Scientists worldwide, since the 17th century, use a formal process for objectively establishing facts through testing and experimentation. There are seven steps, with some steps repeated, depending on circumstances. The process includes question, observation, hypothesis, prediction, experimentation, analysis and communication. This process is called the scientific method.
One of the wonderful gifts of science is it explains the world to us. By unraveling the mysterious of the universe, science replaces some of life’s uncertainties with certainty. And in doing so, scientific breakthroughs help us live longer, more productive lives. Although consequences can outweigh benefits.
But science, so far, can’t explain everything. And a healthy dose of doubt seems appropriate even for what science can explain. In fact, skepticism and doubt play critical roles in science and are an integral part of using the scientific method.
According to Pew Research, around 74% of Americans believe there are some things that science can never explain. And the spiritual world falls into this collection of mysteries that resists mathematical explanation.
83% of us believe people have a soul or spirit besides our physical body. This leaves room for a few of us to believe science can explain how this works, but I’m skeptical whether this knowledge will be helpful.
Science strives to bring certainty while the spiritual world exudes mystery.
Adam Hamilton writes in his book, Wrestling with Doubt, “We want certainty, but God gives us mystery.” As a pastor, questions of doubt regularly confronted Hamilton coming from parishioners and sometimes from within.
After all, irrefutable proof of what we believe as Christians does not exist. Neither is there irrefutable proof there is no God.
Hamilton encourages facing doubt head-on. This includes challenging the presuppositions and assumptions we’ve held up to this point in times. But when all is said and argued, Hamilton explains, “Faith is a decision, a choice, based upon a thoughtful and even critical examination of a particular faith’s historical, existential, and spiritual claims.”
Hamilton begins his book with the essential question, “Is There a God?” Albert Einstein argues that initially humans created deities out of fear. It was later in human history when humans considered religion as governing morality and human relationships:
The desire for guidance, love, and support prompts men to form the social or moral conception of God. This is the God of Providence, who protects, disposes, rewards, and punishes; the God who, according to the limits of the believer’s outlook, loves and cherishes the life of the tribe or of the human race, or even or life itself; the comforter in sorrow and unsatisfied longing; he who preserves the souls of the dead.
While Einstein makes excellent points in his article about the creativity of humans to invent ways to cope with uncertainty, his arguments do not negate the existence of God.
Hamilton offers the creation stories found in Genesis as an illustration of one way science and religion can seem at odds. Arguments arise when the creation stories are read as to how the universe came to exist rather than staying with why it exists.
Science is much better equipped to uncover how than why. Theology addresses why. Moreover, science has yet to defensibility address how the universe was created.
O Lord, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world!
Psalm 8:9
One theory of how is known as the “Big Bang” theory. This theory is credited to a theoretical physicist and priest named Georges Lemaître, who proposed the concept of a “primeval atom.” This initial building block supposedly held all the energy and matter that would become the universe as we now know it.
This is my favorite theory of creation. Both because of the long-running series by the same name and because it helps me to visualize what it may have been like when God first sang the universe into existence.
It’s estimated that it would take over 93 light years to cross the universe from one side to the other. And the universe continues to expand.
But it all started somewhere. I believe God was there was before it all started. And this is a mystery defying both the scientific method and art.
You can join us each Sunday in person or online by clicking the button on our website’s homepage – Click here to watch. This button takes you to our YouTube channel. You can find more information about us on our website at FlintAsburyChurch.org.
A reminder that we publish this newsletter that we call the Circuit Rider each week. You can request this publication by email. Send a request to FlintAsburyUMC@gmail.com or let us know when you send a message through our website. We post an archive of past editions on our website under the tab, Connect – choose Newsletters.
Pastor Tommy
Parts of our series was inspired by Adam Hamilton. Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith. Nashville: Abington Press, 2023.
Pew Research Center. “Spirituality Among Americans.” © Pew Research Center, December 7, 2023. Retrieved from: link
Albert Einstein. “Religion and Science,” © New York Times Magazine, November 9, 1930.