A False Dichotomy

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “dichotomy”, it simply refers to the separation of a group into two separate, non-overlapping categories. For example, on your income tax return, you are asked if you are male or female - you must select one and only one option.

A “false dichotomy” occurs when people are under the mistaken impression that the groups must not overlap when in fact they can, or that there are more than two choices. A simple example of this is a survey that asks if you are a “cat person” or a “dog person”, and the survey requires you to pick one and only one option. This is considered a false dichotomy since not everyone will identify with either group – you might love cats and dogs equally, or you might not like either animal – but you are forced to make a choice.

A far more serious false dichotomy is often presented to us in the “science vs scripture” debate. Many people are under the impression that they must choose a side in this debate, and that choosing one side means we must negate the other. To put it another way, many people assume that if you accept the Bible as truth, then you must reject any and all scientific theories that are not explicitly in line with the Bible – and this often means that a career as a scientist is out of the question. Likewise, many scientists assume that anyone who is active in scientific research has already determined the Bible is just a myth and there is no reason to believe in God. This is a “false dichotomy” since we do not have to make this choice – we can (and should) embrace both science and scripture as they are God’s revelation to us about who He is.

As believers, we accept that the Bible is God’s revelation to us in written form, and is our ultimate authority for how we ought to live our lives. We continuously read it, study it, and seek to understand it better every day. It paints for us a bit of a picture of who God is, what He is like, and how we can model our lives after His Son. But that picture is incomplete. God has also revealed Himself to us in His creation – the universe in all its beauty and wonder. Science is the study of God’s universe, and it is through science that we can learn more about our Creator. The Bible contains many references commanding us to “seek the Lord” and one of my favourite verses is Psalm 19:1-3.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”

God’s creation displays knowledge – we should earnestly seek this knowledge. Science (in its pure form) is simply the seeking of this knowledge. We don’t have to go too far back in history to realize that the first “scientists” were commissioned by the church to study nature – originally referred to as natural philosophy. Most of the older universities trace their roots back to the church, and some of the great scientific pioneers were members of these founding churches – Isaac Newton (physics), Rene Descartes (mathematics), Galileo Galilei (astronomy), and Max Planck (quantum theory) just to name a few.

Today, for most people, science has become completely disassociated with the church. This saddens me greatly since my faith in God has been strengthened and confirmed through my personal study of science. I think the split started over 400 years ago when science started challenging what the church had long held to be true. Galileo (and others) concluded that the sun did not orbit the earth but that the earth was in constant motion, rotating on its axis and moving around the sun. This was in contradiction with what the church understood scripture to be saying about the sun (eg. Ecclesiastes 1:5 “The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.”). Instead of engaging in a meaningful dialogue to determine how to resolve this apparent contradiction, the church expelled Galileo and forced him to recant. Today, we understand that the Biblical references to the sun moving across the sky are simply observations, not scientific explanations about how the universe functions, but this “knee jerk” reaction of the church to scientific theories continues to drive the scientists into the waiting arms of the atheists.

There are a few theories that contradict with some core fundamental truths that we can never concede, but in reality, they are few in number, especially when you peel away all the false conclusions that many people make about some of these theories. For example, the “big bang” theory is one explanation of how the universe began – at one point, all matter and energy was contained in a single dot in space and for some reason (still unexplained) this dot expanded and released everything we have in the universe today. Many people then conclude that this explanation proves the Bible is false and that God did not create the universe. But think about what God did – out of nothing, God created everything. Observing this miracle from a scientific viewpoint, it could easily appear that everything (matter and energy) appeared all at once from a single point in space. While there are some challenges about “when” this took place, we should be able to agree with science regarding the fundamental theory of the origin of our universe – out of nothing, God created everything.

I encourage every believer to engage in science to some degree so that you can learn more about our Creator God. I don’t expect everyone to put on a lab coat and start conducting experiments, but when the opportunity to learn about science presents itself, don’t turn away. This could be a newspaper article, television documentary, book, or DVD. Take in the information with the understanding that God is the Creator, and marvel at what He has made.

To encourage you to pursue science a bit more, I will be preparing a series of 12 posts about science. I will be reviewing what Scientific American magazine recently published regarding the “12 Events That Will Change Everything”. I will briefly present the science, then share my thoughts on what we can learn from the science as a believer. I hope to have these out once a week during the summer and I encourage you to ask questions in the comments section.

Remember, “the heavens declare the glory of God” – we just need to be willing to listen.

Jac