This week I am continuing the series of Christian perspectives on some of our subject areas. I am tackling Science this week. Suffice to say I could write many thousands of words on this area as well as the others. I hope what follows gives you a small taste of God’s central place in Science. 

Science is wonderful! It is the systematic study of the physical and natural world. Science as we understand it now is really just an extension of the inquisitive nature that God has given us.

In the Bible we read that God created the heavens and the earth. The Biblical creation account was not necessarily intended to be a scientific textbook for the reader, but rather it was intended to outline the hierarchy of the universe and man’s place in it. This is something the Genesis account does very well. In Genesis we are told that God created the world, He was at its centre, forming and filling the earth. God then created man and from very early on tasked him to name all the animals. This task that God gave tapped into the inquisitive and investigative nature of humanity. In this process we can see that it was God’s creational intent to allow us to explore and unfold His creation, to be scientists if you will. We are given the honour, dignity and joy of uncovering its laws and harnessing the various aspects of this world that God has made and given us stewardship over. We can develop technology, expand our understanding and test our knowledge of this intricate, vast and amazing creation.

However, a consequence of sin entering the world was the idea that we thought we could do the work of God. One of the effects of this was that it elevated science to the place of God. Science is often no longer seen as a means through which we can experience God, but has instead become a God in itself. We don’t have to look far to see evidence of this, as the mainstream media will often provide fresh evidence of the ‘war’ between Science and Religion.

New Atheism, Intelligent design, scientific ethics, there are many fronts on which this supposed battle wages. But this is not really a battle between Christianity and the tool of Science, rather it is a deeper battle between a Christian worldview and a secular worldview that has been misnamed.

For Christians, Science is a wonderful and beautiful tool that God has provided humanity in order to grow in our understanding of creation. It does its work of helping us to unfold and understand the natural and physical world very well. We do not need to try to make Science fit all situations, as God has given us other ways to describe our world such as Art, Language, Relationships and Mathematics. God’s creation is so rich and laden with meaning, beauty and glory that no one tool can describe it all.

At Green Point Christian College we endeavour to rigorously develop our scientific understanding of God’s world across a range of scientific disciplines. We encourage our students to do Science in such a way that as our students unfold the world and look with awe and wonder, they can say "thank you God for your wondrous and creative provision".

Joel van Bentum