In the Beginning, God created Science

Christians have always believed that God created the natural universe, the subject matter of science - we see it in the majestic first verses of Genesis, the Apostles Creed ("I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth ..") and elsewhere.

In recent years i.e. for at least the ~100 years since Freud, many have claimed that belief in this God-figure is a projection of some kind, based on experiences of the world and relationships with other people such as our fathers. Man created the idea of God and that's pretty much all there is to it; religion is an elaborate sham which the intelligent can see through and as some of the New Atheists have it, it's quite possibly evil as well.

There are a number of issues with such atheistic stories. Perhaps the first is that they commit the genetic fallacy - as its name indicates, this is a logical fallacy, where people make the mistake of disregarding an idea based on its origins. In reality, how a belief is formed is no sure indicater of its truth or falsehood. So even if God is a 'projection' of some kind, God may still well exist, with all the consequences that follow (hence our tag-line "Now, what are you doing with your life?")

If you think this is a bit weak, consider the ideas that you have about atoms, subatomic particles or the nano-machines you find in living cells. The chances are if you study science that these are ideas that have been created by scientists and if you're not a scientist, perhaps you got any ideas you have about these topics from the Disney Channel or something - in either case, I can guarantee you that these ideas were man-made. Does it follow that there are no interacting systems of proteins in the cell, no atoms or sub-atomic particles? No, of course not - some "man made ideas" correspond rather closely to reality. Perhaps God is one of these. Perhaps God has even chosen to reveal himself to us, in which case we are his creation and our purpose, as billions of humans believe, is best found in God.

The scientific project and scientific explanations of the natural world are no threat to God or to Christian belief. In fact, there are reasons to suspect that the atheistic alternative of naturalism (see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-science/) is not well-placed to account for the rational project of science and its discoveries which continue, for me at least, to create and sustain a sense of awe at this universe and wonder about its Creator. To discuss this with us, feel free to leave a comment or check out our contact page.

Thanks to http://www.nogod.org.nz/ for poster ideas.