Have you ever heard the origins debate framed as “science vs. faith?” Or perhaps you’ve heard someone say that they prefer the scientific view of origins to the creation view. Those who hold to a secular view of origins often like to present their belief as the “scientific” view in contrast to the faith or “religious” position of biblical creation. But in reality, it is biblical creation that is the scientific view. It must be somewhat embarrassing for an evolutionist to learn that biblical creation is actually what makes science possible. Indeed, if evolution were really true, there would be no reason to trust in the methods of science. Let’s explore why this is so.
The methods of science presuppose that the universe works in a consistent and predictable way. We are often able to write down equations that describe how the universe functions under certain conditions. Newton’s law of gravity or Einstein’s famous equation (E=mc^2) are examples. Scientists presume that such laws of nature operated in the past, and will continue to operate in the future. Scientists further suppose that these laws are the same in deep space as they are on Earth – that’s what makes the field of astronomy possible. Science would be utterly impossible if we could not rely upon the universe to behave in such a consistent fashion over time and over space.
But why does the universe have such properties? Biblical creation can make sense of this. According to the Bible, God upholds the entire universe by His power (Hebrews 1:3). It is ultimately God that causes the universe to behave in a consistent manner. There are laws of nature because there is a Law-Giver: God, who is logical and consistent. The laws can be understood by the human mind because God made our minds and made them to (at least partially) understand the way He upholds the universe.
Biblical creation also explains why the laws of nature are the same over the entire universe: the same God that controls the Earth also controls the Andromeda galaxy. It also explains why laws of nature do not arbitrarily change with time. The Bible teaches that God is beyond time (2 Peter 3:8), and God has promised to uphold the future just as He upheld the past (e.g. Genesis 8:22). But none of these things would make sense if Genesis were not literally true. In a chance, evolutionary universe, why would we expect there to be laws at all? And why would they be the same everywhere? Why would the mind be able to understand laws if the brain is just the result of mutations and natural selection. And how could we know that the laws of nature do not change with time?
Think about it: if there were no laws of nature, or if they were constantly changing, or were different from place to place, science would be utterly impossible. You would get a totally different result every time you did any experiment, and would not be able to learn anything about the universe. It’s hard to even imagine such a universe. But if the universe were not upheld by the mind of God, what would be the reason for its orderly and logical behavior? We all expect that gravity will work the same tomorrow as it has today. But in a chance universe, why would that be? The evolutionists really cannot give a cogent answer to that question.
Those who deny creation cannot give a logical reason for why they expect the laws of nature to be in the future as they have been in the past. Yet all science depends on that crucial fact. An evolutionist might argue “well, it’s always been that way in the past.” But this doesn’t prove anything about the future unless you already knew some other way that the future will be like the past in terms of how the laws of nature work. Past experience would be irrelevant to future success unless God upholds the future like the past. But how can a human being know anything about a future that none have experienced?
But the creationist has some “inside information.” The creationist has a good reason to believe that the future will be like the past in terms of the laws of nature because the creationist has the promise of God (who is beyond time and thus knows the future). God upholds things in a consistent way. This doesn’t mean that God cannot do a miracle; but these are by definition rare and temporary. The normal way God accomplishes His will is the very essence of natural laws. God has promised that the basic cycles of nature will be in operation as long as the Earth remains (Genesis 8:22). The evolutionist denies the history of Genesis, and therefore has no reason to expect laws of nature to be in the future as they have been in the past. If his belief in evolution were really factual, science would be without any foundation. Evolution truly is the enemy of science. But biblical creation is what makes science possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment