 | Pastor Dave grew up in northern New Jersey in a very diverse cultural area. He attended Central College in Pella, Iowa received a BA in sociology and psychology. He was an offensive guard for their NCAA Div III National Championship team in 1974. In speaking for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he sensed a call to full time ministry. Meeting is future wife Sandy at Central, went to Michigan to finish her college while Dave started Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Dave married Sandy in 77 and completed his Masters of Divinity degree in 78. Pastor Dave’s first church was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. Their three children were born there and he also served as a Police and Fire Chaplain for the city. In February 1991, they came to Wichita to start Harvest Community Church. In 2006, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Covenant Theological (Presbyterian) Seminary in St Louis. During that year he gained a daughter-in-law with now 2 grandsons of 3 years and 6 months old. Besides Pastoring at HCC for the past 20 years, he has been Director of the SCSD & WPD Police Chaplains for 11.
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Religion
2011-11-17 15:08:11
Science vs. religion
Q: Is there now, and has there always been a conflict between science and religion? If so, how do we know which is correct in each situation?
A: Christianity is the mother that gave birth to science. Most of the early scientists were Christians like Copernicus, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Linnaeus, Keppler, Boyle, Pasteur, Fabre, Faraday, Fleming, and others. They looked at their disciplines through the framework of their Christian faith. Discovering what God has put in His world for them to gain for the good of mankind and the glory of God. They believed they were following God’s example of being creators, healers and redeemers. They were just following God’s command to man back in Geneses 1:28 “…subdue and rule over...” it.
Now the reason I said early that western Christianity gave birth to scientific development was due to the God they believed in is a rational and orderly creator who has natural laws that govern His universe. The world was not to be worshipped but to be examined. That they saw God’s handiwork and exhibited His creative nature. {Psalm 19} The Christian faith worldview opens the door for science to indulge itself in God’s creation and work with it. Science, as some suggest and I agree, could not have begun fore instance in the Muslim faith because it is fatalist and does not accept progress. Their worldview does not accept as possible and views it as inappropriate the very ideas of natural laws. It would be considered blasphemous because it would take away Allah’s ability to govern the universe as he saw fit. Also, Science could not have begun in the Hindu or the Buddhist world views because their belief is that the physical world is an illusion and has no reality. You have to believe the world exists to do the inquiry of it as a scientist.
Now the church has not always been a friend with science and has shot itself in the foot a time or two, but not because of the scriptures, more due to wrong philosophy. A case that is often written about is the church during the Middle Ages rejected Galileo’s theory that the world revolved around the sun rather than the belief of that day that the sun revolved around the earth. The church rejected Galileo’s theory, not because of scripture but because of the Greek philosophy of the Middle Ages that held that the sun revolved around the earth. Interesting, Galileo sent a letter to a Christian friend, Johannes Kepler complaining that the bishops wouldn’t look into his telescope to give the thought a chance. Kepler encouraged his Christian friend with these words, “I wanted to be a theologian; for a long time I was unhappy. Now, behold, God is praised by my work even in astronomy.”
As Christians, the Bible is our sole source of authority for our lives, but it is not a scientific text book. The scriptures don’t instruct us in physics, chemistry or calculus. It has revealed certain truths related to science and interestingly enough gave scientific knowledge before mankind developed this technological knowledge. The Bible has some pre-scientific information in the areas of health, disease control and agriculture before it was called science. (ie. Levitical Dietary Laws) But the serious rub for Biblical faith came when theories emerge in science leaving God out of the equation. Much conflict has emerged from the area of the origins of man being a cosmic accident rather than a creation of God. Biology can describe to us how things could have happened but not how they happened. That is a matter of history.
Interestingly enough, Darwin’s theory of evolution has come under fire from places like Rice, Yale, Emery and MIT along with Nobel Prize nominee in Chemistry Henry Schaefer world renowned chemist. Not because of scripture or belief in God but purely from the scientific evidence. Scientists are giving a look at design which leads to a designer. Molecular biologist Robert Behe has come to believe in Intelligent Design as he has studied life at the cellar level. {Psalm 139:13-14} Another like Physicist John Pokinghorne said, “I also believe in God. Why? Even though I’ve never seen Him, it makes sense of all the evidence I see out there ---- of the incredible complex nature of the world, of the multi-faceted levels of reality, of the fact that people long for worship and hope, the fact that there is a phenomenon of Jesus throughout the world.” {Isaiah 40:22} It is amazing, even the leading Observational Cosmologist in the world, Allan Sandage at 60 years old having spent most of his life studying the vast expanse of the universe came to believe in God as a Christian at 50. When asked, “Can a person be a scientist and a Christian?” Here’s how he answered that question. “Yes. As I said before, the world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone…”
The evidence is there! It’s a matter of how people interpret it. The Bible says, “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1). How He did it is a mystery. We will know someday but in the mean time we know He did it. Let us rejoice with science over the beautiful job He did. {Ps 84:1-2} I am overwhelmed by our God.
