Science is a wonderful discipline in its ambition and rationality to explain the unexplained. However, there is a profound saying that JP Moreland writes in Scaling the Secular City:
“It has been said that one who marries current science is destined to be a widower soon.”
It is dangerous to pin any belief too closely to current scientific understanding. New discoveries and new theories constantly challenge what is currently “known.” A note from NASA's website helps us to understand this:
In science, no theory is ever absolutely proved true. Some theories, however, are stronger and better supported than others. This depends on many factors, including how well the theory explains observed facts, whether the theory has made successful predictions later borne out by observation, how long the theory has been around, and whether there are alternate theories that do almost as well... New observations could always cause the Big Bang theory to be abandoned, but that is not likely. Scientists have a theory of why the sky is blue. One day you could wake up to find the sky is green and the "blue-sky theory" was wrong, but that's not likely to happen either.
Evolutionists (a hot topic given responses to my first post) tend to claim that Evolution falls into the same category as described by NASA regarding the Big Bang - highly unlikely to be debunked.
The reality is, science is not an absolute truth in itself and we need to be careful of treating it as such. Science aims to point at or explain truth that exists outside of its theories. Absolute truth exists, but science, like any individual, is tainted by perspective and current knowledge which change over time. Our understanding becomes clearer as we learn more things and this leads to changed views.
That said, it is important to respect science as a source of knowledge. To ignore what is known about the universe because it does not line up with what we believe is simply pompous ignorance. Just because views change (as they do in Christianity - see tomorrow's post) it does not mean that all the information is invalid. Evidence must be considered and accounted for in any worldview - either as rationally inconclusive or as explained by that worldview.
Finally, someone asked in a previous post if evolution is still occuring in humans...I found my official stance if it is:
“It has been said that one who marries current science is destined to be a widower soon.”
It is dangerous to pin any belief too closely to current scientific understanding. New discoveries and new theories constantly challenge what is currently “known.” A note from NASA's website helps us to understand this:
In science, no theory is ever absolutely proved true. Some theories, however, are stronger and better supported than others. This depends on many factors, including how well the theory explains observed facts, whether the theory has made successful predictions later borne out by observation, how long the theory has been around, and whether there are alternate theories that do almost as well... New observations could always cause the Big Bang theory to be abandoned, but that is not likely. Scientists have a theory of why the sky is blue. One day you could wake up to find the sky is green and the "blue-sky theory" was wrong, but that's not likely to happen either.
Evolutionists (a hot topic given responses to my first post) tend to claim that Evolution falls into the same category as described by NASA regarding the Big Bang - highly unlikely to be debunked.The reality is, science is not an absolute truth in itself and we need to be careful of treating it as such. Science aims to point at or explain truth that exists outside of its theories. Absolute truth exists, but science, like any individual, is tainted by perspective and current knowledge which change over time. Our understanding becomes clearer as we learn more things and this leads to changed views.
That said, it is important to respect science as a source of knowledge. To ignore what is known about the universe because it does not line up with what we believe is simply pompous ignorance. Just because views change (as they do in Christianity - see tomorrow's post) it does not mean that all the information is invalid. Evidence must be considered and accounted for in any worldview - either as rationally inconclusive or as explained by that worldview.
Finally, someone asked in a previous post if evolution is still occuring in humans...I found my official stance if it is:
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