Summary
Let us again sum up the story so far.
A popular philosophy today insists that the natural world is all there is. There is no God or supernatural forces at work. One of the strongest supports for this philosophy, it is claimed, is science. Science gives us full explanations for the workings of the universe, and we have no need for any further explanation.
We have seen, however, that this very argument is flawed. Science does not and cannot explain the whole universe. It is a valuable and largely reliable method for uncovering the mechanisms of the physical world. Within certain limits, it is very powerful. It is not, however, infallible and certainly not the basis for all knowledge.
Moreover, God is not simply an alternative explanation for the same things that science explains. He is the one who created the universe that science explains. Science is the practice of studying the secondary causes of things, the mechanism by which God makes them happen. Science is no magic wand. It is an enterprise that has been very successful, for all its flaws, at understanding the way in which the universe works. It does not, however, and cannot give ultimate explanations for why things are the way they are.
We can go further than that. It is only because the universe was created by God that science is possible at all. We are able to study and understand the universe because God created it. Science does not dismiss the need for God. On the contrary science is possible only because of God.
That is a bold statement that does not sit well with certain modern sensibilities. There are certain prerequisites, however, before science is possible at all. There needs to be some grounds, for instance, for assuming that there is an objective reality for science to study and that it is not simply a matter of political construction. We also need some grounds for establishing that real knowledge of this universe is possible. This is necessary to overcome Hume’s objections about observations and to have confidence that what we have consistently observed to be true in the past will remain true.
In other words, science needs a firm foundation in order to have reason to overcome these real philosophical problems. That science, on the whole, “works,” is something, but not enough. Why does it work? Why is it that humans, insignificant, prone to mistakes, and difficult to get along with as we are, can be successful in science at all? There are answers to these questions, but they are not found in naturalism. Contrary to the dearly held beliefs of some, the best basis for believing in science is found in the Bible.
To understand that, we need to know a little more about what the Bible says about God and this universe he has created.
Part 3: The Bible and the Natural World
It Is God’s World
The first verse of the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth” (Genesis 1:1). It is the first and most basic truth of the Bible.
Plato would have it that the original maker molded the universe from pre-existing matter. Aristotle saw God as the first cause of an eternal universe. Ancient Near-Eastern mythologies saw creation as generated by gods through conflict or union. But the Bible stands in stark contrast to all of these. There was nothing, and then God created everything. He brought everything into being. He created the universe; he did not just craft it. This is the basis of God’s power and authority over nature. He made it, he runs it, he owns it.
Not many people would dispute that this is what the Bible says. It is less well understood that God runs nature, that he keeps it going, moment by moment under his deliberate attention. Although this is one of the most basic ideas of the Bible, this truth is usually left out of a great deal of discussion about God and nature. It is a pity, for understanding God’s continual supervision and upholding of creation is crucial to understanding what the Bible says about nature.
Why is this so poorly understood? Again, we might remember our Puritan William Perkins and his prophecy about the way humans are likely to understand the universe. We are all too ready to forget that the mechanism does not just run on its own. We get to be so entranced by the clock that we forget the clock-maker.
Of course, clockwork itself can be a rather misleading analogy. If we think of intricacies of the universe as being like a superbly crafted clock, then we can easily think of it as something that does run on its own. Such an understanding leads us to what is generally known as deism, the view that God is a distant creator who set the clock ticking and thereafter left it alone to run or break down as it will. It is not a biblical view, but it is easy enough for even Bible-believers to slip into. We see physical causes for events and think that is enough. We forget that God’s continual power is behind every physical cause.
God as he is described in the Bible, however, never goes away to leave the world on its own. If he did, the world would simply cease to exist. There is no power in matter that is inherent within it. What makes the universe work is God’s continued decision to keep it working. Every event happens because God makes it happen. He makes the grass grow. He provides food, water, and light. He determines the number of the stars. He controls weather systems and ecologies and populations. Creation is not something he merely made; it is something he makes happen.
If that is the case, then how is the Bible at all compatible with science? Surely science works on the premise that the universe is causal and regular? How can this fit with the idea that a god controls nature by fiat?
If we were talking about a fickle god, then that objection would be valid, but we are not. We are talking about the biblical God, who not only rules everything but does so in a regular, trustworthy way. This is a second fundamental concept that is crucial to understanding God and nature: God’s character.
God Is Not Capricious
God delights in being trustworthy and dependable. His normal way of acting is through regular, patterned causes. He sets up systems of doing things, and he keeps to them. He keeps planets moving in their orbits. He keeps seasons coming, year after year. He keeps the cycles of life going.
This is the kind of predictability that science depends upon. In the normal functioning of the universe, systems keep on behaving in the same way under the same conditions. The way light travels in a vacuum on earth is the same way it travels in a vacuum in outer space. Oxygen molecules are the same in England as in Peru as in some distant galaxy. There is an orderliness and repeatability to reality that we can depend upon.
This is reflected in the way that science can use mathematical models to understand the world. Mathematics, that most abstract and logical of disciplines, is directly applicable to the real world because the real world behaves logically. Whether population genetics or the movement of planets, the predictable behavior of the world can be captured in mathematical equations. It’s the reason that computer models can be built to simulate real-world systems. There is a basic orderliness to creation that can be expressed in simple principles that lie behind all the complexity of reality.
The logic of the world is no accident. Indeed, if it were an accident, it would be totally incredible. The world is orderly and logical because God is reasonable and trustworthy. He wants the world to run in a well-organized fashion, and he makes sure it does so. The orderly characteristics of the world are based in God’s character, which is both rational and faithful. He does not act on whims. He is not capricious. He can be trusted to be consistent. He does what he says he will do, and his character does not change. He made a world to reflect the way that he is himself, and he keeps it running that way.
God’s Reason for Creation
Certainly God could have made the world in any way that occurred to him. He chose to make it in an organized and rational way because, the Bible says, he had a particular purpose. It was not just for fun or to test out a few theories. It was not an exercise in experimental physics. It was something he created deliberately, and part of his purpose was to have humans living within the world he created.
The world was not created to remain empty. God wanted life, and he wanted human life. He made a habitable world, and part of that means consistency. The pattern of the world is one that makes human habitation possible. It is a world that supports life and particularly the learning that is necessary for humans to sustain their own lives. It is a world in which agriculture is possible because there are predictable seasons and ways of planting and growing. It is a world in which animals follow certain patterns, a world in which ecosystems can be understood; it is a world in which there are predictors of future events that can be studied and grasped.
God is rational, wise, and trustworthy, and he created a world that he wanted humans to be able to inhabit. We are capable of emulating God’s wisdom, at least to some extent, the Bible says, because God has created the kind of world that we can learn from. We live in a world that makes sense. The world is not fundamentally chaotic. The physical world is not an illusion, as some philosophies would have it. It is not evil, as certain religious views might teach. God has created a world that is good, and he expects us to live in it and learn from it. We are expected to come to understand the way that cause and effect works in the world and draw general principles from that. It is not made purely for our intellectual satisfaction, but it is the kind of world that can be immensely intellectually satisfying because God designed it to make sense.