francis Collins led the Human Genome Project, which essentially cracked the code of human DNA. So he is a brilliant scientist, and he’s also a very committed Christian. So in this Time article from last week, he said that for him, as a believer, science is a form of worshiping God. He said, quote, “It’s a glimpse of God’s mind when you do a scientific experiment.” I love that!

In that same article, it says that one of Francis Collins’ life goals is to address the “long-standing tension between evangelicals and rigorous science.” So here’s the question: why is that tension even there? Why do some Christians view science less as a gift, and more as a threat? Let’s go to point number two: Rejecting Science.

Now: to be fair, some of the tension is created by aggressively atheistic scientists. For example, the famous British scientist Richard Dawkins wrote this: "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.” Peter Atkins, who was a professor at Oxford University, said this: “It is not possible to be intellectually honest and believe in gods. And it is not possible to believe in gods and be a true scientist.” (By the way, I find it a little funny that you could say that Francis Collins, who does believe in God, is not a true scientist). But when you make

insulting and dismissive statements like that, it’s not surprising that some Christians would feel threatened, and a little suspicious of mainstream science. Right?

But very often, the tension is not really the fault of anti-religious scientists. It’s caused by something on the part of religious people. And let me mention two ways I see this—two reasons that Christians sometimes reject science.

First, Closed-Minded Theology. When the church in the 1600s punished Galileo for saying the earth revolved around the sun, that was closed-minded theology. They were so certain they were interpreting the Bible correctly, but it turns out they weren’t. And one of the places we need to remember that lesson is when we discuss evolution and creation. Let’s talk about that for a minute.

When geologists, biologists, paleontologists, astrophysicists, etc. study the fossil record, and the layers of sedimentary rock in the earth; when they see what Edward Hubble discovered in the 1920s—that the universe is expanding; when they see DNA research that shows the genetic similarities and differences between humans and other living things, the overwhelming majority of those scientists have concluded that the earth is billions of years old, and that life on earth developed gradually over billions of years. That’s the clear, scientific consensus. Are there exceptions? Sure. But let’s be honest and say that’s the consensus. A 2009 survey by the Pew Research center found that 97% of American scientists believe life evolved gradually over time. There is no significant debate on this in the scientific community.

Then we open the book of Genesis, and we see the creation account. And some people say, “Look—this is clearly straightforward history. And it says God created everything in six literal days, and when you add up the dates, the earth is less than 10,000 years old.” So for people who take that view, they look at the scientific consensus—that the earth is billions of years old and life developed gradually—and they say, “That’s just wrong. It contradicts the Bible, so I’m going with the Bible.” Other Christians look at Genesis, and they say, “I’m not convinced Genesis 1 was ever meant to be straight-up history. Because we measure time by the earth’s rotation in relation to the sun, but it says the sun wasn’t even created until the fourth day.” And they point to some other things in the context that suggest it may be more poetic—still teaching truth, but in a poetic way. And many times those people embrace the scientific consensus. They say, “There’s absolutely no conflict between the Bible and science—just like there was no real conflict in the time of Galileo—as long you interpret the Bible correctly.”

Look: there are certain theological views we should hold to really tightly: the death and resurrection of Jesus; the miracles of Jesus; salvation by grace through faith; to name a few. But there are other things that are a little less clear. And we should be willing to hold them a little more loosely, and allow the discoveries of science to help us understand God’s truth even better.

I find this fascinating—about 15 years ago, Billy Graham said this:

I don’t think that there’s any conflict at all between science today and the Scriptures. I think that we have misinterpreted the Scriptures many times and we’ve tried to make the Scriptures say things they weren’t meant to say. I think that we have made a mistake by thinking the Bible is a scientific book. The Bible is not a book of science. The Bible is a book of Redemption, and of course I accept the Creation story. I believe that God did create the universe. I believe that God created man, and whether it came by an evolutionary process and at a certain point He took this person or being and made him a living soul or not, does not change the fact that God did create man. …whichever way God did it makes no difference as to what man is and man’s relationship to God.

Billy Graham was a pretty wise man.

There’s another kind of thinking that leads to a rejection of science. I’ll call it an “Us versus The World” Mentality. Now this is tricky. Because there is a sense in which following Jesus puts us at odds with the world. Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble. If the world hated me, don’t be surprised if they hate you too.” So when it comes to our allegiance to Christ, there are times when the secular forces of culture really will be against us. And those are the times when we need to stay faithful to God rather than give in to the pressure of the world.

But here’s where we go wrong: when we take that “us versus the world” mentality and apply it everywhere. When we start to see persecution around every corner. Some of you are thinking, “What does this have to do with science?” Ah. We are in the midst of a global pandemic—hopefully toward the end of a global pandemic. When the pandemic started, state and local governments took various steps to protect people and try to stop the spread of the virus. So there were shelter-in-place orders; there were mask requirements; there were certain businesses and establishments that were closed, including churches for the first few months of the pandemic, in many states.

I think we can all agree that that process was sloppy; it was sometimes inconsistent; sometimes the leaders who made the rules didn’t even follow the rules themselves. So that was frustrating for everyone. But some Christians took it further. They said, “See—they’re out to get us. They’re using this as an excuse to shut down churches.” Some took it further. They said, “This whole thing is a hoax—don’t believe it.” Some made it political. They said, “This is all a ploy to drag down President Trump—just watch—as soon as the election is over, the virus will go away.” (By the way, the election’s been over for three months; the virus is still here). Some took it even further. They said Dr. Fauci is collaborating with Bill Gates to get rich off of this, and control the world. Those were the kinds of conspiracy theories that were out there, and still are. Despite the clear consensus of the scientific community around the world that this is a very real pandemic that’s taking hundreds of thousands of lives.

And here’s the part that grieves me the most: Christians seem especially susceptible to those conspiracy theories. Because they take that “us versus the world” mentality, and they read it into places where it’s not really happening. They seem really quick to believe something a friend sent them on the Internet, and really quick to forward it to all their friends without verifying it, rather than listen to established scientists and scientific institutions, and rather than give the benefit of the doubt to their government leaders who are usually just doing their best to keep us from dying.

In the article I mentioned earlier, Francis Collins said that he’s very concerned about some of his fellow Christians, who have insisted the virus is a hoax designed to take away their religious liberty. And let me quote him here—he said:

It’s a source of great heartache for me as a person of faith to see in a circumstance where I would have hoped that people of faith would be rushing to try to help, that some of them seem to have adopted views that are actually accomplishing the opposite. People are dying because of our failure in this country to effectively utilize proven methods of stopping the spread of the disease, particularly mask wearing and not gathering in large crowds indoors.

So guys, let’s be careful about the “us versus the world” mentality. Persecution is a real thing, but if we play that card when it’s not really happening, and when we use that thinking to reject science, we lose a lot of credibility, and rightfully so.

I think we have to be really honest and say, “You know what? This critique has some validity. There

are times where the church, and Christians, really have been anti-science.” And that’s not good! It’s not good for kids growing up in the church who have a passion for science, and their church leads them to believe that science is threatening and hostile, so they have to make a choice between faith and science. What a disservice to intelligent kids! It’s not good for the church’s reputation. And it’s not good for the world. So if we are people who are truly interested in truth, we should fearlessly pursue truth through science. Because if it’s really true, it’s not going to threaten our faith; it’ll just make our faith wiser.

So I hope it’s clear that I have a really high view of science. But, at the same time, we also need to be aware of The Limits of Science. True story: just before Christmas, I looked on my front porch, and someone had left something for me. A present. I opened the wrapping, and I was very happy to see that it was a cake. This is a picture of the cake. It was from my friend Lars, who’s from Norway, and he’s a really good baker of Norwegian pastries. It was an amazing cake—a filling of finely ground almonds and other delicious things; the top crust was this delicately woven lattice of pastry. The perfect companion for a cup of strong coffee on a winter morning. I’ll stop now.

So imagine if I opened that cake, and I had this question: why did Lars make this cake? What’s the purpose for it? And to answer that question, imagine if I decided to scientifically probe the cake—take it to the lab and run some tests on it. I could find out a lot about the cake that way, right? I could list out the component ingredients. I could give a nutritional breakdown of calories, carbs, protein and fat. I could determine that it was suitable for human consumption. All true information!

But you know what I could never do in the lab? No matter how much scientific analysis I did, I could never find out why Lars made the cake. The only way I could find that out is…what? Ask Lars! Lars would have to reveal it to me.

Do you see the point? Science is an incredibly useful tool to analyze our world, and learn the mechanics of our world, and we can use that knowledge to make the world a better place. We should never be afraid of it or suspicious of it, because it’s the pursuit of truth. But there are some things that are simply beyond the realm of science. If we want to know about the purpose of our world and of our lives, we’re not going to find it in the ingredients of the world. Right? Only the Designer can reveal that to us.

And here is the unique thing about the Christian faith: it teaches that the Creator wanted so much to communicate with his creation, that he entered into it personally. Listen to the very beginning of John’s Gospel: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. So Jesus is referred to as “the Word.” And it says everything was created through him. And then look at verse 14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Think about that: the one who created us came to be with us!

And through his life, and through his teaching, and mostly through his sacrificial death, I believe Jesus has shown us the meaning and the purpose of life. And the more I learn about science, it doesn’t threaten my faith at all! It just makes me more amazed with the God who created everything, and more thankful that he came for us.