Introduction

Intelligibility

  • The founders of modern science assumed the intelligibility of nature.
  • “They believed that nature had been designed by the mind of a rational God.”

Contingency

  • “They believed that God had many choices about how to make an orderly world.”

The fallibility of human reasoning

  • “early scientists accepted a biblical understanding of the power and limits of the human mind”

The purpose of science

“O Thou who by the light of Nature movest in us the desire for the light of grace, so that by it thou mayest bring us over into the light of glory … be gracious and deign to bring about that these my demonstrations may be conducive to Thy glory and to the salvation of souls, and may in no way obstruct it.” – Johannes Kepler

Our purpose

  • I Timothy 1:3-7

Can it make a difference?

  • I Timothy 1:13-17

Tools for the toolbox

Spot the assertions

  • ___ million / billion years ago …
  • __ evolved from __

Spot the assumptions (i.e., unstated assertions)

  • Differentiate between conclusions and evidence
  • Popular science articles tend more toward conclusions
  • Peer-reviewed journal articles tend more toward evidence
  • Misrepresentations / strawman

Identify inconsistencies

Common logical fallacies

  • Appeal to authority (“Science says,” “scientists say,” “evolutionists say”)
  • Ad hominem (a religious person must be biased, intellectual insult, moral critique)
  • Judging an idea by its supporters (crusades, “Christianity has resulted in more deaths than …”)
  • Equivocation – changing meaning of words but reasoning as though you didn’t (“evolution”)
  • Failure to equivocate (“works” in Romans 3, 4; Galatians 2; and James 2)

Stealing from God

  • Moral condemnation of the God of the Bible
  • Order in nature
  • Supernatural action – breaking the observed laws of nature

Humility

  • Acknowledge faults and our need for grace
  • Be okay with ignorance – you don’t have to know everything to believe anything

Leverage your frustration

  • Something is so wrong you can’t even find a hole in it?
  • Your internal system telling you to check your assumptions.

Spot the god of the gaps

Recognize the limits of “science”

Practice article

What does God say about Himself?

  • John 14:6
  • John 11:25