The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
Science as a Way of Seeking God
I recorded the lessons below as part of my Doctor of Ministry Project at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. The project's goal was to show young people that, regardless of what many scientists believe, you can have faith in God and be a serious scientist. The lessons cover Creation/Big Bang, Life/Evolution, Centering Prayer/Neuroscience, and the Christian witness of some world-renowned scientists.
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Science is a dynamic process. Scientists develop theories and compare them with recorded data. They then refine their theories to match what they see in the recorded data. I completed this project in 2022, and already, many scientists believe some of the theories I wrote about in these lessons need to be revised to coincide with new data. What doesn’t change is that no matter how much new information scientists gather, they are great at explaining “how” the universe got started but not “why” the universe would be here at all.
Why
I have been teaching ethics and World Religions in the Virginia Community College System for many years. During our icebreaker exercise at the beginning of each semester, I ask my students if they have any religious affiliations. Many students tell me that they grew up attending church but no longer attend it. Every year, more of my students say they are atheists. One of the reasons they give for their newfound nonreligious perspective is the perceived conflict between what they learn in church and what they learn in their science classes. As a pastor, I am concerned about the growing number of young people who claim to be atheists.
Defending one’s faith in Christ to skeptical people is nothing new. In the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostle Paul is in Athens waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him. While he was waiting, Paul passed the time by evangelizing the people of Athens. He debated the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who were in the public square. The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers were the ancient equivalent of our modern-day scientists. Like modern-day scientists, they were very skeptical of Paul’s Christian testimony.
In my opinion, one of the biggest challenges for contemporary Christians is how to explain the relevance of their faith as it applies to modern science. Some leading scientists are very vocal in their convictions that modern science can explain everything people need to know about the world. Their naturalist worldview is skeptical of mysticism and the supernatural. However, it can be argued that it is their materialist worldview, and not the scientific data, that denies the existence of God. In fact, it can be argued that much of the scientific data suggests that the universe is the work of a very creative mind.