A while back I was reading an article in Philosophy Now by Russell Berg in which he presented 15 criteria for distinguishing between a scientific theory and a non-scientific one. Perhaps predictably enough, his first criterion, that a scientific theory uses natural explanations, takes us to the heart of major issues, which, however, were not considered in the article:
- The Establishment Issue: Where did this concept of scientific theory originate and how did it develop?
- The Epistemological Issue: How do we know things? How do we come to know that which is real?
- The Explanatory Issue: What am I actually explaining when I give a “natural” explanation?
Berg appeals to Thales as “the first recorded natural philosopher”, who “believed that natural events have natural explanations, not divine.” Citing Thales is interesting, but this is not the base from which modern scientific theory has developed. Berg contends that it was the “rejection of explanations invoking gods or spirits” that “led to the need for natural explanations and the development of the scientific method.” Again, as we will see, this simply is not true. Berg pontificates: “Untestable supernatural explanations act as stoppers which prevent or retard further enquiry or research.” Ah, but what does he mean by “supernatural” and how does it differ from “natural”?
It is ironical, as I understand it, that this secularized approach to science is actually grounded in Christian thought and certainly not Thales. Here I find helpful some comments made by the German physicist, C.F. von Weizsäcker, as cited by Lesslie Newbigin in his book Honest Religion for Secular Man:
The realism of modern science is neither a naïve belief in the senses nor is it an aloof spiritual disdain of them.
There is a theological background to this attitude. The world of the senses is the world of nature in the Christian sense of the word… To Christians God has made everything. Hence man, made in his image, can understand all created things, that is, certainly the whole material world. The very idea that the Word has been made flesh, the dogma of Incarnation, shows that the material world is not too low to be accepted by God and hence to be understood by the light of reason given us by God…
Von Weizsäcker goes on to describe how the concept of the laws of nature, that is, mathematical laws, “is a gift of Christianity to the modern mind.” Yet, now “this inherited gift is used against the religion whence it came.” Von Weizsäcker sees “this killing of one’s own parent by the weapon inherited from him” as becoming more and more naïve. He observes:
Kepler was a sincere Christian who adored God in the mathematical order of the world. Galileo, and even more Newton, being a more religious man, were sincere Christians who were interested in God’s work.
Isn’t it ironic to see the twisted and distorted way Galileo is depicted by modern propagandists as though he was victimized because he was a scientific materialist like themselves; as though he too believed that Nature is the only reality? Nothing could be further from the truth! Von Weizsäcker continues:
Galileo had still to defend his right to read God’s greatness in the book of nature, Newton had to defend his idea of nature as a book written by God.
There is immense irony in the way modern scientific theory is grounded in natural explanations that implicitly exclude religious interpretations. Isn’t science itself rooted in the mystical assumption that there is such a thing as “laws of nature”? Yet, according to my understanding, there is no way that it is remotely possible for scientists, using scientific method, to demonstrate the existence of such laws or even to validate them using Karl Popper’s famous method of falsification. What I ask, at the end of the day, is the difference between invoking the laws of nature instead of the hidden workings of a sovereign God? In effect, is this not just the replacement of one “religion” with another?
Isn’t it also fascinating to see how scientific materialists rewrite history or rather create a mythology to support their God-denying approach to science, namely claiming, as Berg does, that natural explanations presuppose the rejection of religious interpretations. The historical reality is very different. Natural explanations presuppose the acceptance of a world in which what is seen and experienced in Nature is the working of God.
Further, many scientists do not seem to understand that in a Christian worldview the whole notion of pitching the natural against the supernatural is absurd. Of course, God, as Creator, precedes nature and is distinct from it. Yet, apart from this foundational consideration, EVERYTHING that happens in the universe is natural. NOTHING is supernatural. This includes miracles, which are but sovereignly determined deviations from God’s regular workings.
What scientists call the laws of nature, a mystical abstraction, is really the regularity of God’s workings as the one who sustains everything that happens in the universe. For example, the “law” of gravity is and has been the almost invariable pattern of God’s workings in one dimension of experienced reality. However, God worked differently when Jesus walked on water and even, for a brief time, God enabled Peter to do so as well.
Biblical language eloquently expresses one aspect of creation’s total dependence on God:
“In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10).
“If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust” (Job 34:14-15).
That’s why Christians welcome the “natural” explanations that scientific theory involves, yet are able, simultaneously, to see such natural explanations as giving us profound insight into how God works in this awesome universe he created and sustains, with all its beautiful and, yes, terrifying aspects. God is indeed a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19)!
www.facetofaceintercultural.com.au
Posted November 1, 2009
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