The Faith of Science

Science claims to be not merely the observation of things and events in nature, but a logical arrangement of these observations so that conclusions can be drawn. The work of science is inductive. You see event a, and event b, and event c, and event d and from these you reason out that the relationship between these events you have seen must also extend to other relationships you have not seen. I check the throats of 100 people who have scarlet fever, and 100 times I find evidence that they have, or have just had, a streptococcal infection. Yet, there are literally millions of cases of scarlet fever in a year’s time (over the world). I have assumed that my sample is true for the huge majority which were not checked. It might be so. It also might not be so. I am reasoning from the partial observations to the whole situation. This is induction.

Theology, unlike natural science, is a deductive enterprise. We take the Word of God as true premises and reason through to a derived conclusion. We reason from the greater (revelation) to the lesser (derived conclusions). When you use logic to arrive at a conclusion, it is like geometry. You have to have axioms. You have to presuppose certain things to be true, things which you did not, or cannot, prove. You may call them presuppositions. I presuppose that the millions of people with scarlet fever whom I have not checked, would have had evidence of active or recent streptococcal infection in their throats. It is reasonable, but it is at bottom an assumption. Quite regularly, science turns up things which disprove the axioms (presuppositions). So, scientists have to have faith in their presuppositions. Without these assumptions, taken on faith, they can prove nothing. Scientists have faith, just like theologians do. It is a level playing field. You can point this out in some conversations.

As Christians, we have axioms. Ours are the Scripture. We take it as true by faith. We do not look to archaeology to prove that the Scriptures are true. Scientists also have axioms. Their axioms are of uncertain parentage, picked up here and there. They are often unstated until someone makes them state them. They take them by faith. Faith is a level playing field. We have ours, unsaved scientists have theirs. I promise you that they squirm when you press this upon them. They do not like it. I have yet, however, been unable to fail to wring this admission from them, if they will stay with a conversation.

Excerpts from "What Is Truth?"