God’s two books
My Christian faith is either a concern, a confusion, or a curiosity for non-believers. I’ve been told countless times on social media that I’m crazy, stupid, a liar, a fake, or that I should have my PhD rescinded, because I publicly proclaim to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Admittedly, this comes from the lowest echelons of atheism on social media, and the lowest echelons of any group on social media is about as low as you can go. But from the kinder, gentler part of the atheist subculture, I still get comments from people who are “concerned” that my faith compromises my work, or confused as to how anyone who has those vaunted three letters after their name can profess to believe in the supernatural. A few are just curious how I came to a place of faith after being raised atheist and becoming a scientist, and these interactions have led to some good fruit by the Spirit.
On the flip side, my scientific background is usually met with curiosity and varying levels of trust by Christians. Occasionally (very occasionally), I’ll be met with “concern” that my scientific work informs and corrupts my Christian beliefs. A couple of times I’ve been accused of doing the devil’s work. The lowest echelons of Christianity on social media are low, but I hear far less from that group than I do its atheist counterpart.
My online identity is a scientist who is “on the side” of Christianity and to a lesser degree a Christian who is “on the side” of science.
My true identity is child of God, follower of Jesus Christ, someone who has given all she is to the Lord. Some people will take this the wrong way, but my allegiance is therefore, first and foremost, to the Word of God. Fortunately, as a scientist who is Christian, there is no conflict of interest either way.
The Word of God is spoken in both the Book of Scripture (special revelation, i.e. the Bible) and the Book of Nature (general revelation, i.e. through quality science). Since I believe the natural world is God’s handiwork, it must bear his fingerprints and it must accord with what he has said through the Bible. So far, I have found that to be true to an astonishing degree. The few times the Bible and science have seemed to be at odds to me, it has been a matter of poor or outdated science, misunderstood science, or flawed or limited interpretation of scripture. Rather than fear these disagreements, I’ve come to welcome them, because this is where the greatest opportunities for learning about God come from.
Years ago, I led a discussion about science and faith to a group of believing graduate students at UT. The topic was, why do we need both a Book of Scripture and a Book of Nature to know God? In other words, why can’t we just be content with the Bible? I’ll never forget the response given by a young physics student from Ecuador. Carlos, who was Catholic, said we need both books so that we never become complacent in our assessment of God. It was a startling answer, but one that makes perfect sense if you think about it.
One of the greatest dangers we have as human beings is falling to pride. There is a temptation to think that we, as the flawed, limited created things we are, can be fully satisfied with our knowledge of God. Or, less insidiously, but no less damaging, that there can be an end to our study of God.
There is a temptation to settle into complacency unless we’re challenged and made uncomfortable. And that’s exactly what studying the Book of Nature can do for us as Christians—break us out of our complacency by challenging us and making us uncomfortable in our study of God.
Some Christians, when they hear scientific results, like the universe and the Earth are billions of years old, become very uncomfortable. They can become so uncomfortable that their desire to return to comfort leads them to write off science altogether. In my opinion, it’s a terrible tragedy when anyone closes the Book of Nature and cuts themselves off from God’s general revelation about himself.
There are two things I like to remind Christians of when they feel uncomfortably challenged by science:
Modern science is a direct product of Christianity. It was Christians, out of devotion to God, who believed science was not only possible but necessary for understanding God more completely. Science, properly carried out with honesty and integrity, can only reveal more about God and lead us closer to him. It’s his universe we’re studying, after all.
Discomfort always precedes great leaps in understanding. There is an analogy involving boiling water that works here.
A pot filled with cool water is a serene collection of relatively organized water molecules. When you place that pot of cool water on the stove and begin heating it up, its molecules start to become disorganized. The water molecules increasingly jumble around each other, and as the water heats up, the state of the water pot becomes more and more chaotic. It eventually becomes a confusing frenzy of disorder, until the water reaches the moment at which it transitions from one phase (liquid) to another (vapor)—the boiling point—and that’s when its molecules suddenly and unexpectedly snap into a new, highly organized state.
Disorder makes most of us uncomfortable. If we can persevere through those uncomfortable moments as challenges to our faith seem to confuse us and lead us further away from the comfort of our previous ordered state, the moment will come when our understanding suddenly snaps into a new order.
I’ll leave you with these parting words from God’s two books.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
—Psalm 19:1-4
Psalm 19 was written by King David as he looked up at the nighty sky and considered God’s creation. Millennia later, another man, from a far more humble background, looked at that same night sky and wrote these words after years of studying God’s creation.
O you who by the light of nature arouse in us a longing for the light of grace, so that by means of that You can transport us into the light of glory: I give thanks to You, Lord Creator, because You have lured me into the enjoyment of Your work, and I have exulted in the works of Your hands: behold, now I have consummated the work to which I pledged myself, using all the abilities that You gave to me; I have shown the glory of Your works to men, and those demonstrations to readers, so far as the meanness of my mind can capture the infinity of it, for my mind was made for the most perfect philosophizing; if anything unworthy of Your deliberations has been proposed by me, a worm, born and raised in a hog wallow of sin, which You want mankind to know about, inspire me as well to change it; if I have been drawn by the admirable beauty of Your works into indiscretion, or if I have pursued my own glory among men while engaged in a work intended for Your glory, be merciful, be compassionate, and forgive.
This prayer of gratitude and humility is found at the end of a book called Astronomia Nova (the new astronomy) written by Johannes Kepler, the great 17th century scientist who discovered the laws of planetary motion. Kepler’s painstaking work would go on to inspire the greatest scientist of all time, Isaac Newton (also a devout Christian), who changed the world forever with his discovery of the law of universal gravitation, the final bookend of the Scientific Revolution.
If you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me with a paid subscription. Normally, a paid subscription is just $5 per month or $50 for a full year, but if you subscribe before the end of this month, you can take advantage of my New Year’s promotion and subscribe at a 20% discount for an entire year. If this is difficult for you, you can still support me by subscribing for free, referring your friends, and sharing my work with others. It’s all appreciated!