Science and Faith

True science and true faith have nothing to fear from each other.

The story goes something like this: religious belief arose from man's need to explain the natural world. With the advent of science, reason was now capable of dispelling man's myths, and a mutual distrust ensued: On the one hand, science undermines religious power, and on the other, religious belief biases the objectivity of science.

So the story goes anyway, and in certain cases there's some truth to it. But we'd be mistaken to think that science and faith are therefore eternal enemines. Quite the opposite, they are partners in truth.

Probably the best place to begin is to show that while science can explain the physical world, it is not equipped to explain the metaphysical world. One of the tragedies of the atheistic scientist is that he has latched onto the truths of science, and has concluded that all truth is therefore scientific. Or, said differently, anything that is not scientifically verifiable is dubious. But you cannot test justice with the instruments of science, nor can you test patience for that matter. And to claim that justice and patience therefore don't exist, is its own leap of faith. Rather, we should not be surprised that the tools for discovering the physical world, tell us very little about the metaphysical world.

For its part, faith isn't very equipped to probe the inner workings of the physical world. Its aim is to address the metaphysical part of reality we all live in. Our own experience shows the human drive toward selfishness, and yet the allure to selflessness. We know of love, and of hate. Of the irrepeatability of the human soul. This is the purview of faith.

The danger, then, is when science tries to take on the role of faith, or faith that of science. Perhaps this is a good measure of true science or true faith: Is the science making claims about God? Or is the faith defining physical laws? For example, science can go so far as to document the facts around a miracle, but it cannot make the next step to draw conclusions. Likewise, faith can go so far as to affirm the order of the created world, but it cannot make the next step to draw conclusions.

For that, you need something where science and faith can meet as one--a human.