There has never once been a point in my life where I ever believed that there is a conflict between religion and science. My greatest love has always been for God; my second has been the scientific study of the universe that God created, and everything in it. From a very young age, I have taken a great interest in zoology, botany, human biology, psychology, prehistoric life, geology and outer space. Far from diminishing my faith, my interest and knowledge of scientific subjects has greatly increased my reverent awe of God, heightened my respect for God, and helped me in my journey towards understanding the nature of God. The position I have always taken is that science is knowledge, and all knowledge comes from God. Science is the study of everything that exists, and God is the Author of the laws of physics, and of everything that exists.
I genuinely have no comprehension of those who think that science and religion are incompatible. It’s not a simple case of disagreeing with them; it is beyond my ability to comprehend why people need to think like that. All I can say is that science is not at odds with any religion which is honest, wise and truthful. Science is only at odds with a religion which is dishonest, deceptive and untrue. When I left Christianity, in my journey of faith I was resolved that I never wanted to be a part of any faith which saw a fundamental conflict between science and religion, because in order to hold beliefs which are in conflict with science, you have to suspend all notions of logic and rationality, and lose all trust in one’s own intelligence and intellectual ability.
There is a passage in Genesis in the Hebrew which proves that we cannot take the Genesis account of creation literally. Genesis 1:6-7 talks about a raqia`, which God made to separate the water above it from the waters below it. The verb-root raqa` means ‘to beat thin’, as with a metal sheet. The word raqia` is normally translated as ‘expanse’ or firmament’, but it actually refers to a metal dome. The bible tells us that God created a flat earth, over which God set a metal dome. Above the metal dome was one body of water, and below the flat earth is another body of water. The Sun, the Moon and the stars are set into this metal dome. This is how the ancient Hebrews understood the structure of the earth, and this is the image of the earth which Christianity inherited.
Up until a decade ago, I thought to myself, ‘No one in their right mind, in our modern world, would look at those 2 verses in Genesis and insist the earth was flat. No one who has seen pictures from the International Space station would insist there is a metal dome over the earth. No one who has seen pictures from the Moon, Mars, Pluto and other planets and moons could possible insist that they are but objects set into the metal dome. Right?’
Unfortunately, I was wrong. Faced with a growing acceptance that the ‘flat earth and dome’ is truly the limited picture of the universe which Genesis paints, there is now a fundamentalist Christian movement which believes everything we have ever seen from space is a huge, multi-million dollar, intergovernmental, Satanic conspiracy. They believe we cannot believe anything we have been told, because to do so is to submit to ‘Satan’. They firmly believe the earth is flat, and that there really is a dome over the earth. They have taken the bible’s words as literal truth, and to do so they have had to suspend all reason and intellect. Fundamentalist Muslims also see the world as flat, because that is how the Quran describes the earth and the sky.
For non-religious people, people who think like this are a laughing stock of monumental proportions. When any human being holds a set of beliefs which causes others to see religion as stupid and laughable, they are in fact behaving in a way that causes others to laugh at God, and view God as stupid. To me, this is a sin, because it makes a mockery of God’s reputation as a wise and omniscient God, with knowledge greater than anything the entire human race could ever fathom. The personal mission God gave me was to restore the holy reputation of God, and I just cannot accept into a holy community of faith, someone who portrays God as an idiot.
Furthermore, there are people who refuse to have their children vaccinated (so-called ‘anti-vaxxers’), falsely believing that it will make their children brain-damaged. The result of this is that there have been spikes of German Measles (which can kill an unborn infant) in countries with a strong anti-vaxx movement; and Polio – a crippling disease which was virtually wiped out – now threatens to return, along with the fatal disease of Tuberculosis (if a powerful, unfriendly foreign government wanted to weaken the health of their enemies’ populations, strengthening the anti-vaxx movement in enemy countries would be a good way to do it). There are also powerful people who deny climate change, to the extent that they are willing to invest in industries and economic activity which actually accelerate climate change.
There has been a tendency in recent decades for fundamentalist religious leaders to actively advocate a distrust of all knowledge and learning. The reason behind this is actually quite insidious if you look into it – the less educated someone is, the greater the control you can exert over them, and the bigger and more fantastic the lies you can tell them, and the deeper the level of fear you can instil into them. People who distrust science, knowledge, wisdom and genuine facts and news, are unable to discern what is truth and what is false in what their leaders say, and so have no option but to trust that their leaders are telling them the truth.
I have to admit though, that science and western culture are not entirely blameless in this setting up of religion and science as enemies. Western culture has divided life, and divorced the religious from the secular. It is generally held that there are things religion should not venture into. However, in the ancient Israelite way of thinking, Religion was what covered the whole of life – religion was life. In the field of education, it taught us how to be human – how to raise our children, how to relate to one another in a respectful and just way, how to structure our society, and so on.
In politics, it told us how to be a good leader – one who was concerned with all his or her people, and not just his or her own interest group; it taught us how to run the economy for the benefit of all, and not for one’s own selfish gain – how to curb the excesses of the rich, and ensure no one falls into abject poverty. In the field of science, it taught us how use plants to heal, how to look after the earth and its creatures, how to manage crops, and so on. In the field of history, it gave intellectual and spiritual meaning to the otherwise haphazard events throughout the generations, seeing the power of God in human affairs, and where God is taking us.
All knowledge ultimately comes from God: ‘For Yahveh gives wisdom; from God’s mouth come knowledge and understanding’. (Prov 2:6; see also Ecc 2:26) Therefore science, being one of the many fields of knowledge, comes from God. For this reason, we should not fear it or be apprehensive of it. In observing natural science, we cannot but marvel at the work of God: ‘The skies declare the glory of God, the dome of the sky proclaims is handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.’ (Ps 19:2-3)
I have found that many fields of science have given me crucial insights into religion, such as social anthropology and human psychology. I have learned a great deal about the workings of the human mind, on what it means to be human, the place of spirituality in human society, the very psychology of religion, and the optimum way for a stable human society to function – a huge concern in the Israelite religion. It has all made me realise that God’s ways work with human nature, and lift us higher than anything we could have imagined.
For me, when I learn something new that radically changes and improves my understanding of how people, nature and the universe work, it is a most wonderful thing, because my mind and soul are being expanded, and it almost feels as if coming across that knowledge has been a gift from God. I therefore bless God for everything new I learn, because all knowledge – especially mind-expanding and soul-shaking knowledge – is a blessing directly from Yahveh. That is why I have come to cherish books of knowledge almost as sacred objects, more precious than gold.
It is indeed a great thing to acquire knowledge and understanding, and thus gain wisdom. The ancient Israelite religion had a deep and very profound reverence for Wisdom – it was a part of Israelite mysticism, believing that Wisdom was an intrinsic part of the very nature of God. The Book of Proverbs, and the apocryphal Book of Wisdom and Book of Ben Sirach all extol knowledge and wisdom as divine gifts. Science is a gift from God, but ‘let God keep a watch over knowledge’. (cf Prov 22:12a)
Just as a tongue can produce blessing and cursing, and just as a knife can help us with our food as well as kill, so also science can be used for good as well as evil. Eugenics was an abuse of science, as is the creation of weapons of mass destruction. We human beings who follow a just and compassionate God, have to be God’s eyes and watch over science, so that it remains a blessing and a benefit to human knowledge, rather than become a potential evil.
A religious person should seek to attain a reverent awe of God and God’s power, because this is the beginning and foundation of all knowledge and wisdom. If we gain this proper respect for God and God’s values, we learn the proper use of knowledge and wisdom.
Yahveh is not only a God of religious faith, but also the great, wise and omniscient God of science.