Session 2 does science disprove christianity? QUICK START Watch Make sure everyone can see the screen and the audio is at a comfortable level. Print Before class, make enough copies of this session s handout for your entire group. (The handouts came with your download.) Read Take some time in advance to read and consider the Bible study questions and come up with personal examples to encourage discussion. Note: For more detailed information, please see the How to Use This Leader s Guide document.
Open Leader: Divide the whole class into two sides, or zones, with some space between them. (Two sides of the room would be fine.) Hand out index cards or scrap paper, and ask one zone to write an even number between 2 and 10 (2,4,6,8,10) on each one. The other zone should write an odd number between 1 and 9 on each one (1,3,5,7,9). Ask for two volunteers. This is a race. You need to collect ten numbers in order from the people in the room. Player A, you are collecting in order from 1 to 10. Player B, you are collecting in order from 10 to 1. After you collect each number, bring it to me, and I ll keep track of your progress. The first one to give me all ten numbers is the supreme victor of the universe, earning our eternal admiration. Oh, and there s one more complication for each of you. Player A, whenever you go into the even zone, you re not allowed to talk or make noise. You must use sign language to get what you want. The other zone is normal for you. Player B, whenever you go into the odd zone, you must speak with gibberish to get what you want no recognizable words, only nonsense sounds. The other zone is normal for you. If you break this rule if you make sound or use recognizable words in the forbidden zone you will have to start over with 10 or 1. Leader: Have fun with this. If you want to retry it with other players, you could change the zone-rules to include, say, moving backwards, moving and speaking at half-speed, speaking in rhyme, closing one s eyes, etc. Just remember: for each player, one zone is normal and the other has a strange rule. After the game, ask a few followup questions... How was that? Did you find it confusing? How did you keep the different zones straight? What was your secret of success (or your excuse for losing)? Do you ever feel as if you re living your life in two different zones? Church and school. Your Christian friends and then the neighborhood. Sometimes it seems that the two are working with two entirely different ways of thinking. At church, everyone talks about the seven days of creation, and you go to school and your teacher talks about the millions of years of evolution that it took to create man. At church, everyone seems to think that Jesus walking on water or God parting the Red Sea is no big deal, but at school, all your friends think you are stupid for believing in those kinds of fairytales. Let s watch today s video that talks about science and our faith. 12
View Watch Session 2: Does Science Disprove Christianity? (27 Minutes) Re-view Leader: Note that the video does not get into specific arguments about specific miracles, except for the resurrection of Jesus. Matt Chandler takes a philosophical approach if God can bust open the laws of nature with the resurrection, He can do that any time He wants. Because science focuses on the natural world, it cannot prove or disprove the supernatural doings of God. However, your students may have specific questions about biblical miracles. Proceed at your own risk. Keep lifting the conversation to embrace the power of God to work miracles, whatever the details might be. Have you had conversations with friends at school or neighbors or relatives about the miracles in the Bible? How has that gone for you? The people in the video seemed pretty frustrated. How have you felt about those conversations? Leader: Distribute The Conversation handout (example handout on page 20). Break into groups of 4 6. You see a number of quotes from the video here, mostly people talking about the conversations they have had about science and faith. I want you to add to those quotes. In your groups, talk about your own conversations, and write down other quotes in the margins of this page or on the back. What have you heard people saying and asking about Christianity? Have you or other Christians said things to defend your faith? What? Where? Do you have questions or doubts in your own mind? Are you carrying on a conversation like this in your head? 13
Talk about all this, and write down any new bits of that conversation. Leader: Give them 6 10 minutes, or until the energy seems to wane. Then pull them back together. Consider writing on a board some key words of the extra statements/questions they ve come up with. What have you written down? What other parts of this conversation have you heard, said, or thought? Leader: Feel free to focus on any of the new material provided by the small groups, answering questions or asking follow-up questions. Our notes here will, of course, cover the few quotes printed on the handout. I feel like defending Christianity is a hard thing to do because science has verifiable facts and Christianity is based on faith. Gabe Would you agree with this? Does this mean that smart people believe in science and stupid people believe in Christianity? (No!) Then why not? Christianity is historically rooted and isn t a blind faith at all.... we aren t crossing our fingers and hoping we re right. Our belief in Jesus Christ, activated by the Holy Spirit, is also very much an act of reason... Matt Chandler What does Matt mean by blind faith? Why does he call Christianity an act of reason? It s a little bit like the two zones from the opening game. If you lived your whole life in the gibberish zone, you might doubt that language really existed. It would be beyond everything you knew. You could study the human voice, and how it makes all these different sounds. You could study the way numbers are written on paper and given when people need them. But when someone comes to you and says that people can actually speak in words that mean things, you would question it. It might be the same way with science in our world. Science operates in a closed system: the natural world. Its whole focus is on natural causes for natural phenomena. But when we suggest that there s a God beyond 14
nature outside the system who occasionally makes supernatural things happen, scientists have no place for that within their system. We can appreciate scientists for what they do. They have explained the natural world brilliantly, and we need to learn this from them. But we are not stupid for believing in another kind of reality outside their system. That really is very logical, and those scientists who insist that this supernatural reality cannot exist are actually rather close-minded. [In a conversation about faith] I definitely didn t feel prepared, because he asked for proof and I didn t know what to say, my mind went totally went blank, and I felt clueless. Ashley I ve tried so many times, but I just wish that he [my dad] really would be as open as he likes to think he is. Alexandra Have you had experiences like this? Did you feel unprepared, frustrated? What sort of advice would you give to Ashley or Alexandra... or yourself? Now a miracle by definition is outside of natural causes.... Something is occurring outside of natural law that makes that occur. So when someone says science has disproved the miraculous, that is a massive leap of faith. In fact that s a bigger leap of faith than we have in believing that miracles actually occur. There is no scientific theory out there that can test what can or cannot occur outside of natural causes. The whole realm of science is built around how natural causes create other causes.... So for someone to say that science has disproved the miraculous is actually them taking a step of faith and saying without any objective facts, I believe that this cannot occur. We... are saying, We by faith believe that there is a God outside of the natural that controls the natural, and at any point he can suspend the natural laws that he created to do as he wills. So science and faith are not at odds with one another. Matt Chandler What is Matt Chandler saying here? How could this help you in a conversation with someone about faith and science? 15
Bible Journey Turn to Psalm 19. Somebody read verses 1 4. How do the heavens declare the glory of God? This is saying that the skies are teaching us, without words, about God. It s hard to look at the vast array of stars without understanding that there is Someone beyond us, a Creator who has put us here. But is that scientific? Consider this. For a long time now, scientists have been looking for our beginnings. When and how did our universe start? They re looking at the stars for the answers. These stars are so far away that the light we see from them was actually emitted many, many years ago and is only now getting to us. So, in a way, the history of our universe is written in the stars. And isn t that what this Psalm tells us? Somebody read verses 5 6. What s the word-picture we find here? (The sun moves across the sky, like a bridegroom traveling to his bride, or like an athlete running a race.) Here s where we can get in some trouble. A scientist might say, Look! You silly Christians believe that the sun moves around the earth. We know better. How would you respond to that? If we truly believe the Bible, don t we have to accept that the sun moves across the sky? Isn t that what this says? This is clearly poetic language. The Psalmist is describing what it looks like. The sun isn t actually a bridegroom or athlete. These are descriptive figures of speech. In the same way, we need to acknowledge that the inspired words of Scripture often employ the artistic skill of its human writers to describe things from their perspective. (There might be something like that going on in the biblical miracle of the sun standing still. ) Turn to 2 Corinthians 4:1. In this lesson, we re not going to be able to answer every question about the miracles in the Bible, but we can focus on the conversation we carry on as Christians in a scientific world. Here we find some things the apostle Paul said about his own ministry. Somebody read verses 1 2. As Paul and his colleagues try to express their faith, what do they NOT do? What ways have they renounced? (Secret and shameful ways; deception; distortion.) What do they do instead? (Set forth the truth plainly; good conscience,) 16
Why do they work like this? Why would they give up those tactics? Isn t it all about winning? If they win arguments by any means necessary don t they win people to Christ, and isn t that what it s all about? Somebody read verses 3 4. Do you think some people today are blinded? Are they unable to truly hear your arguments, no matter how brilliant you are? Somebody read verses 5 7. How does Paul describe his message? (Not about them. It s God s light.) In what way are we jars of clay? So, in these conversations we have about faith, it s not all about winning. It s certainly not about us. We may make mistakes. We may feel unprepared. We are, after all, just jars of clay. But we plainly set forth God s truth not using distortion or deception, but just shining God s light on the situation. And maybe people get it, or maybe they re blinded. We just need to keep shining that light. Later in this epistle (chapter 10), Paul says, The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. It s funny he talks about demolishing arguments and taking every thought captive, using pretty violent language, and yet the weapons we fight with are different. As Christians, our main weapon is always love. It s never about how we re going to win arguments. It s about how we show the love of Christ. In the video, Matt Chandler referred to another New Testament chapter, 1 Peter 3. Turn there now. He was talking about the girl whose father kept trying to cure her of her Christian beliefs. Here, watch the History Channel. It can be really tough to carry on these conversations in your own home. Matt steered us to this chapter. Somebody read verses 1 2. How would unbelieving husbands be won over by their wives? (By their behavior: purity, reverence, and, significantly, without words. ) 17
Do you think we could apply this to any home situation with parents, siblings, or maybe even BFFs? How can our behavior lead people to Christ? Some verses later in the chapter may help us with this. Somebody read verses 8 9. How might this behavior affect people in our science vs. faith debates? Wouldn t you automatically lose every argument if you re too humble, for instance, or too sympathetic? Somebody read verses 14 16. Based on verse 14, how should you respond if you get insulted or even discriminated against because of your Christian beliefs? (Don t be afraid. You re blessed.) What should we be prepared to do? (Give a reason for the hope we have.) What might that sound like? What reasons would you give for putting your hope, and your faith, in Christ? Don t miss the last few words of verse 15. Gentleness and respect. That s how we should conduct this conversation. Not screaming, You pagan scientists! The god of this age has blinded you to God s truth!, but loving, respecting, keeping a clear conscience, telling your story of hope. 18
Last Word It comes down to what Matt said in the video. Science works in a closed circuit, the natural world. We dare to believe that there is something outside that world Someone who is supernatural. If that s what we truly believe, then we should carry on that conversation in a supernatural way; a godly way. If we fight fire with fire, responding to insults with insults and retaliating in kind well, that s the way the world works. But if we rely on God s power to show God s love, then that s truly supernatural. In closing, I d encourage you to think about how you can prepare to give a reason for the hope you have. Maybe you want to go through those extra statements and questions you wrote on the handout, or pray about the people you re having these conversations with. Let s keep talking about the reasons for our faith. 19
handout The Conversation I feel like defending Christianity is a hard thing to do because science has verifiable facts and Christianity is based on faith. Gabe Christianity is historically rooted and isn t a blind faith at all.... we aren t crossing our fingers and hoping we re right. Our belief in Jesus Christ, activated by the Holy Spirit, is also very much an act of reason... Matt Chandler [In a conversation about faith] I definitely didn t feel prepared, because he asked for proof and I didn t know what to say, my mind went totally blank, and I felt clueless. Ashley I ve tried so many times, but I just wish that he [my dad] really would be as open as he likes to think he is. Alexandra Now a miracle by definition is outside of natural causes.... Something is occurring outside of natural law that makes that occur. So when someone says science has disproved the miraculous, that is a massive leap of faith. In fact that s a bigger leap of faith than we have in believing that miracles actually occur. There is no scientific theory out there that can test what can or cannot occur outside of natural causes. The whole realm of science is built around how natural causes create other causes.... So for someone to say that science has disproved the miraculous is actually them taking a step of faith and saying without any objective facts, I believe that this cannot occur. We... are saying, We by faith believe that there is a God outside of the natural that controls the natural, and at any point he can suspend the natural laws that he created to do as he wills. So science and faith are not at odds with one another. Matt Chandler Session 2: Does Science disprove christianity? 20