When I was an atheist I thought that, when scientists had finally discovered all the laws of nature, including all laws of human behavior, mankind would usher in “heaven on earth.” Man would finally have achieved absolute truth. I, like all atheists, had faith but it was not a reasonable faith. It was a faith without God, the Creator of nature. It was a faith that relegated “supernaturalism” to the category of myth and fairy tale. It was the faith of secular humanism, which says that all belief in the supernatural is nothing but the product of primitive man’s fearful and irrational imaginings. Such belief, according to the humanist, can now be discarded because science has now given man control over nature. “Fear not,” says the secular humanist. “Big Brother government, with the help of science giving us absolute truth, will solve all your problems.” Secular humanism discards belief in God and the Bible “like a worn out garment,” to use Alex deSherbinin’s very descriptive phrase (see my Dec.17, 2008 post).
Thank God, He miraculously entered my life and gave me reasonable faith. I no longer believe that science is the only method for seeking truth. Science – observation and experiment – is the best, most reasonable method for discovering the laws of nature that God himself laid down in the beginning. Science does discover some truths. A part of what it means for man to be created in God’s image is that we are able to gain some understanding of God’s Creation. The most spectacular scientific discoveries of the 20th century, such as the discovery of DNA the code of life, show there is design in nature. But science alone is limited to saying, “Yes, there is design.” It cannot go beyond that to tell us anything about who or what did the designing. Scientific truth has its limitations. When scientists try to go beyond the limits of science, while still clinging to naturalist philosophy, they begin to look like “fools.” As Francis Crick, discoverer of DNA, desperately looked around to find some way of avoiding the reasonable conclusion that a supernatural mind might be the designer, he concluded instead that life must have arisen on another planet and was brought here by aliens from outer space. Such irrational leaps of faith are not necessary for the thinking Christian because God gave us another source of truth – the Bible. Christians, through God’s revelation, have received absolute truth. The Bible says God is the Designer. Just as science has discovered many truths about nature, the Bible tells us many truths about God. Yet can we claim that we fully understand the Bible? God has said that if you “seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut. 4:29). Christians want to know God fully, but we also know that getting to know him better is a life-long process. Do we dare to claim we have arrived? I’m grateful for Pastor Tom’s reminder from God’s Word, "The man who thinks that he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know." (1 Corinthians 8:2)
