Friday, March 13, 2009

God vs. Science

Lately I have heard many people debating the merits of faith versus scientific knowledge. Inevitable this conversation turns to "science proves that God did not create the universe, just look at evolution". This is absolutely bogus. While it is true that the theory of evolution puts a big fat hole in the idea that the universe and all its contents were created in seven revolutions of the earth, it says nothing about the potential existence of a creator. Evolutionary theory simply shows the progression of adaptations organisms have made in order to survive within their environment. The exact etiology of these organisms is not defined. The further one delves into biological sciences the more one will realize how little we actually know about the development of species.
There are two basic ways to observe the evolution of an organism. One is simply to look at the fossil record of a particular species, tracing back individual changes until you reach a whole new species. The second is to study how, in some organisms, embryological development recapitulates phylogeny (watch a dog develop and a person develop and you can't tell the difference until later development). Neither of these excludes the possibility of a creator, they simply examine a method by which it is believed the species developed into it's current state.
What bothers me about this argument is not, however, the fact that people try to use it to argue against the existence of God. What bothers me is that some who believe in God refuse to acknowledge that the scientific theories could be(read: "are") correct. Even more so, it is ridiculous that there is even a division between "scientific" theories and "God" theories.
Assume for a minute that God exists and created the universe. The universe is undeniably bound by certain physical laws which govern everything from planetary movement to individual molecular interactions. Assuming then that God created the universe, he would have also had to have created these physical laws. Why then is it that God, who created the system by which our universe operates, is forced to work outside of this system for us to believe He has done something?
This argument obviously does nothing to prove that God does exist. It simply is meant to demonstrate that science and God are not mutually exclusive.
As far as education goes, it is not possible to scientifically prove or disprove the existence of God (barring God himself showing up for the experiment), so schools should stick to teaching what is scientifically verifiable. Is evolution empirically supported? Yes, so teach it. Is the origin of the big bang science or speculation at this point? If its speculation, don't teach it. If it can be experimentally verified, teach it. There is no reason these things should cause anyone religious problems. These are not contradictions of God, they are contradictions of a book written to be used as a a religious guide, not a literal manual. Speak with an old testament scholar sometime if you don't believe me.

1 comment:

Kurt Pankau said...

I smell some lively debate. I've got a responses over at Kurtharsis.