Science?

Thank you danjograss3 for your interesting post on ‘Religion?’ Sorry I missed most of the interesting discussion, but it got me thinking about some related issues. I know that some of it is rehashing arguments already made, but I hope I can bring a slightly different slant into the recent discussion.

Human beings could be just a fluke of God. Like the dinosaurs and just like all things on this planet. They appear to have independent being before they dissolve back into chaos. Science comes out of a high density of people trying to answer questions that are not answerable. What caused us to be here? What is the future? Can we stop ourselves from dying? Will we learn how to achieve eternal life…?

Yes, of course science is made up. But we want to believe that everything happens for a reason, and that we have control over our lives; it makes us feel good. It is hard for us to admit that we are not in control, but science is not and never will be the final answer to these questions.

But just because science is made up does not make it a bad thing. Because science is not JUST made up, it is constructed in a dance with the reality of God and the universe. Just like religion. I think the motivations for scientific and theological investigation are very similar.

As science is constructed by humans, there will usually be various competing, often irreconcilable, theories. See Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. It is hard to know how it will turn out. But I don’t think theology will be very useful in figuring out which is the true scientific theory, and God does not seem to think it worthy of any special revelation to help us out. I also don’t think that science will be of much value in figuring out which religion is the best at dancing with reality, but God does sometimes help us out more directly in this area.

So science is constructed by humans. So what? So religion constructed by humans? OK … The house that I live in is constructed by humans, but that does not mean that it is not real and useful. In fact I don’t think that I would survive long without any of these human constructions, especially the house! The house I live in is finished, though science and theology are not, and may never be. But to live in a park, just because your house is not totally finished does not seem sensible to me. So we have to do the best with what we have got for now, with humility, and live our lives in accordance to our best guesses so far.

Isn’t that what the emerging church is all about?