Extreme Balance – Scripture and Science

(This post will make more sense if you read ‘Extreme Balance’ first)

I was shocked to see a placard, at a climate change rally, that declared ‘Science not Scripture’. I wondered, who on earth could have possibly mounted a scriptural argument against the gradual change of our climate due to greenhouse emissions. The placard was actually shouting – Christians have put forward yet another reason for me to reject their scriptures.

I have a view on climate change…

The company I worked for, for 30 years, doubled in size a few times and it was very uncomfortable requiring major restructuring and governance transformation. It is well known that growth requires change and change is uncomfortable and challenging. If we didn’t change, the growth we were experiencing would not have been sustainable.

When I was born the population of the world was 3 billion, today it is 7.7 billion. When I was young there was well over twice as much room to play and well under half as many mouths to feed. Those born just ten years before me had three times as much room to play, compared to today, and one third as many mouths to feed. Many of my generation now cry ‘why can’t we just keep things the way they were’.

Here’s two reasons – during my lifetime the population of most vertebrate species has declined by 60% and the number of fish in the sea has more than halved

One hundred years ago the population was small enough (1.8 billion) that no matter what they did it had no material effect on the natural world – today our individual actions multiplied by 7.7 billion are having a material effect on nearly everything!!

If we are to be good stewards of, and live sustainably and responsibly on, this more populated wonder-filled planet, restructuring and change is required.

One article I read, to promote the burning of fossil fuels, said that coal was a wonderful gift given by God to help us create cheap energy – this was certainly true when 1 billion people, with modest energy needs, embarked on the industrial revolution – it is far from true today.

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest – if you don’t like what I have said above, please don’t read on, it gets much worse.

And now to the title…

The book of God’s words (scriptures) and the book of God’s works (science) are often pitched against each other. In the extreme, exclusive proponents of each see the other as the source of all evil.

I wish to assert that both books are truth and a balanced, expansive, abundant life is found in embracing both.

Let me be extreme:

I believe that ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ – I believe that Genesis and all scripture is pure truth inspired by God and that it succinctly and profoundly describes the nature of man and our relationship with God.

The ‘book of His words’ and the story that it tells is so beautiful that it causes my heart to sour in wonder.

I believe that the earth and the heavens are billions of years old and creative and evolutionary processes were used by God to fashion us and the world. Every new discovery whether it is found through a microscope a telescope or in a rock writes a new chapter in the book of God’s works.

The ‘book of His works’ is so beautiful that it causes my heart to sour in wonder.

The book of God’s words (scripture) is not diminished by the book of His work’s (science) and

The book of God’s work’s (science) is not diminished by the book of His words (scripture),

to try and reconcile them together and make them equivalent is to diminish them both

If you embrace the book of God’s words (scripture) and reject the book of His works (science) it leads to isolation and irrelevance.

If you embrace the book of God’s works (science) and reject the book of His words (scripture) it leads to nihilism – meaninglessness

For me Genesis is a story of history emerging from revelation and I’m not sure where the boundary is.

I think this because the language of the early chapters of Genesis (Moses’ revelation of the beginning of time), at the beginning of the bible, is very similar to the language of the book of Revelation (John’s revelation of the end of time), at the end of the bible.  

For example, the Tree of Life and the Serpent are only seen in these two books – they are found in the first three and the last three chapters of the bible and not in any other of its books.

Both Genesis and Revelation describe series of seven events, listed one after the other with the seventh having the greatest significance.

In the bible this structure is only found in these two books.

In Genesis, the events are the six days of creation culminating in a day of rest on the seventh day – the Sabbath. Interestingly the six days of creation are only mentioned twice more in the old testament (that I can find), Sabbath, the day of rest, is mentioned hundreds of times – a very different focus than that of our western minds…

In the book of Revelation we see the opening of the seven seals, seven trumpets, seven plagues, seven bowls of God’s wrath.

We do not promote the literal interpretation of the book of Revelation and neither should we of the early chapters of Genesis.

Genesis overflows with profound, foundational truth – I just don’t think it is literal.

I love John’s revelation of the beginning of time – it is 100% focused on why:

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’ ‘…to all who … receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God’

It is only from the book of His words that we can know about things that are eternal:

‘where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part …, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears… And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.’

It is only through the book of His works (science) that we can understand the true complexity of the physical world around us, both past and present, and how we can care for and live sustainably in it.

My hope is that you will embrace both books fully