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Did you
know that the following people were Christians?
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Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) - The first astronomer who
suggested that the earth was not the centre of the universe,
Copernicus laid the foundations of modern astronomy.
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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) - A physicist, mathematician,
astronomer, and philosopher who supported Copernicus's theory,
he is credited by some as being the father of modern physics.
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Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) - Newton was a mathematician
and scientist known for his formulation of the law of gravity,
his discovery of the composite nature of light, and his
development of calculus. He wrote more on religion than he did
on natural science.
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Michael Faraday (1791-1867) - Faraday is known for his many
scientific discoveries and innovations, among which were the
following: "liquefaction of chlorine, discovery of benzene,
development of stainless steel and optical glass, and discovery
of the laws of electrolysis and electromagnetic induction. He
also made the first electric motor, dynamo, and transformer"
(Eichman, 1988,
Michael Faraday: Man of God, Man of Science).
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Joseph Lister (1827-1912) - Lister discovered the principle
of antiseptic surgery. Before him, cleanliness was not deemed
important during surgical procedures, and many patients died of
infection.
It is a
common misconception that in order for a person to "become a
Christian", he/she has to forsake all rational thought and jump
blindly into the realm of the unseen and the illogical. This is not
true.
As we
can see from the above list, some of the finest minds in history
have been Christians. Their faith was no hindrance to the
development of their minds, and their intellect was no hindrance to
their continued belief in Jesus Christ.
John
Stott, in his absolutely brilliant little book Your mind
matters (Intervarsity Press, 2006), writes:
"One wonders if there is any Christian quality more
misunderstood than faith. ... H. L. Mencken, the American
anti-supernaturalist critic of Christianty, once said that
"faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the
occurrence of the improbable." But Mencken was wrong. Faith is
not credulity. To be credulous is to be gullible, to be entirely
uncritical, undiscerning and even unreasonable in one's beliefs.
But it is a great mistake to suppose that faith and reason are
incompatible. Faith and sight are set in opposition to each
other in Scripture, but not faith and reason. On the contrary,
true faith is essentially reasonable because it trusts in the
character and the promises of God. A believing Christian is one
whose mind reflects and rests on these certitudes". (p.
49)
In
other words, what the bible actually says is that "faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see"
(Hebrews 11:1). It is true, then, that faith is a belief in
things unseen. What is not true, however, is that this belief
in things unseen is irrational and illogical. Faith and reason are
not in opposition.
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William Lane Craig, who is Research Professor of
Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada,
California, and who frequently travels around university
campuses in America and Europe to speak on and engage in
debates on the evidence for Christianity, has written an
excellent, thought-provoking, and very accessible piece
on
"The Evidence for Christianity" that is well
worth reading. (I enjoyed it. It was written to be
spoken, as this was originally a speech, so it has a
nice, easy style, and it's also very concise, so one
doesn't get lost in the argument.) If you're someone who
has dismissed Christianity because you thought that
there just wasn't enough evidence for it, then I would
recommend Craig's article as a good starting point.
Paul E. Little, who was Associate
Professor of Evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity
School, Deerfield, Illinois, has also written something
very accessible entitled
Beyond Blind Faith. In this piece, he
gives a summary of the life of Jesus and rationally sets
out reasons for believing in Him. A few commonly-raised objections that people have to the
Christian faith are brought up. For example, some people will readily
acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher but not
that He is the Son of God. Paul Little rationally
explains why this position is in fact not tenable. Also,
some people object to the very idea of Jesus's
resurrection, and have come up with theories to explain
the empty tomb of Jesus after His death and burial. Paul
Little systematically takes us through the alternative
explanations raised by people over the years, and
explains why each is, again, not tenable.
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Here
are some of my further thoughts on this issue:
(1)
Firstly, if we think about it, all of us (non-Christians
included) to some extent believe in things we can't really see.
For example, I would imagine that most of us accept that there
is such a thing as gravity. Why do we? Because although we can't
actually see "gravity" per se, we can see its effects. We
can see what happens when we let go of a pen a metre from the
ground - it clatters to the floor in a straight line. In a
similar way, although we might not be able in this life to "see"
God, we can see His handiwork and the effects of His power - in
Creation which is all around us, in prayers of Christian
believers that get answered, in people whose behaviours are
completely changed by their belief in Jesus, and so on. If
nothing else, these should at least make one stop and think, What
if it really is true?
(2)
Secondly, to follow on from John Stott and William Lane Craig's
point that the Christian
faith isn't just a blind belief in something irrational ...
I'm not a
lawyer, and possibly you aren't either, but most of us have
watched court cases being played out on screen on TV and in the
movies. Often, convictions are secured when lawayers are able to
say: We have shown you evidence for A. We have shown
you evidence for B. We have shown you evidence for C,
D, E, F, G, and H. Now, no one present in this courtroom
actually saw X happen, but given that we know for a fact that A,
B, C, D, E, F, G, and H are true, the only conclusion that we
can come to is that X really did happen.
To
me, that's what we have with Christian faith. It is true that we
do not have 100% of the evidence for Jesus laid out in front of
our eyes for us to see. If we did, it would no longer be faith.
BUT, anyone who seriously takes the time to think about whether
there is any truth to the Christian belief that God created all
of us, that Jesus is the son
of God and that He is the only way to heaven will find that there is an
abundance of evidence that all converge on and point to that
truth. The evidence is compelling and too much to ignore.
I
like what Lee Strobel says in his book The Case for a
Creator (2004, Zondervan):
"I see faith as being a reasonable step in the same
direction that the evidence is pointing. In other words,
faith goes beyond merely acknowledging that the facts of
science and history point toward God. It’s responding to
those facts by investing trust in God—a step that’s fully
warranted due to the supporting evidence." (p. 357)
If
you are intrigued and would like to read a more in-depth
discussion of this, I would recommend that you get a copy
of Lee Strobel's books The Case for Christ, and
The Case for a Creator. In The Case for Christ,
Strobel, with the help of leading academics in fields such as
medicine, history, archaelogy, and philosophy, presents evidence
that points towards the the truth of the account of Jesus found
in the bible. If you would like a taster, here are two excerpts
from the book:
In
The Case for a Creator, Strobel interviews leading
scientists from Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Cosmology, and
shows that scientific evidence points towards the fact that this
universe was indeed created by a divine Creator God.
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 I
am an applied linguist, and
the longer I am in this field, the
more in awe I am at the beautiful impossibility that is language.
I
marvel at how quickly the brain must work in order to process incoming
messages in real time, at what there must be in each of our minds that
allows us to produce not only meaningful and (usually!) coherent
sentences that are understood by others, but also humour, irony, and
wit.
Someone once said (I forget who - if anyone knows, please tell me) that
although the air around us may be a necessity to sustain life, the wind
that provides such refreshing relief is surely an extra gift from God.
If we use a similar analogy, then the ability to communicate through
language may be a necessity, but the rest of it - the ability of the
brain to recognise irony, to intentionally bring laughter through language
and so on - is surely a blessed bonus.
I marvel
at how so many billions of us have come to acquire language. I marvel at
how it is possible for us to make language mean exactly what we want it
to mean. The more I understand of language, the more I am convinced that
however hard we try to explain how language works and how the human mind
processes and acquires language, there is at the end of the day a point
at which we must stand back and say ... And the rest is just a miracle
of creation.
To me, the very intricacies of every field in academia, the fact that
each field has been around for years and will probably continue to
sustain research in it for years to come, is evidence enough of a
Creator whose brilliance and power we cannot even begin to fathom.
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SOME
INSPIRING READS ON THE WEB BY CHRISTIAN ACADEMICS
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Unseen Realities
by
J. Gary Eden
(Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois,
Urbana)
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Interesting, intelligent, and thoroughly enjoyable article, with
a cast of characters including Newton, Einstein, and Dr Seuss!
For anyone who has an interest in the evidence of God in the
natural, physical world.
“I
am persuaded by two truths. First, the physical world-which
displays a level of complexity and beauty that we can only begin
to fathom (much less duplicate)-bears the unmistakable signature
of a superior intellect. Second, Christianity provides a
rational explanation for life on this planet as it really is,
not as we would wish it to be.” Eden.
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Three Heavens - Our Home
by Patricia
H. Reiff
(Chairman,
Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, Rice University)
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A
beautiful piece which evokes all the wonders of space, rooted in
the Bible and in solid scientific fact, by a scientist who loves
Physics, Astronomy, and God. [This article is a longer version
of the one which appeared in Professors Who Believe, ed.
by Paul Anderson (1998).]
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Evidence of God in Human Physiology
by
Phillip Bishop
(Professor of Exercise Physiology, University of Alabama)
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A
short, readable, and thought-provoking piece on how the wonders
of the human body point to a Creator God. |
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Reasons to Believe |
An
international and interdenominational science-faith think tank
that provides powerful new reasons from science to believe in
Jesus Christ. Dr Hugh Ross, the founder and president, writes in
the website: "whether you are a skeptical inquirer, a new
Christian, or one who has enjoyed a long relationship with the
Lord, we look forward to providing you with materials that will
keep you informed about up-to-the-minute scientific discoveries
and how they harmonize with God's revelation in the words of the
Bible".
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“Can it be by accident that all birds, beasts,
and men have their right side and left side alike shaped (except
in their bowels); and just two eyes, and no more, on either side
of the face; and just two ears on either side of the head; and a
nose with two holes; ... Whence arises this uniformity in all their outward shapes but
from the counsel and contrivance of an Author?... Did blind
chance know that there was light and what was its refraction,
and fit the eyes of all creatures after the most curious manner
to make use of it? These and suchlike considerations always have
and ever will prevail with mankind to believe that there is a
Being who made all things and has all things in his power, and
who is therefore to be feared.”
Isaac
Newton
A
Short Scheme of the True Religion.
Quoted in Newton's
Philosophy
of Nature, ed. by H. S. Thayer (New York. Hafner, 1963)
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If you think that perhaps there could be some truth to what
Christians believe, but you're not completely sure, then
please take the time now to find out more and think
through this.
Don't fall into the trap of saying, "One day when I
have a bit more time, I'll
find out more about this. For now, I'm quite happy to be
open-minded and accept that the Christian belief may
be true."
God's gift of salvation (our way to heaven), made
possible through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus
Christ, is freely available to every single person on this
earth ... on the condition that we believe in our hearts
that Jesus died for our sins and we are prepared to say
"Jesus is the Lord of my life".
Believing in Jesus does not entail denying our minds or
taking unreasonable, irrational steps into the dark. (God
made us to be thinking beings after all!) As William Lane
Craig has so nicely put it: "while
the evidence is not enough to coerce you if your heart is
closed, it is enough to ground faith rationally if you are
willing to look at it with an open mind and an open heart"
("The
Evidence for Christianity")
So don't put it off. If you are not ready to make the
decision to be a Christian now because you don't know enough
about Jesus, that's fair enough, but start to find out about
Him. Read. Talk to a Christian. Realise that a decision
needs to be made. Because one day it may be too late.
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