A Physicist Discusses the Amazing Synergism Between Science & Christianity

There is an incredible synergism between what is discovered when you study nature and what is discovered when you study God!  Professor Jonathan Feng, PhD, makes this point in his interview on Purpose Nation Podcast Episode #3 (published on August 14, 2017). Professor Feng is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of California, Irvine.  He holds degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, and Stanford and he is a committed Christian!

Here is Professor Feng’s bio:  http://hep.ps.uci.edu/~jlf/

Here are some of the points he made in the interview:

1.     Most of the controversy between science and religion comes from extremists who over sell one side of the argument. For example, the majority of scientists think Richard Dawkins does a disservice to science; his extremist views actually hurt the discipline.

2.     The natural world is put together in such an elegant and wonderful way!  You can’t study science without wondering why is it like that.” Christianity can answer that question.

3.     You also cannot work in the sciences with wondering why is it that we can figure this stuff out?  Christianity also has the answer to that question!

4.     Since God created our universe and since we are created in God’s image and since he wants us to investigate nature, we should not be surprised that the universe is intelligible to us.

5.     All scientists believe that there is a single truth that exists; there is an ultimate truth and you can go and find it!  None believe that everyone has their own version of the truth. When scientists think they have found the truth, they try to convince everyone that reality is this one truth.

6.     Dr. Feng has not personally experienced the animosity toward religion that many speak about and he doesn’t think Christians are as absent from academia as people think. He believes that most of the antagonism is from the media and the public; he has not seen it from his scientific colleagues.

7.     He looks to the examples of Michael Faraday & James Clerk Maxwell; both devout Christians. He related the story of when Faraday was asked to be the president of the Royal Society, he turned it down by saying that “it was not what God wanted him to do.”

I have several blog entries on the incredible synergism between science and Christianity:

https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/01/science-christianity-no-conflict.html

https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/01/science-theology-synergetic-relationship.html

https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-mysterious-true-nature-of-reality.html

https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/02/big-bang-cosmology-christian-creation.html

https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/02/removing-barrier-genesis.html

https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2017/07/god-and-nature-above-reason-not-against.html

Creation Ex Nihilo

As we continue to study nature, evidence strengthens supporting the idea that something which has always existed created all the space, matter, time, and energy which is our universe.

Here is a link to a blog I wrote several years ago:  http://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/02/big-bang-cosmology-christian-creation.html

Dr. Jeff Zweerink from Reasons to Believe recently wrote an article on this topic:

“Where everyone [conclusions of scientists] seems to agree is that the beginning of our universe requires the existence of something that can generate the universe! In order to prevent an infinite regress of things, these models posit something that simply exists (without a beginning). Stated in more philosophical terms, these “somethings” are self-existent because their existence does not depend on anything else. Additionally, these self-existent things also have the capacity to cause other things (like universes) to exist. In other words, they are causal agents. All these models purport to explain the entirety of the universe in a self-contained manner.”[1]

You can read the entire article here:  http://www.reasons.org/blogs/impact-events/science-journals-and-creation-ex-nihilo

The parallel between big bang cosmology and what the Bible teaches is astounding. Christian theology teaches that all space, matter, time, and energy were created out of nothing by God and this teaching was around thousands of years before science “discovered” it!

---

[1] Dr. Jeff Zweerink, Reasons to Believe, http://www.reasons.org/blogs/impact-events/science-journals-and-creation-ex-nihilo

The Argument From Biochemical Design, Revisited

“The more we study nature, the more reasons we have to conclude that God exists. Recent discoveries in biology are no exception. What we have discovered in the field of biochemistry is a powerful argument for God; investigating nature can lead us to the reasonable conclusion that life was created by a mind.”

This argument was presented in a previous blog.  Since that writing, there have been a couple developments to enhance the argument that “the more we study nature, the more reasons we have to conclude that God exists.”

The first involves work investigating DNA’s ability to transfer electrical charge.

DNA’s wire property is so remarkable that it serves as inspiration for the design of the next generation of electronic devices—at the nanoscale. The use of biological designs to drive technological advance is one of the most exciting areas in engineering. This area of study—called biomimetics and bioinspiration—presents us with new reasons to believe that life stems from a Creator. It paves the way for a new type of design argument I dub the converse Watchmaker argument: If biological designs are the work of a Creator, then these systems should be so well-designed that they can serve as engineering models and, otherwise, inspire the development of new technologies.[1]

Here is the link to the article:  http://www.reasons.org/blogs/the-cells-design/dna-wired-for-design

Here is a link to all of Jacqueline Barton’s research on this topic:  http://www.its.caltech.edu/~jkbgrp/Publications.htm#1997_Science

The second development involves continuing work using DNA as an information storage medium.

The use of biological designs to drive technological advance is one of the most exciting areas in engineering. This area of study—called biomimetics and bioinspiration—presents us with new reasons to believe that life stems from a Creator. As the names imply, biomimetics involves direct copying (or mimicry) of designs from biology, whereas bioinspiration relies on insights from biology to guide the engineering enterprise. DNA’s capacity to inspire engineering efforts to develop new data storage technology highlights this biomolecule’s elegant, sophisticated design and, at the same time, raises a troubling question for the evolutionary paradigm.[2]

Here is a link to the full article discussing this:  http://www.reasons.org/blogs/the-cells-design/dna--digitally-designed

The possibility that advances in human technology will ultimately mirror the molecular technology that already exists as an integral part of biochemical systems leads to the Watchmaker prediction: As human designers develop new technologies, examples of these technologies, which previously went unrecognized, will become evident in the operation of the cell’s molecular systems. In other words, if the Watchmaker analogy truly serves as evidence for the Creator’s existence, then it is reasonable to expect that life’s biochemical machinery anticipates human technological advances.[3]

---

[1] Dr. Fazale Rana, Reasons to Believe, http://www.reasons.org/blogs/the-cells-design/dna-wired-for-design

[2] Dr. Fazale Rana, Reasons to Believe, http://www.reasons.org/blogs/the-cells-design/dna--digitally-designed

[3] Dr. Fazale Rana, Reasons to Believe, http://www.reasons.org/blogs/the-cells-design/dna-wired-for-design