Science is a beautiful subject
and an inherently good pursuit. Observing and studying creation ought to point us to the Creator and illicit a response of humility and worship of God. Unfortunately, science can be twisted by the human heart into something self-promoting and God-denying.

The benefit of science

God created us with inquiring minds and set us in a world full of beauty to appreciate and observe. By admiring and appreciating God’s creation we are helped to admire and appreciate God. By observing and learning about His creation we can learn about God’s character and admire Him all the more as the Creator.

God reveals himself to us by His word. We have His word written down in the Bible but we also have his word of creation. Since God spoke the world into existence, we see the effects of his word all around us. In Psalm 19:1-2, David writes that the beauty of the sky speaks volumes about God. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” David appreciates the aesthetics of the heavens, but he also notes the glory of the sun in verse 6 and its power to give off heat. “It’s rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” Both the beauty and the power of what David observes in the sky give him reason to praise God.

While our modern conception of the scientific method wasn’t articulated until much more recently (see Rev. Bruce Hoyt’s article for more on this), there are a few examples in Scripture where we see the observation and experimentation required for science. In the story of Solomon, we can infer that understanding of the natural world is one of the fruits of the wisdom given to him by God. In addition to the 3000 proverbs and 1,005 songs attributed to him, we read that, “He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish” (1 Kings 4:29-34).

Stopping to notice the world around should also have the effect of keeping us in our place before a mighty God. In Psalm 8:3-4 we read, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” In the book of Job, (chapters 38-41) God interrogates Job by asking him if he can tell God about the mysteries of how the world was made and how it works. The point being that Job, and we, as finite creatures can only scratch the surface in our understanding of what God has made and therefore ought to humble ourselves before Him. From these passages we see that the Bible places value on understanding what God has made insofar as it points us to God’s greatness and our smallness.

By studying the physical world, we will also be better equipped to fill the earth and subdue it according to God’s command in Genesis 1 and to push back against the effects of sin on creation. It wasn’t long before Adam’s descendants learnt about animal husbandry, plant husbandry, metal working, and how to make musical instruments and perform with them (Genesis 4). All of these activities depend on a certain level of understanding of God’s creation and how it works in order to succeed in them.

Fast forward to today and we are all beneficiaries of the technological applications of science. We don’t need to understand the science behind antibiotics in order to benefit from them when we have an infection, for example, but careful observation and experimentation was required in order to make the discovery in the first place. Louis Pasteur and others in the 19th century learnt that infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, which helped pave the way for modern medicine and the widespread adoption of improved hygiene (see Leo Fietje’s article for more about Pasteur).

The corruption of science

Despite the intrinsic value of scientific enquiry, it is no less subject to error and corruption than any other human endeavour. Fallen human beings corrupt the scientific process by our idolatry, our pride, and our greed.

The desire to explain how the world works and how it came to be without the need for a creator God is a form of idolatry that corrupts science. At its heart is the same quest for autonomy from God that tripped up Adam and Eve. Some would say that rejecting God and religion has allowed science to push forward unhindered, however, this could not be further from the truth. It is precisely the acceptance of a creator God that unleashed much scientific discovery in the last three centuries. Why would you expect to find laws that govern the natural world unless you believe in someone who gave the laws in the first place? If the events of the world are determined by petty gods or by pure time and chance, then how could we expect the natural world to behave with the regularity needed in order to study it usefully? Why should the same experiment that one scientist performs today have the same repeatable outcome tomorrow?2 The lack of convincing answers to such questions reveals the inconsistency of science done without reference to God.

Pride is another corrupting influence on science in the academic world. Things quickly go astray when the desire for recognition and prestige trump the desire to discover the truth. Some scientific results, while they may add something to the body of knowledge on a subject, aren’t particularly noteworthy. These results may not be included in prestigious journals, or win the author a Nobel Prize. Pride can lead to the fudging of results in research, so that the outcome will be a more significant discovery, rather than an obscure addition to the scientific literature that few ever read. Unfortunately, truth is the casualty when self-exaltation becomes the main goal.

Pride can also get in the way when results undermine previous work that may damage the reputation of the researcher. Along similar lines, we also tend to make our views part of our identity. When we’re shown to be wrong about something it hurts our pride. We don’t easily change our mind about things we believe, which slows down the discovery and adoption of new knowledge.

Greed has similar truth-distorting effects. Commercial incentives can often create biased outcomes in science. When a business is funding “research” into its own products, wanting to “prove” their efficacy, then the results can be arranged to fit the desired outcome. This happens in the pharmaceutical industry, where the results of drug trials can be skewed so that the alleged benefit of the drug is exaggerated1.

A lot hangs on the integrity of the scientist. Without integrity, the attitude becomes one that says, “Don’t let the truth get in the way of what I want”. Whether that’s significant findings that earn recognition, lucrative results for oneself or those who butter your bread, the buttressing of egos, strongly held beliefs, or previous work. The pitfalls and temptations are many. A sad outcome of such behaviour is the erosion of trust in science generally. It becomes increasingly difficult for us to filter out the bad science and arrive at the truth on many issues, like pandemics and the efficacy of various measures to combat them, health and nutrition, climate change, and other polarising topics.

Herein lies a great opportunity for Christian witness in the field of science; to resist the temptations of idolatry, pride, and greed, by holding firmly to humility and honesty, even when it is costly. Not only is this the right thing to do, in the long run, it will result in much more progress in learning new things. Some of these things may be of much benefit to humanity, as many discoveries in the past have been.

Even though God is largely denied as the central truth from which all truth comes, much science is still carried out. This is the great inconsistency of post-Christian era science, however, God allows science and technology to continue to advance despite man’s corruption and rejection of Him. We are certainly undeserving beneficiaries of God’s grace, who “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45).

References

1.Goldacre, Ben (2008). Bad Science. Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-00-724019-7.

2.Poythress, Verne S. (2006). Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach. Crossway Books.
ISBN 978-1-58134-731-9

Mr Reuben van Ameyde graduated from Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 2014. He works and lives on a pig farm 50km west of Christchurch together with his wife, Bianca, and their three children. They worship at the Reformed Church of Dovedale.