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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection vii

Does Science contradict Faith? ...

Tuesday, July 28, 2015. Our world today is heavily influenced by science. Most of the things we use day by day have been built on the basis of 500 years of scientific discovery and insight. The paint you have on your walls, the glass in your windows, the medicine you take, the car you drive, the mobile phone you use … all is built with the knowledge and know-how which science has provided.

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Our Mind and our Heart …

Is science our new religion? What is its role? And does it contradict faith? Let us go slowly! Science is nothing else than human reason and intellect trying to figure out how nature works and how technology can be evolved. Science is just us, our curiosity, our mind, our ability to use logic and to gain insight. It is our ability to do, to try out, to understand and to sort knowledge. Science is nothing more than one of the dimensions of the human mind and human ability.

Science does not contradict faith. Sometimes people argue about particular statements which are made, and they could contradict other statements which are coming from the bible or its interpretation. In this sense, conflict can come and needs to be discussed and resolved (if this is possible). But in general, science is nothing more than a part of humanity. Let us read listen to the biblical viewpoint about human ability, as it is expressed in Psalm 8:

1 To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.1 A Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4

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what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8)

Human Ability …

Without doubt humans have mastered most parts of creation. We have exercised dominion over creation, humans have been the most powerful “animal” on the planet. With our reason and our ability to communicate, to think, to gain insight and to do we have changed the surface of the earth to a large extent. The biblical lines above summarize nothing more than the facts, which we have seen clearly evolving more and more over the past 2000 years.

But the Psalm contains much more! The song writer here praises the Lord. He talks about his name, and about his majesty. It is not us, who have done all this. We are just using what is given to us. But it has been and it IS the Lord, the eternal God, who has created and is creating. The psalmist is talking about the mere size of creation. Today we know about the millions of light-years which describe the size of the universe. And in the middle of this, man has grown up and is trying to shape his destiny.

Turn to the Lord. Ask him. Be with him and live with him! He has given you the ability to do science, to gain insight and to learn how to do things. He will help you to use these things wisely. Only he has the full picture of our life. We need him! We need to turn to him, every day, again and again. (RWEP) ... more texts

jn_en_2015_07_28.txt · Last modified: 2017/06/18 16:48 by 127.0.0.1