In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1–3, ESV)
You are playing a practice round and standing on the 18th tee. Your latest gadget, a TRACKMAN, is beside you.
It can tell you almost everything about the shot you are about to hit. It can measure your swing speed, ball speed, launch angle, spin rate, carry distance, club path, and smash factor.
You and your friend are tied, and a small wager is on the line. More importantly, your friend loves to brag whenever he “clips your wings.”
TRACKMAN can give you all kinds of useful information about your swing, but it cannot tell you whether you are nervous. It cannot measure how badly you want to win. It also cannot tell you whether your friend rolled his ball in the rough.
For all its value, your latest toy cannot explain why you love golf. It cannot tell you why your family matters more than your score or whether your life has any lasting purpose.
That is not a criticism of any launch monitor or the science behind them. Both are extremely good at answering the questions they were designed to answer.
The mistake would be assuming that if it cannot measure something, then that thing must not be real. Something similar happens when people claim that science has made belief in God obsolete.
Science has given us remarkable knowledge about the universe. Scientists can study galaxies billions of light-years away, examine the structure of DNA, and describe many parts of the physical world with amazing mathematical precision.
The problem begins when we move from science to what scholars call Scientism. Scientism is the belief that science is the only path to true knowledge. A related belief is Naturalism, the view that the physical universe is all that exists.
Neither of these beliefs is a scientific discovery. No experiment can prove that experiments are the only way to discover truth. No microscope or telescope can demonstrate that nothing exists beyond the physical universe.
Scientism and naturalism are philosophical beliefs. People bring these beliefs to their scientific work; they do not discover them through science itself.
In his book Where the Conflict Really Lies, philosopher Alvin Plantinga argues that the true conflict is not between Christianity and science. The deeper conflict is between belief in God and atheistic naturalism. These are two very different views of reality.
Why is the universe orderly? Why does it operate according to patterns and laws that can be expressed through mathematics? Why can the human mind discover and understand those laws?
The Christian worldview provides the answer. A rational God created an orderly universe. He also made human beings in his image and gave us minds capable of investigating his creation.
As John tells us, everything was created through Jesus Christ, the eternal Word. The order we discover in creation reflects the wisdom and power of its Creator.
Science asks important questions about how the physical world works. Christianity addresses even larger questions: Why does anything exist? Why can we understand the universe? Why are we here? Why do truth, goodness, beauty, love, and moral responsibility matter?
Science and Christianity are not enemies. Science helps us study God’s creation, while Scripture tells us who created it, why it exists, and where we fit within it.
The next time you are on the range and your launch monitor flashes numbers across the screen, remember that those numbers are telling you something true about your golf swing.
Then pause and ask another question: Why is there an orderly universe that the human mind can understand in the first place?
Scientism and naturalism cannot answer that question. But that does not mean there is no answer. The success of science has not made belief in God irrational.
Instead, every discovery gives us another reason to stand in wonder and worship before the God who created it all.
Prayer: Lord! Help us respond to those who question our faith with grace, patience, and truth. Amen.