Is believing in Creation anti-science?
The word “science” comes from the Greek word meaning knowledge, and in the case of studying the natural world, science refers to the knowledge that can be gained by observing the world through our five senses. The scientific method relies on analyzing and interpreting the data that is collected. In other words, science is the process of explaining what we can measure. We measure an almost endless list of things, including size, duration, weight, color, growth, movement, texture, temperature, or the presence of substances.
What is important to know is that we take all those measurements now. We cannot measure the past, because we cannot witness the past. All we have access to is what is in the present, so scientists can only hypothesize about the past. This means that by using the scientific method, scientists cannot make conclusive statements about the topic of origins (where life came from), since the origin of the Earth and the origin of life occurred in the past. They can make a hypothesis about the past, but because we cannot return to the past to observe or measure what happened, our hypotheses are only an “educated guess.” Whether you believe in Creation or in evolution, you must exercise faith regarding what happened in the distant past.
We must also understand the relationship between data and interpretation. Scientists all have access to the same data. They see the same fossils and rock layers. But those observations in the natural world do not come with labels, explaining their origin. Looking at the same data, scientists come to different conclusions about the age of those rock layers and the cause of the fossilization. Same data; opposite interpretations. What makes the difference?
The difference is in their worldview—an assumption about reality and how it should be interpreted. Bible-centered scientists use God’s Word as the lens through which they look at and interpret the data. In contrast, Bible-rejecting scientists, who must not see a Creator God, have only one possible option—everything we see must have come about without God.
It is important to be aware of the relationship between data and interpretation. The connecting link between the two is the scientist’s worldview. You may have heard someone say, “science says…” and follow that statement with an interpretation of the data—an interpretation based on a scientist’s worldview. The truth is that science says nothing. Scientists, on the other hand, say a lot. Every interpretation offered by a scientist contains implicit assumptions about reality.
Some scientists assume that there can be nothing outside the natural world. This is a philosophy called Naturalism that denies the existence of a spiritual realm (no miracles, no Creator, no objective morality). Other scientists assume that all natural processes observable in the present have continued uninterrupted at the same rate throughout history. This leads to the conclusion that measuring the radioactive content of rocks today can pinpoint a precise range for their formation. Scientists who trust in God’s Word assume that the account presented by inspiration from God offers the foundation for interpreting nature today.
There are only two ways to have the final word on origins. The first way is that all the evidence is in. All the data must be collected and faultlessly analyzed. But even scientists admit that there is far more that we do not know than what we do know. The only other way to have the final word on origins is if there were a trustworthy witness of the event. Ultimately, we must always choose what to believe about origins, based on authority. Because none of us were there to witness the origin of the Earth, we must trust someone who knows more than us. Will we trust in the scientist who knows a little bit more than we do, or will we trust in God’s Word? We cannot rely on widespread acceptance, celebrity endorsement, or human authority because we know that each of those are fallible and limited.
Believing in Creation does not deny science. God created the natural world and He desires us to learn about it. This was included in His instruction to Adam to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Creationists use the scientific method of observation and interpretation in every way it can be used to understand more about what God created, so we can praise God even more intelligently. But the final word on origins will always be accepted by faith in someone else’s authority. And for the Christian, that authority is found in the Bible.
God illuminates the natural world through His Holy Spirit. Whoever will not listen to the teaching of the Spirit may come to some of the same conclusions that are obvious to everyone, but they will ultimately reject the God of Creation in favor of human assumptions. This is what Paul called “science, falsely so called” in 1 Timothy 6:20 (KJV). The New King James Version (NKJV) expresses it this way: “Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20–21).