Faith And ScienceНамуна

The case for Biblical Creation

The Bible is not a science text book; nevertheless it touches upon subject matters that are areas of concern even for science such as the origin of the Universe or for that matter the origin of life. It affirms the fact that God is the author of the ‘scripture’ as well as ‘nature’; thus implying that there are truths that can be obtained from both these revelations. Hence, there ought not to be any conflict or contradiction between the two. For instance, the Bible opens with these majestic words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” which is an affirmation that there was a beginning. Arno Penzias who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the microwave radiation, makes the statement in support of this claim: “The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Bible as a whole.” However, the critics, at this point, raise an objection to this belief. They argue that the very claim of ‘Creation’ is false on the ground that its source is the Bible and therefore, it is unscientific.

J. P. Moreland in his book, “Scaling the secular city” responds to this objection by first pointing out that the objection is guilty of committing a logical fallacy called ‘genetic fallacy’. Secondly, he states, “It makes no difference whether a scientific theory comes from a dream, the Bible, or bathroom graffiti”. What is actually important is that the claim should be evaluated on the basis of the evidence it offers for its validity and not its source.

Furthermore, the Bible is able to account for the specified complexity seen in life (Psalm 139:13-16). Energy, time and chance alone cannot produce specified complexity. The additional inputs that are needed are intelligence and an ordering mechanism to specify the information content as seen in a cell. 

Again, the critics may object and say that this Biblical account of complexity is no mechanism. Hence is not valid.

However, the critics need to note that the very word ‘creation’, as used in the Bible, connotes the dynamic relationship that God (the creator) has with His creation. This is completely different from the scientific usage of the word ‘mechanism’ which, from a scientific point of view, deals with how the universe runs and does not deal with its purpose. It only affirms (Hebrews 11:3) that the primary cause of the cosmos is outside the space-time domain. No wonder science can never disprove nor prove the existence of God (primary cause). C. S. Lewis points out that nature itself is not natural. There is a supernatural cause for the nature.