Ancient Paths Blog

The Science of Faith

I've written previously (here and again, here) how faith is a huge part of science.  Not just faith as in trust and hope but the empirical process includes other non-empirical channels such as a structure of authority figures (in other words, a scientific priesthood) who mediate scientific knowledge to the masses and the general assumption that its assertions are simply to be received (by faith) on account of their authority.

Yet it occurred to me recently, as our senior pastor began a series on John's first epistle that there's also a scientific aspect to Christian faith.  That is, the Christian faith is based upon an empirical process that any scientist would recognize.  Where do I get this idea?  Well, John begins his first letter by writing the following about Jesus:

The World of the Bible: Factual or Fantastic?

How influenced are you by the scientific mindset?  Is science or scripture the pathway to truth?  When they conflict which do you choose?  Here's a challenge for you:

Did you know that the Bible teaches that unicorns once inhabited the world?  Of course the English Bible you read today does not mention them, but the Bible your grandparents grew up with does! 

Faith: the Inevitable Basis of Science, part 2

In my last post I proposed that science is largely a faith based endeavor - that the conclusions it asserts as knowledge are only in small part scientifically verified, but are mostly hopeful projections of their inductive findings upon the rest of the created order.

But it's not only within the laboratory that we find faith at work.  Indeed science utilizes faith in the way it communicates its findings, both within the scientific community itself and to the general public.  This communication is - even must be - based upon faith.

Faith: the Inevitable Basis of Science

Atheism has recently reasserted itself into the public consciousness through a bellicose flurry of books - Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion(2006); Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon(2006); and Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything(2007) are a few examples - with an effect on the religious world not unlike that of Hitler's forces smashing through the Allied lines in the Ardennes during the famous Battle of the Bulge.

In its scientific form this atheism can be described as "metaphysical naturalism" and views science as the only pathway to knowledge.  Faith, on the other hand, can only produce belief.  Knowledge, being scientifically verifiable produces certainty, while faith/belief, which is by nature unverifiable, is uncertain at best, delusional at worse.  While this dichotomy makes for powerful rhetoric, it does not seem to hold up to scrutiny.  On the contrary, faith makes up a huge part of that knowledge which science claims to produce.