Does Science Strengthen Faith?

 Our blog deals with the relationship of science and faith. In our modern society many observers believe science and faith are separate domains of truth. Dr. Hugh Ross of the “Reasons to Believe” ministry is an eminent scientist/theologian who believes science affirms the truth of the Christian faith and belief in God as the Creator of All Things. Dr. John Ankerberg has interviewed Dr. Hugh Ross several times. Both men have vigorously supported the concept that science and Christian faith affirm one another. Dr. Ross states, “Science and Christianity intersect rather than contradict each other.” Dr. Ankerberg agrees: “It’s often said that faith and science are incompatible, but as an atheist detective, my investigation of the scientific evidence actually led me to faith.” 

What if some so-called “scientific” discoveries could actually be detrimental to faith? Science is not immune to erroneous interpretation. Examples are scientific errors proposed by geneticists to explain transgenderism and sexual preference. This blog has frequently questioned whether natural selection and mutation are able to drive the process of naturalistic evolution. For many years natural selection and mutation have been stalwarts supporting evolutionary theory. 

Personal theology could also be erroneous. In the field of science we cope with pseudoscience. In our faith experience, we may encounter heresy—sometimes described as false teaching. In both science and faith/theology, we may experience various shades of truth. We sometimes describe “gray” areas where interpretations are variable. Our task is to present the topics of science and faith as unambiguously and accurately as possible. 

When we make a scientific claim, we must justify our claim. Do we base our claim on unsound presuppositions or unsound evidence? If so, our claim must be rejected. Historically there have been scientific claims which later proved false. To illustrate, we cite four scientific claims ultimately proved untrue. (1) In 1992 some scientists claimed they had discovered cold fusion. If true, our world had an almost unlimited supply of cheap energy. (2) In the 19th century phrenologists proposed that shape of the human head and regions of the brain determined human characteristics. (3) In the early 20th century some famous scientists pronounced the universe to be unchanging in size. Later the universe was found to be expanding. (4) In the 19th century scientists believed in spontaneous generation: Living matter was generated spontaneously from inanimate matter. This belief has been refuted. Life is generated from previous life or by a supernatural act of divine fiat creation.

Theological (faith) claims may also be erroneous. These mistaken claims may fall under the category of heresy. Several inaccurate theological belief systems are Docetism, Arianism, and Gnosticism—heresies Christian scholars have battled for centuries. There are many more false theological beliefs.

We have made every effort to cite TRUE scientific and theological principles in our articles. Our Science/Faith blog has been misunderstood by some readers who feel science and faith are separate domains of truth. Properly interpreted, science and sound principles of faith and theology affirm the truth of each other if scientific and theological errors are eliminated from the discussion. This goal is sometimes difficult, but not impossible to achieve.

Our blog posts since 2007 have often dealt with public misunderstanding of the science/faith relationship. We link several past posts on this topic:

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-sciencefaith-link.html

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2013/01/sciencefaith-conferences.html

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2014/09/science-and-faith-interdigitation.html

James 1:5 is a passage to guide us in a search for truth in the science/faith relationship: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (ESV)         

Drought Cycles

In the past few months the US has been plagued by droughts and floods. The recent southeastern hurricanes have made us aware of destructive flooding. These flooding events resolve more quickly than droughts, but sometimes result in sudden, tragic death. In contrast, droughts can persist for the short term or long term.

Most of our home state of Iowa was blessed with a growing season of adequate rainfall in the spring and summer of 2024. But after the growing season faded at the close of August, we received less than 0.25 inches of precipitation in the next eight weeks. The U. S. Drought monitor reports that 54.08% of the lower 48 states are experiencing drought at the present time. Drought conditions do not impact every location the same way: Our locality has received 4+ inches of rain since the beginning of November. This region has experienced, therefore, a (1) meteorological drought, now resolved, the least serious of many categories of droughts. More impactful are (2) agricultural droughts resulting in reduced groundwater and reservoir levels, (3) hydrological droughts resulting in serious stream flow deficits, and finally, (4) socioeconomic droughts resulting in negative effects on people’s health, quality of life, and the nation’s economy.

A government agency supplies the “U. S. Drought Monitor” by email each week. This feature supplies information concerning ongoing drought conditions in our country. The site graphically indicates drought levels by color from DO, D1, D2, D3, to D4—none, moderate, severe, extreme, and exceptional.

In researching historic droughts of the 20th and 21st centuries, we discovered three drought episodes, all of which I personally experienced in various ways. In 1940 when I traveled to Oklahoma with my family, my uncles were experiencing the “Dust Bowl” drought. They told of the intense drought and heat of the “Dust Bowl,” a historic time in U. S. History when intense heat baked the plains. The Dust Bowl was exacerbated by the farmers plowing down prairie sod which later was blown away by wind in the intense heat. The events of the Dust Bowl inspired the John Steinbeck novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” Effects of the Dust Bowl extended from 1928 to 1942.

Another drought episode occurred from 1949 to 1957. Still another time metric communicates a drought episode from 1998 to 2014—the early 21st century drought. We recall an intense dry spell in 2012. In order to be considered a drought episode there must be a large geographical area affected along with long time duration. In the physical operating system created by God for Planet Earth, droughts are ubiquitous cyclical events. Understanding the complex interplay of various weather and climate phenomena is a challenging task. Cyclical droughts have been present on Earth for thousands of years. Our Creator has given humanity the ability to manage the effects of drought.

For additional reading, link to the post we submitted in 2012 regarding historic droughts: https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2012/08/responses-in-complex-system.html