CHRISTIANITY AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE J.P. MORELAND I. Five Alleged Problems with Theology and Science A. Allegedly, science shows there is no need to postulate a god. 1. Ancients used to think that you needed to appeal to deity to explain phenomena in the world. 2. Now, science can explain them in naturalistic terms alone. B. Scientific progress shows scientific ways of knowing are vastly superior to other ways of knowing. 1. We have made much progress in science over the last 300 years. 2. Reason: a methodology that uses mathematical empiricism. 3. Compared with the arts, theology, and humanities, there is a vast difference in the rate of progress. 4. Alternative ways of knowing are vastly inferior to scientific ways of knowing. Thus, you have insecure knowledge in those areas. C. Specific biblical texts, if taken literally, have been shown by science to be false. 1. Even if this is true, what follows? a. Not that there is no God b. Not that Christianity is not true D. Scientific forms of explanation rule out others. 1. Aristotle and causation (A causes B) a. Material: what is this made of? (1) A house is made up of certain stuff. (2) Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. b. Efficient: that by means of which an effect is produced (1) Ex: 1 billiard ball hits another; the first is the efficient cause of the motion of the second. (2) The builders of a house c. Final (teleological goal): that for the sake of which an effect is produced (i.e., the goal; ex: the final cause of the house is to have a place to live.) 2. Science stresses the material and efficient causes but rules out final causes (yet, it may use that kind of language). 3. Implications a. It makes no sense to say that the heart pumps blood in order to circulate blood (i.e., its function is a final cause).
JP Moreland 2 b. Instead, science will reduce this to one of efficient causes. Some hearts pump blood, and those convey reproductive advantages to those organisms. Hearts simply pump blood, but not for a purpose. c. So, there are no longer any functions or dysfunctions. (1) A carburetor is dysfunctional means that it is not operating as it should. (2) But, non-functioning for non-theists simply means that this is not statistically normal. d. Human action (1) If I raise my hand to vote, what caused my hand to go up? I did, as the efficient cause. (2) It was not my desire to vote that raised my hand. It was the final cause. (3) Psychology is experiencing strong attempts to embrace scientific methodology. E. Physicalism 1. Science requires it. 2. Definition: All that exists is physical. So, I am my brain. II. Scientism A. Strong and weak versions 1. Strong a. Something can be known if and only if that thing is scientifically testable. b. Only scientific knowledge is possible. 2. Weak a. There may be a few examples of non-scientific knowledge (i.e., that cannot be tested by science). b. But, that is not very secure knowledge compared to scientific knowledge. B. Replies either version of scientism is false. 1. The strong version is self-refuting (i.e., it makes itself false). The statement itself is part of its own subject matter. a. Examples (1) No sentence is longer than three words. (2) There are no truths. b. The strong version cannot meet its own criteria, since it cannot be tested scientifically. 2. Both versions fail to allow for the asserting and defending of the presuppositions of science. a. Science uses several assumptions. (1) There is an external, orderly world that exists independently of our theories about it.
JP Moreland 3 (2) We can have knowledge of that world. (3) Language is capable of referring to objects in that world. b. Yet, lots of intellectuals (e.g., postmodernists) deny these. c. Science cannot prove these presuppositions by science. d. However, theology and philosophy do provide them. e. Another assumption: the reliability of our cognitive and sensory faculties (1) See C.S. Lewis (Miracles) and Alvin Plantinga (Warrant and Proper Function). (2) Evolution is a blind, mindless process in which those mutations that confer reproductive advantage enable organisms to survive. (3) The black box : evolution does not care what is inside the organism. (a) Sensory inputs produce behavioral outputs (feeding, reproducing, fighting, and fleeing) in order to survive. (b) What happens inside the box does not matter, including the accuracy of sensations or the truth of beliefs. (c) Example of Albert and tiger-avoidance behavior: the truth of his beliefs or accuracy of his sensations is irrelevant to survival. (4) Now, if science is to have claims of truth and rationality, it must assume the reliability of our cognitive and sensory faculties. (5) But, evolution undercuts this presupposition. (6) On a Christian worldview, this presupposition makes sense, since God, who is a rational being, gave us reliable faculties to accurately convey information. (7) So, scientism does not allow for the justification of its own principles. C. Some things outside of science can in fact be known. Indeed, some can be known with more certainty than science knowledge. 1. Mathematical knowledge cannot be known by scientific methods. a. Ex: propositions of geometry, calculus, 2+2=4 b. 2+2=4 is necessarily true, unlike all ravens are black (a contingent truth). c. Scientific knowledge is a posteriori (justified by sense experience), and such propositions are contingently true. d. But mathematical knowledge is a priori (no need of sense experience to justify it). (1) I could need experience to form the concept of two.
JP Moreland 4 (2) But sense experience does not justify 2+2=4. It is selfevidently true, and it is necessarily (not contingently) true. 2. Logical propositions (which science presupposes) 3. Contents of my own consciousness a. I know my beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and which body is mine, and I do not know them by scientific methods. b. I have first-person knowledge of these by direct, introspective awareness. c. But science knows things as objects, as third-person objects of knowledge. d. I have more certainty which body is mine than that electrons exist (they probably do). 4. Ethical propositions a. Torturing babies for fun is wrong. b. Mercy and kindness are virtues. III. IV. Interlude on Animal Souls A. Old Testament: the same term is used of human souls, animal ones, and God. B. Yet, animal souls are quite different than human souls. 1. Ex: they are less structured. 2. They can have thoughts, beliefs, sensations, but no second-order thoughts (a thought about another thought). Creation and Evolution A. Definition of evolution 1. Organisms change (microevolution) 2. Thesis of common descent (this does not necessarily rule out God, since one could appeal to theistic evolution) 3. The blind watchmaker thesis: about mindless processes that drive evolution (this is the most problematic for Christians) B. Creationism options 1. Theistic evolution: God uses the processes of evolution. 2. Progressive a. Science is right about the age of the earth. b. The days of Genesis are vast, unspecified time. c. God created, and not via evolution. 3. Young earth: has a dating issue with progressive creationism 4. Why Moreland tends to favor progressive creationism: a. Suppose you have two possibilities, A & B, on exegetical grounds. b. Suppose conservative scholars favor interpretation A over B by 75% to 25%. c. Yet B is plausible, biblically.
JP Moreland 5 d. Suppose B also solves external problems (ones from other disciplines) well. e. Then you can be justified in believing B. C. Two levels of discussion 1. Second order: a philosophical question about science a. The experts are historians and philosophers of science. b. Ex. of questions: (1) How do you define science and non-science? (2) Is there a scientific method? (3) Is creation science religion or science? 2. First order: the level of science and scientific facts a. Experts are scientists. b. Ex: questions of biology and chemistry c. Examples: (1) What does the fossil record show? (2) Are there transitional forms? 3. The trouble is at the second order level. a. Ex: the California State Board of Education uses scientists to develop its policy on not teaching creationism as a science. b. There are false scientific theories. c. There are theories that impact science from other fields.