Science is actually about approximations. You might ask, “approximations to what?” Science is about approximations to truth. What do I mean approximations to truth? Well, science is the search for explanations which explain what we see, or, at least, that is how it started. How do we explain the motion of the stars? How do we explain the fact that there is a horizon beyond which we cannot see. What is fire? What is rain? Why do plants grow from seeds? Who are we? Even with revelation, you find some of this wonderment in the Psalms. Psalm 8:4 says, “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” I know that I have described science at its best. I know that there is a science at its worst. But, we cannot use science at its worst to make our arguments anymore than we can use misbehaving Christians at their worst to make our arguments.
The day before yesterday I described how Newton’s ideas were actually wrong. Einstein was more correct. But, was Newton that wrong? No, he was not. He had an approximation that explained the movements of the universe and gravity significantly better than previous conceptions. But, his approximation was not as good as Einstein’s approximation. And, Einstein’s approximation was not as good (at atomic distances) as those of quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, Newton’s mechanics were a tremendous advance that eventually led to inventions such as the airplane, etc. In one sense, “good enough for government work” was precisely good enough to allow us to have flight.
Some of you are already coming up with all sorts of reasons why science must be wrong or at least be unreliable. So, let me get this out of the way. Scientific inquiry can make as many mistakes as theology. And, that is an admission that many Christians need to make. The reason there are so many theological viewpoints and so many denominations is that theology, outside the Church, can be quite wrong and unreliable. Significantly too many Christians are making arguments against the reliability of science while ignoring the elephant in the room. Theology has significantly more differences of opinion than science. And, I am talking among conservative “orthodox” believers, without including one “liberal” in the bunch. When we speak about science, too many of us behave as though there is only one legitimate Christian viewpoint. We need to be honest and admit that there is not one conservative Christian viewpoint.
Science is nowhere near perfect, but it has developed systems of checks and balances that routinely work. What does it mean to say that the system routinely works? It means that, over the course of time, mistakes tend to be picked up and resolved. However, over the course of time can mean longer than the lifetime of a human being. Do you realize that there were nearly 300 years between Newton and Einstein? On the other hand, there were about 400 years between Saint Anselm and Martin Luther. So, some of you need to knock off the idea that things need to happen within a couple of months or even a couple of years. They have not happened that way in Church history, so some of you need to stop insisting that it needs to happen that way in the process of scientific inquiry. While it may be frustrating, that is the reality of the way in which both science and theology work.
===MORE TO COME===
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