Science and Creation

The creation story is not a scientific analysis of how God created the world. It is a kind of historical account of how God created the world and man but does not give us the scientific details how he did it. The thing is if you are a believer then you read that story from the vantage point of already having faith. That's a key point right there. If you do not have faith but a skeptical attitude towards it then you compare the story with what you know, the Big Bang (BB) theory, for instance, and you think it does not sound exactly the same so I am going to dismiss it. They throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak because they come from a skeptical viewpoint to begin with. The attitude with which we read the bible will determine what we get out of it.

The creation stories come from the Israelites. We don't know who wrote them. But we know it had to come from one of the tribes of Israel. These stories were given to them to convey the truth that God created the universe and everything in it including the earth, you and me; the truth that mankind disobeyed God and fell from grace; the truth that a future redeemer was promised, to be fulfilled by Jesus Christ, God himself; And so forth. To completely dismiss the story is to miss out on these important truths.

As a Christian, I look at the bible as a series of promises that God made and having fulfilled through Jesus Christ. So everything that happens in the bible is somehow related to Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is true then all the rest falls into place around him. The Jews never had the revelation that Christ has given to us through Christ's life, death, and resurrection. They saw a glimpse of it but still an incomplete picture. But now we have access to God through Christ.

As far as the BB theory is concerned. It is not at odds with scripture. The bible says that God created everything. So at some point then there wasn't anything. The BB theory says that the universe also had a beginning. So they are complementary from that perspective.

Science looks for natural means to explain the physical world. So it will paint a different picture then the Israelites who looked to God to explain their existence. They do not have to conflict if we assume that truth exists and that both science and religion are seeking the truth then their paths will converge.

Science only gives us a natural model. It is not truth, but a representation of it. The truth is that God could have created the world in 6 days. I'm not saying he did. I don't reject the science. But there is an element of uncertainty with science. Because it is only a model it is not the same thing as history which is often different then our models of it. The models are built on assumptions. As long as all those assumptions are valid then the model holds. But what if the assumptions are not valid or unprovable? Then there will always be uncertainty. So it may not really be possible to know for sure that the BB theory is correct.

Since science only looks for natural explanations, it purposely misses 'unnatural' or spiritual explanations. So when looking at any scientific theory we need to realize this. Because as believers in a spiritual God that is responsible for the creation of the universe we acknowledge that there are spiritual causes in the universe. We thus acknowledge that God could create the universe however he wants.

So it is important not to reject the spiritual (throw the baby out with the bath water) when looking at a scientific theory. The reason is that science is blind to the spiritual. So if science is blind to the spiritual then we can not rely on it to give us spiritual insights. However, God can use science as an unwitting participant. Because if science seeks the truth, it will never be able to disprove God's existence or that he is our creator. It may be instead complementary to it.