Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Christians should value and defend science as an enterprise

It is good to see influential Christian leaders defending science (in its true sense as a powerful but fallible method of systematically gaining reliable knowledge about the material world). Phillip Jensen just wrote a good piece In Defence of Science on the Sydney Anglican website. [I thank my wife for bringing this to my attention].
My only reservation is that there is a sentence about global warming that could be mis-interpreted. But, the first comment by Dave Lankshear addresses that well. Here are the last two paragraphs of the article:
Christians are concerned for truth and so should value and defend science as an enterprise. It is a way of thinking and discovery that accepts gladly disproof of our views on the basis of evidence.  As such it is opposed to censorship and open to listening to alternative views. It is open to reason and more concerned with arguments and evidence than institutional authority and tradition. It may not be perfect, nor does it claim to give exhaustive or even final knowledge but it is the most honest, open way forward that humans have developed.
However, when groups with particular vested political interests use science to promote their view, it is science itself that comes under attack. When ‘evolution’ and ‘intelligent design’ are weapons in the hands of atheists and theists, it is very hard to weigh accurately the evidence. When catastrophists and sceptics discuss global warming, the truth is lost in politics and sadly for us, science itself gets a bad name.

No comments:

Post a Comment