“Science . . . contemplates a world of facts without values,” wrote William Inge, but “religion contemplates values apart from facts.”
What is “religion?” Doesn’t everyone have a “religion,” a worldview upon which they stand? True to their “religion” or worldview, don’t they practice it “religiously?” My worldview determines how I see and respond to everything. Faith in my worldview compels me to study and weigh facts. It also compels me to set higher standards (values). Together, these facts and values determine how I think, live, and treat myself and others.
My worldview tells me that science/facts and “religion” (faith)/values are not exclusive of one another. The atheist and I both put our faith in something; then we, true to our faith, practice it. The atheist doesn’t want to believe in an authority higher than himself. I, however, have discovered that when I place myself on the throne of “authority,” I put myself and others at risk.
Facts are necessary. Facts include more than science but also history and consequences of behavior. My faith in God’s Word of Scripture, for example, is not without fact. The Bible is fact. It is recorded history. It is eye-witness accounts. Father telling son or Jew telling Gentile. The Bible is backed up by facts. Archeological evidence and scientific documentation abound. My worldview impresses upon me the need for such facts over and above feelings and opinion. I cannot trust my feelings. They change with mood and circumstance. My opinion is biased. The law of gravity, on the other hand, is fact. So are history and experience. So, while I may feel like jumping off the roof of my house, it serves me well to remember that when my dad jumped off the roof of a barn, he broke his arches. The law of gravity, together with history and experience, are beneficial to me. Faith enters in for both the atheist and myself as a Christian, most especially when something happens that we didn’t see or can’t explain. Both the atheist and I will act as people of faith: faith in something. I didn’t see my dad jump off the barn. I didn’t hear his cry. Even though I can’t explain exactly what happened, I have faith in what my dad told me. Faith in his words prevents me from a foolish (and painful) jump.
Let’s assume, as Richard Dawkins insists, that there is no creator. No creator of all that ever has or ever will exist; no creator of persons (bodies, minds, and souls); no creator of boundaries for the function, care and protection of those persons; no creator of conscience; no creator of all things right, honorable, merciful, and true. In such a world, I become the “authority” of my life and Dawkins becomes the “authority” of his. But, what values do we harmoniously work with for the benefit of community? My values will be shaped by my “god” (me) and his will be shaped by his “god” (him).
Let’s be honest… and willing to expose our core faith.
Someone like Dawkins doesn’t want to acknowledge the Creator God who brings order out of chaos. He resists the valid conclusion of both faith and science that Someone higher than himself exists. Yet, in reality, he’s putting his faith in something. Himself! His core faith is himself! He may claim to wrap himself in science and demean those of faith. Nevertheless, he is practicing his faith. And his values, like all values, flow out of his faith: whatever he believes in.
Science and facts divorced from faith and values? No. All are interrelated. The more I study God’s Word and the more I am informed by facts — of biology, anatomy, archeology, and history, the more I recognize God at work. Intelligent and orderly design. “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).
At the end of his life, Charles Darwin reflected on his work and confessed, “I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.”
Louis Pasteur declared in one of his lectures, “Science brings man nearer to God.”
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