Norris Family News

Astounding Leaps of Faith

The most passionate proponent of evolution in my life was the father of my best childhood friends and a man whom I deeply respect and love dearly. He is a scientist, with a PhD in chemistry and effective PhDs in a variety of other subjects and disciplines. One day when we were in college, while around the table at a meal, the subject turned to some amazing aspect of a swallow's flight. My friend's father said, "Isn't Evolution amazing?" He didn't make the statement as a simple rhetorical question. He expressed it with deep reverence and awe, almost worship...as it should be. Isn't that our natural response when we deeply contemplate some aspect of nature or beauty or art or music? Who can ponder the stunning intricacy of a simple cell and not at least say, "Wow." Who, upon appreciating a beautiful symphonic performance, cannot be moved by the experience? We are surrounded at all times, and even live within (our bodies), such mind-boggling complexity of engineering and beauty of form, that the mind cannot grasp it, nor the heart contain enough admiration.

In spite of this very natural "religious" response, we are taught that evolution and the whole naturalistic worldview are true because they are based solely on scientific facts that have been objectively discovered and experimentally proven. The naturalistic worldview does not rely upon miracles or the supernatural to explain itself. Science rejects these tired, sentimental anachronisms of primitive civilizations. And yet this bold claim is betrayed by the facts themselves. Consider the day, millions upon millions of years ago, when Chance Mutation brought forth not one, but two sets of highly complex, highly internally interdependent, complimentary systems of reproduction that marked that fateful transition, in a single generation, from asexual to sexual reproduction. Myriad, beneficial mutations over tens of thousands of years have brought about the prototypes of full reproductive systems in every member of the species. Now at last, key mutations have occurred in two distinct animals. One error in the millions of genetic instructions that have occurred in the two beasts, now male and female, would have meant sterility. And consider that Chance made those two sets of beneficial and perectly complimentary random mutations occur within sufficient geographic proximity for the new couple to meet, and then to know what to do before thier periods of fertility or their very lives ended. What can this event be called except "miraculous?" Then consider the basic propositon of the naturalistic worldview that says that order comes from chaos, perfection from imperfection, energy from rest, etc. In light of the facts that all stars are using up their fuel, that the rotation of the planet is slowing, and of our day to day experience of having to work to overcome all forms of decay, what can this fundamental contrary proposition be called but "supernatural?"

The scientist may argue with my simplifications, but the point is that there is a false dichotomy between faith and science. The naturalistic worldview requires astounding leaps of faith in order to fill the huge gaps between scientific knowledge and the simplest contemplations of origins. Faith is rarely blind; it almost always has an object. The Naturalist places his faith in reason and logic, and his ability to use these tools to discover the answers to all questions, and is largely justified in doing so. But there is a fatal flaw. In order for the inferences, observations, logic, reasonings, and calculations of science to work, they must be universal. They must apply always and everywhere, or else experiments cannot be repeated, space probes cannot reach their targets, and the simplest communications of truths cannot happen. The laws of rational thought, logic, and mathematics must be objective and therefore transcendent to any person, culture, species, or time. And yet, evolutionary science tells us that Reason, Thought, and Logic are mere biochemical activities of the brain. They are, however convenient to us, only what our brains happen to be like and how they happen to work. And yet this cannot be. If our brains happened to function differently, such that logic and reason were impossible or were random, there would still be measurements of objective reality. Whether a man can observe, infer, reason, and even calculate the physics of a three hundred kilogram boulder falling on him from 10.72 meters above will not change the inevitable outcome. So the naturalistic scientist is left saying that our brains are, by chance, fitted to comprehend and manipulate reality; thus leaving the very foundations of humanity permanently inexplicable. Just like on the ultimate question of origins, science tells us to accept by faith that the nature of our thinking combined with the existence of Logic and Reason just... is. And here, the faith is truly blind, since the Naturalistic worldview rejects a priori an ultimate Object for faith.

Now with regard to faith, the Christian worldview is no different. It requires faith in the God who just... is. But the faith is not blind because the ultimate Object is known. The Christian worldview begins a priori "In the beginning God." Since God is the Creator of the universe, and since He created it according to His own, logical, reasonable, and mathematical nature, and since He created man "in His own image" with the similar capacities to reason and compute, science is possible. The laws of nature exist because they do so on purpose, and not by chance. The Christian worldview provides a logical, dependable framework for scientific inquiry. But most importantly, the Creator God is the Object properly fitted to the feelings of awe and worship that arise from pondering the swallow's flight, the intricacy of the cell, and the beauty of a symphonic performance.