On Faith and Science by Edward J. Larson & Michael Ruse

Author:Edward J. Larson & Michael Ruse [Larson, Edward J.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2017-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

FEAR AND TREMBLING— MUSTN’T THEY SIMPLY TRUST?

This suggests why science and religion can get entangled. An awful lot depends on what happened in the past, which evolutionists knew all along. If science and religion come from different stables, like Darwinism and Buddhism, then why would anyone expect them to interact, positively or negatively? But if they come from the same stable, like Darwinism and Christianity, then expect interaction.

So accept that science and religion can interact. Does this mean that they are always going to interact negatively? The example of the problem of evil suggests that this will be so. Indeed, much in this chapter points that way. It has not made too much of things like the six days of creation or the flood of Noah’s time, but with the coming of Darwinism as well as modern astronomy, anthropology, geology, and so forth, these biblical accounts don’t stand up too well as literal events. Then there is the clash between Providence and progress—about as big a difference as can be imagined—and so the story goes.

Actually the story is a little more complex and interesting than this. Obviously the development of science, not just evolutionary biology, may well challenge long-held (Christian) religious accounts. Six days of creation and the great flood among them. But this is nothing new. Augustine, back around 400 CE, faced up to them. He argued that the ancient Jews did not know science, so why should God speak to them in that language rather than in typologies, metaphors, and the like? It doesn’t mean that he threw everything out—indeed, he kept everything that most Catholics and Protestants hold essential: God is still the Creator, humans are still made in God’s image, and faith in Christ is still the means to salvation—but the quasi-scientific gloss must go.

As far as issues like progress and Providence are concerned, this is complex, admittedly, but start with the fact that a lot of people—a lot of non-Christian people—are today a lot less enthused about prospects for progress than they were back in the nineteenth century. After a century that saw the slaughter during the two world wars, not to mention the Holocaust and other genocides, plus mass slaughter in Russia, China, Cambodia, Uganda, and elsewhere, it is not easy to speak confidently of inevitable progress. But even if there is progress, for the Christian this does not mean that God’s aid is necessarily unneeded. And after all, for the Christian, if humans are improving things, they are using the talents given to them by God, which is hardly something that goes against the messages of the Gospels. Christians can pray for healing even as they pray for God to guide their surgeon’s hand and thank modern medicine for seemingly miraculous new drugs and medical procedures. Both can be seen as gifts from God—either as special or common grace.

What about evil? Even if Darwinism is relevant to the discussion, it is not introducing a new factor. People knew about pain and suffering long

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