On Science & Reason
Response about science
The criticism regarding the lack of compatibility with science is roughly what scholars today call the conflict thesis (or the warfare model, or the Draper-White thesis) – This idea of a war between science and religion, including Christianity, was common in the historiography of science from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries, and is still common in popular culture, but it has lost much of its support among professional historians due to objective reasons. The Christian response is that the many famous scientists adopting this worldview, whose work continues to stay at the basis of human progress, as well as Christianity’s considerable influence on human progress throughout history, are simply demolishing it, also proving this statement to be, at its best, ignorant and, at its worst, devious and manipulative.
Christianity’s conflict with science has its roots in politics not in its ideology (see more regarding the Roman Catholic oppression here and here) as well as in the universal problem of narrow mindedness.
In recent years, a number of books have been written about the fact that science could not have made the progress it made within a different worldview. Science being limited in itself, it can tell us what poison can do to a person, but it can’t tell us if giving it to somebody is good or bad. The philosophy of science uses its data. It was the Christian worldview of some famous scientists – Johannes Kepler, Blaise Pascal, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, James Clerk Maxwell, George Washington Carver, to name a few – that made them look for laws in nature. In Newton’s case his understanding of the world, his observations and his belief in a rational God helped him discover the laws of gravity. Modern science often has a different goal (to explain the Universe without the necessity of an intelligent creator), but it started with the faith that the universe is intelligible.
Considering its great contribution throughout history, it can easily be stated that science is indebted to the Christian worldview significantly more than it could condemn it.
Response about reason
Many Christian theologians have made appeal to reason as an important aspect of the Christian faith. These thinkers have included that same Thomas, who believed in Jesus after touching his wounds; John Wesley, who included “reason” in the theological model known as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral”; as well as many other authors like Tony Campolo, author of the book ‘A Reasonable Faith’, former atheist C. S. Lewis, former Hindu Ravi Zacharias, Norman Geisler, Michael Ramsden, Alister McGrath, Philip Yancey etc to name a few. There are actually many Christians throughout the world who are able to explain their choice for Christianity using arguments based on logic and reason.
