Why science is irrelevant to my belief in God

A response to Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham

I remember watching, and loving every minute, of Bill Nye The Science Guy (“Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill” as the song goes — it’s in your head now, isn’t it?). How hard it is to watch one of my education heroes battle against some Australian Christian who lacked the luster and television-worthy delivery Bill Nye demonstrated in tonight’s debate (you should be able to view for a few more days). His charming bow-tie, his dedication to science education, his ability to explain complicated processes with ease…I have to admit I’m slightly disappointed that I can’t agree with him. I can’t agree with Bill Nye on the subject of creation because I am a Christian.

It won’t make sense to many people, how we base our faith around a story — a story that’s been translated numerous times over the past couple thousand years, and written by men, for goodness’ sake. It won’t hold up to modern science. Much of it cannot be proven and won’t be proven, at least not in the sense that science can prove anything. But that’s just it.

I don’t care if science proves or disproves the Bible. I still believe every bit of it anyway.

Faith is my evidence

That isn’t logical to many. But to Christians, the truth of the Bible is obvious. I believe the Bible to be true because I have faith that it is true. That is my evidence.

“1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” — Heb. 11:1

That’s faith. However, faith is not limited to Christians. Even Bill Nye has incredible faith. He has faith in the laws of science. He has no proof and he has not seen that those will stand true tomorrow, but he is convicted that they will.

So we both have faith in different beliefs.

Science versus Christianity?

Now does that set up Christianity and science to be two separate faiths which cannot be true simultaneously? I don’t think so. Nye explained science as both a body of knowledge accumulated over thousands of years as well as a method of reasoning. So simply put, science is a collection of human thoughts coupled with a method of human logic. In my short time on this earth, I’ve seen humans be right as well as wrong. So it makes sense to me that there are scientific truths that are in harmony with the Bible and other “truths” which are not.

Limitations of Science

Here’s where I differ with Nye and many others like him — I believe the Bible to be true, without question. I believe it was written supernaturally by God through men. Does that make logical sense to a human? No. Why believe it?

There is a higher power whose logic and reasoning is beyond our comprehension, rendering all methods by which we reason insufficient to explain His works.

That is why it doesn’t bother me that science will sometimes prove, though more often disprove, the miraculous accounts recorded in the Bible. Science is a tool made by man. It’s a lens by which we try to understand our universe. Interestingly, to me, God made us naturally curious about the world around us. God gave Bill Nye his incredible desire to search for answers. Unfortunately, Nye is testing the world with a man-made method called science.

If there’s anything that’s been proven throughout history time and again it’s that people are imperfect. We mess up, we misunderstand, we skew, we distort. If the thing by which we test our world is imperfect, then how can we expect the results to consistently be true?

It makes more logical sense to me that a perfect, supernatural God willed the universe into existence than does the idea that academia can explain the intricacies of life which supposedly burst into existence for no clear purpose.

Some final questions

Science may pose many questions which the Bible will not answer, at least not on man’s terms. How could all the animals, male and female, fit in one boat? How could the Red Sea literally part so that the Israelites could be delivered from Egyptian bondage? How could a man truly die and then live again?

The Christian’s answer is God is magnificent, gracious, and all-powerful. God is not limited by our scientific laws because He is above them.

The questions a Christian poses to science which science cannot answer are much more profound. Why is there life? What is our purpose? Where did this all come from to begin with? Where are we going?

The Bible holds the answers to the latter set of questions. I’d much rather lay on my death bed one day with the peace of knowing the answers to those questions rather than how old the earth is.