Creationism - National Center for Science Education

CHAPTER 4
THEORETICAL ISSUES: SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND MORALITY
ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE RELATIONSHIP OF CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE
Science, said Max Weber, “dis-enchanted” nature. Christian belief played an
important role in this “dis-enchantment” or “de-deification” of nature. All of the natural
world was created by God, and is therefore “good” (as declared in Genesis). It reflects
God’s divinity, but none of it is itself divine. Over and against the polytheistic
cosmogonies and mythologies of its time, Genesis emphatically declared, in its grand
language, that all of nature was created by God. The sky was not a god, nor the sea, nor
the monsters of the deep, nor any other creature; nature was not composed of any spirits
or divinities: all the Cosmos was created by God. This is the message of Genesis.
Many historians of science—especially believing Christians such as Hooykaas
(1972), Jaki (1979) and Klaaren (1977)—have argued that the Christian belief in nature
as God’s creation was a crucial factor in the development of modern science. The Bible,
by “de-personifying” and “dedeifying” nature, made nature the creation of a God who
exists apart from His creation. Nature does not have to be worshipped or placated; it is
not a personality or a divinity. Nature is thus opened up to scientific study (but also, as
Lynn White pointed out, to exploitation).
From the realization that the rise of modern science was fostered by this Christian
attitude, many Christians argued that true science could not conflict with their biblical
interpretation. The Bible spoke of Creation and thus of nature, and whatever the Bible
said regarding nature must be true.
We see, then, the Bible is full of nature, begins with the creation of nature, tells us of the redemption of
man and nature, and concludes with the renovation of divine nature. How comes it, then, that so many
Christians look upon it as hardly worthy of religious consideration, as merely a material substratum to life?
[Bettex 1901:184]
Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin in Darwin’s time, who prepared a new
edition of Paley’s work, argued that Christianity encouraged precisely what modern
science claims to do (and what many modern scientists accuse religion of not doing:
The Christian religion made its appearance as the common disturber of the peace of the world, because it
put an end to the tranquil influence of custom, authority, credulity, sentiment, and imagination; forced men
upon the disagreeable task of examining evidence, searching records, and proving all things. [Quoted in V.
Hall 1962:92]
Religion—at least the Christian religion—was knowledge as well as faith, and
this included knowledge of nature. Science, before the acceptance of notions of
hypothesis-testing and falsifiability, once meant simply “knowledge,” gained and
classified in a systematic way. Creation-scientists still conceive of science this way, and
thus can insist that knowledge derived from the Bible confirms the knowledge obtained
by science. Henry Morris complains that creationists are unfairly excluded as scientists