Science & Creation: Friends, Not Enemies

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Last Updated on Saturday, 03 December 2011 20:09

Fellow Toastmasters and welcome guests, in the next several minutes I am going to transport all of you, via your wonderful imaginations, to my church’s “Kingdom Club.” These are weekly meetings where I, as a Presbyterian minister, teach important truths to young boys and girls. Remember, all these boys and girls have been raised in a multimedia environment, a generation bombarded with T.V., videos, DVDs and computers. It is a generation, for the most part, that is alien to absolute truth and its clear communication. So are you ready to be transported to our Kingdom Club? Good, let’s join our young people.

Boys and girls, today I’m going to introduce you to one of the best friends of the Christian faith. His name is “Science.” Actually, my friend’s full name is “Good and True Science.” You need to know this so that you can tell the difference between our friend and his impostor (an enemy of yours).Yes, there is a thief living among us, a person who has stolen our friend’s last name, “Science,” and is now imitating or masquerading as “Science.” This thief likes to be called by our friend’s last name but his real name is “Bad Science,” a.k.a. “Junk Science.” I want you to know that I love my friend, “Science.” He is one of the main reasons I majored in Medical Science at the University, and had great fun introducing him to others at the Medical University of South Carolina when I taught there before becoming a Presbyterian minister.

So, how can you  tell the difference between “Good and True Science” and that ole’ fake, “Bad Science”? Ask yourself this question: “How can I tell what anybody is really like?” Thankfully, the answer is easy. It is by observing the person’s character and conduct. Today I want you to learn the four irreducible character qualities or attributes of real “Science,” i.e., “Good and True Science.” The way you will remember the basic character qualities of “Science” is by saying out loud a simple four letter word every time someone tells you that something is “scientific.” What is that four letter word you ask? It is “M.O.R.E.” —
    - “M,” Measurable,
    - “O,” Observable,
    - “R,” Repeatable,   
    - “E,” Evidence.
Once you can identify, and then get to know more intimately, our friend, “Science,” you will soon discover that he is both very powerful and very limited. He is powerful because of what you can do with him. For example, you can make a lot of energy with this friend (e.g., nuclear power). But he is also very limited because life is much bigger and much more complicated than our friend, “Science,” can measure or evaluate. For example, “love, faith and hope” are also powerful truths of life; yet our friend, “Science,” could not begin to explain their almost unlimited power and effect. Therefore, our friend, “Science,” can speak authoritatively only on limited subjects and only when all four, not just one or two, of his characteristics are present, if he is to be “Good and True Science.”

I have been speaking about our friend “Good and True Science.” I now want to show you how he is a friend of our close buddy, “Religion,” so that you can properly apply this truth in the “Creation vs. Evolution” debate. First, you must remember that everyone is “religious,” even the most rebellious atheist. By definition, in its broadest meaning, religion is simply “any specific system of beliefs” (e.g., Christianity, Buddhism. Humanism, Atheism, etc.). Therefore, when thinking about creation vs. evolution, the question should never be, “Which view is scientific, and which is religious?” Instead, the FIRST question should be: “Which religious view of origins do you have, “creation” or “evolution,” in order to interpret the evidence before us?

The creation-religious view can be stated in its simplest form by the following: “Life (i.e., God) created life, by design.”

The evolution-religious view of origins can be stated as: “Dead things (i.e. matter or the cosmos)  chaotically  produced life,  by chance.”

Only after that first question is answered, “Which religious view do you have?” can you begin to ask the important second question: “What idea has the most scientific evidence to support its religious view?” One of the best places to start is to ask the “M.O.R.E.” questions. The following five questions (based on the “M.O.R.E.” principle) will help you courteously and respectfully stimulate the thinking of others, like your teachers and fellow students. I call these “The Five Essential Evolution Questions” (“The 5 E.E. Questions”):
1) Have you ever seen an explosion “create” anything (except a mess)?
  -    Big “bangs” only destroy, they never create!
  -    Remember, think “M. O. R. E.” scientifically!
2) Have you ever seen disorder spontaneously produce order?
  -    “Spontaneous” refers to an occurrence without plan or external force.
  -    Explain the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: “Everything naturally deteriorates from order to disorder.”
3) Have you ever seen any complex item “created” by chance?
  -    e.g., a watch, an airplane, a DNA molecule, etc.
4) Have you ever seen one “kind” (e.g., dog) change into another “kind” (e.g., horse)?
  -    Here you may show a biological “video.”
5) Have you ever seen one “transitional fossil?”
  -    Here you may show a geological “video” or “photo.”

Well, Toastmasters, my time is up. I must transport you back to our Toastmasters’ meeting in Madrid. But, hopefully, you have learned something very important, along with “my boys and girls,” namely, that “Good and True Science” is a very good friend to “Religion” (i.e. the Christian faith).