Thursday, July 19, 2007

Faith and science

At least one scientist who is also an atheist thinks those who find science and faith irreconcilable ignore the empirical evidence. Dale Carrico, quoted at the Acton Institute blog:
Given all the atheist militancy raising a ruckus lately, I suppose it isn’t too surprising that I am stumbling upon more regular and more baldly dismissive declarations these days about the ineradicable incompatibility of science and religion among Science’s self-appointed Elite Champions online.

I’ve been a perfectly convinced and rather cheerfully nonjudgmental atheist for well over twenty years at this point, but I must say that I think it is arrant nonsense to claim that scientific and religious practices or scientific and religious beliefs are incompatible, given the overabundant evidence of people who weave them together in their lives every day so conspicuously. A little respect for the facts you claim so to cherish, people?
World Magazine interviews Michael Behe [behind the subscription wall], who believes neither in "Creationism" nor in "random natural selection." He does, however, believe that God created this universe, with all its pain and suffering:
I'm no deist. I'm a Christian who believes strongly in an active, loving God. Yet as C.S. Lewis insisted, Aslan is "not a tame lion." God answered Job's complaint of suffering not by denying it, but by His majesty and transcendence. God did not place us in a toy world, with all the sharp edges smoothed. Rather, along with the pleasant, He designed a world containing real physical danger: tigers with claws, and remarkable parasites with sophisticated molecular technology. We Christians especially should expect to suffer in this life and, much worse, to witness those dear to us suffer. Yet our faith assures us that through the mystery of suffering with Christ, God will draw out much good.
Acton Institute PowerBlog: Speaking of 'Priestly' Science, World Magazine: Darwin Slayer

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