Science and God: Enemies or Allies?

By Bernard V Palmer

Some say, ‘I cannot believe in God because science has disproved it!’ It is now apparent that such reasoning is invalid.

Modern science supports what the Bible teaches, and the Bible supplies what science cannot.

This book demonstrates this unity with many facts and examples, showing how conflicts in the past have been resolved and how this is relevant to how we live today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398446489

Bernard V Palmer

Bernard went from Bedford School to Downing College, Cambridge in 1963 where he read Natural Sciences. He was then awarded the Price open scholarship to the Royal London Medical School for clinical training. There he captained the tennis club as well as playing hockey and squash. He was fortunate to have both his preclinical houseman posts in his teaching hospital. He then took a year out to be the first student worker for St Helen’s Bishopsgate with the Rev Dick Lucas. He then undertook his surgical training in major London hospitals and took the exams both to be a physician and a general surgeon. He was a Senior Registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and during this time undertook research in tumour immunology at the Institute of Cancer Research. He wrote many medical papers. In 1983, he was appointed Consultant Surgeon at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage where he worked until he retired. He was a general surgeon with major interests in Surgical Oncology and Gastrointestinal Surgery. He became a convinced Christian when an undergraduate in Cambridge and has been a Bible teacher since. He has been active in the Christian Medical Fellowship and was one of their Trustees for many years. He is the author of ‘Cure for Life’, which has been translated into many languages and is now in its 5th English edition. This book was originally written for his patients to try to answer their questions about the purpose of life but this book has since found a world-wide niche and has been translated into many languages. Other books include ‘The Duty of a Disciple’ and ‘Science and God: Enemies or Allies’. He was asked to help found Christchurch Baldock in 2000AD where he regularly teaches. He is a popular speaker in universities and churches both at home and overseas. He has written widely on the evidence for the Christian faith and what being a Christian means. He is also an evangelistic Bible teacher. He was appointed to be a visiting Scholar by ‘Reasons to Believe’ in Los Angeles. Bernard’s wife, Rosy, retired from nursing when they had a family. They have four Christian children, Rob (a General Practitioner Doctor in North London) Sam, (a Design Manager), Rachel, (a doctor and mother, married to the Director of UFM, a missionary organization), and Andy, the Senior Minister of Christchurch Balham in London. Bernard and Rosy now have 14 grandchildren whom they love and long to teach tennis and table tennis to. Bernard has a website, www.bvpalmer.com [http://www.bvpalmer.com/] in which many of his articles, video interviews and books can be found.

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About the Author

Bernard V Palmer went from Bedford School to Downing College, Cambridge, in 1963, where he read natural sciences. He was then awarded an open scholarship to the Royal London Medical School for clinical training. There he captained the tennis club, as well as playing many other sports. He was fortunate to have both his houseman posts in his teaching hospital. He then took a year out to be the first student worker for St Helen’s Bishopsgate, with the Rev Dick Lucas.

He undertook his surgical training in major London hospitals and took the exams, both to be a physician and a general surgeon. He was a senior registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, and during this time, undertook research in tumour immunology at the Institute of Cancer Research. He wrote many medical papers. In 1983, he was appointed consultant surgeon at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, where he worked until he retired. He was a general surgeon with major interests in Surgical Oncology and Gastrointestinal Surgery.

He became a convinced Christian when an undergraduate in Cambridge and has been a Bible teacher since. He has been active in the Christian Medical Fellowship and was one of their trustees for many years. He is the author of Cure for Life, which has been translated into many languages. This book was originally written for his patients to try to answer their questions about the purpose of life but has since found a world-wide niche and has been translated into many languages. He was asked to help found Christchurch Baldock, in 2000, where he regularly teaches.

He is a popular speaker in universities and churches both at home and overseas. He has written widely on the evidence for the Christian faith and what being a Christian means. He is also an evangelistic Bible teacher. He was appointed to be a visiting scholar by ‘Reasons to Believe’, in Los Angeles.

Bernard’s wife, Rosy, retired from nursing when they had a family. They have four Christian children, Rob (a general practitioner doctor in North London) Sam, (a design manager), Rachel, (a doctor and mother, married to the director of UFM, a missionary organization), and Andy, (the senior minister of Christchurch Balham, in London). Bernard and Rosy now have 14 grandchildren whom they love and long to teach both the gospel and tennis to.

Dedication

This book must be dedicated to my life partner and wife, Rosy. She is a constant inspiration to keep making living for the Lord Jesus my priority in life, and I owe her so much.

Copyright Information ©

Bernard V Palmer 2023

The right of Bernard V Palmer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398446472 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398446489 (ePub e-book)

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First Published 2023

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Acknowledgements

There are so many who have helped me to think clearly about the meaning of life and where to find answers. I am so grateful for those leaders of Lymington Holidays; a part of the Titus Trust, where foundations were laid. To members of the Christian Union in Cambridge, who helped me understand the Bible better. To the teachers in the churches I was involved with. Mark Ruston and David Watson, at the Round Church in Cambridge (now meeting in St Andrews the Great) and especially to Dick Lucas, at St Helen’s Church, in Bishopsgate. Colleagues in the Christian Medical Fellowship and in the Reasons to Believe team, that appointed me as a visiting scholar, have inspired me to continue to seek answers to the great questions of life. I now have the privilege of working with a great team in Christchurch Baldock.

In particular, I would like to thank those many scholars, teachers and friends who love the Lord Jesus, who love his word, the Bible, and who recognise that God has given us minds to try and unify all fields of knowledge under the authority of God and his Son.

Chapter 1

Is Science Opposed to Religion?

Science and religion cannot be reconciled, Peter Atkins, an Oxford Chemistry Professor, boldly pronounced. This book has been written to rebut this view and to help those who are concerned that science and the Bible appear to be in conflict.

An orthodox Jewish scientist was living in a village near Mount Carmel in Israel. He taught his son that God had revealed himself in the ancient Jewish Scriptures. As a scientist, he delved into modern physics, helping to unravel the secrets of the universe; as a Jew, he tried to understand God’s revelation of himself as taught in the Bible.

On the slopes of Mount Carmel several large caves were being excavated and some bones of Neanderthal man, a prehistoric human, were found. Analysis of these bones revealed virtually no ¹⁴C, suggesting that these bones must be over 50,000 years old. The geological strata in which the bones were found gave an age of 60,000 years. He was now faced with a real dilemma as a literal reading of the opening chapters of the Bible suggests that the world was created around 6,000 years ago.

This discrepancy caused him some problems. Is there really a God who has authoritatively revealed himself in the Bible? Is science reliable? Must he make a choice between science and acknowledging a God who has revealed himself? Are science and the Bible still compatible? He recognised that there are massive problems if there is no authoritative revelation from God. What was he to teach his son?¹ Similar dilemmas face many thinking Christians today.

Scientific understanding suggests that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, and the Earth 4.56 billion years old. This challenges those in the church who hold that the Earth is young. Saint Augustine’s estimate had been that the universe began 5,000 years before Christ and in 1650 Archbishop Ussher had calculated from the genealogies in the book of Genesis that the Earth began at 6pm on Saturday, October 22 in 4004 BC. Until 1910, Bibles printed by the Oxford University Press had Usher’s dating printed alongside the text.

Fossils reveal that very different types of animals once lived on this Earth. The wide variety of dinosaurs was estimated to have become extinct by 65 million years ago. Ancient humanlike fossils suggest that hominid beings were on this Earth for over a million years. The questions have been asked whether they were really humans and whether the dating is accurate.

‘Evolution’

There has been much misunderstanding about the meaning of words. To some Christians, the word ‘Evolution’ causes a strong reaction.

I don’t believe in evolution! a student told me.

Don’t you think that dinosaurs once lived on this Earth? Don’t you think that England was once joined to Europe? I asked.

Oh yes, I can accept those things.

Then you are an evolutionist, in the original meaning of the word, as all evolution meant was that changes have occurred both in biological species living on Earth and in geographical arrangements. Originally, evolution only meant ‘change’.

The word ‘evolution’ is derived from the Latin ‘e – volvere’ which means ‘to unroll’. Clearly, there has been an ‘unrolling’ or change over the years in the world we live in. The boundaries of countries change, governments change, the shape of continents have changed, dogs have changed and the fossil record shows that wild plants and animals have changed. These varied changes in the world seem incontrovertible. In this respect, we are all ‘evolutionists’.

When biologists say that biological evolution has been proved by science, they are saying that science gives strong evidence that radical changes have occurred. The confusion comes when people also use the word ‘evolution’ to mean ‘Neo-Darwinism’, which is a theory to explain how all these changes took place naturally.

What are the possible causes for these changes? Today, we are constantly told that the only plausible mechanism for these changes of living organisms is ‘Neo-Darwinism’. This teaches that random genetic mutations produce advantageous changes and that these accumulate to produce altered life forms, some of which give survival advantages. Survival of the fittest does the rest. Some use the word ‘evolution’ as being synonymous with ‘Neo-Darwinism’ which is a popular theory to describe the mechanism for this change. Yet, more and more scientific problems are appearing concerning this theory. These are discussed in chapter 12.

The Bible begins with the story of the world being created in ‘six days’. Has modern science discredited the Bible and is the Christian faith therefore discredited? Can people fairly use ‘science’ to reject the Christian message or have we misunderstood something?

Disunited Worldviews

In my first year at university, I was introduced to a Christian teacher who encouraged us to start thinking more clearly about contemporary issues. His name was Francis Schaeffer. In one of his earliest books, Escape from Reason, he gave a historical overview about the growing tendency, over the last few centuries, to dissociate the spiritual world from the physical world. He argued that the ‘spiritual’ has increasingly been separated from ‘normal life’ to the extent that in some areas all links had been broken; the ‘spiritual’ was becoming irrational and the rational world, unspiritual. Francis Schaeffer’s plea was that this tendency should not be accepted. He argued that the one God who had made us with our emotions, aesthetic senses and love of logic also made this physical world with its physics, chemistry and biology. On this basis, all true revelations of God must be compatible with the rational world he has made. We can test the spiritual by rational means. All ‘true truths’ must be coherent. It is, therefore, just as acceptable for Christians to be interested in science, art or philosophy as in theology – what matters to God is that we investigate everything with integrity and honesty.

The medieval astronomer, Galileo, used his telescope to investigate the stars and came up with different conclusions to those of the church of the time. What should he do? Could he somehow accept both world-views at the same time? Or was one worldview wrong? How was he to sort out what was true? He decided that God had given him a mind to try and answer the dilemma. He was to use that gift of God to try and understand what Scripture, God’s book, was saying and to arrive at honest scientific conclusions. He said,

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

This book investigates the evidence for God creating this extraordinary world and the life in it. We do not know how this occurred but there is now very good evidence from a wide variety of scientific findings for God’s involvement. If God was instrumental in creating the cosmos and forming living organisms, it would not be surprising if he should want to rule in his creation. Jesus claimed to be the God who had come to Earth ‘in the flesh’. There is good historical evidence supporting Jesus’ claims and some of this has been discussed in my book ‘Cure for Life’, Bernard V Palmer, 5th edition, Lost Coin Books 2022.

Every person inevitably comes to new ideas with preconceptions. These influence the way we look at information and so prejudice the acceptance of new ideas and concepts. The search for truth has many moral undercurrents. So many of us have concepts derived from previous experiences or desires that can poison a true analysis of the evidence. Most peoples’ thinking is based on core beliefs. Our logical deductions depend on these foundations. All too rarely do we question those core beliefs.

The chemist, Linus Pauling, used the broad definition that science is the search for truth.² He is the only person ever to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes—for Chemistry (1954) and for Peace (1962). Indeed searching for and living by ‘the truth’ is our responsibility. Jesus himself taught,

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.³

Science

Science is possible because we can see design, pattern and order in the universe. One of the principles of science is that there is a unifying concept called ‘truth’. This is also the principle behind Judeo-Christian teaching. We should be searching for truth both in science and theology. The Bible teaches that this unity will ultimately be found in the God who has made us. It teaches that everything, science, history, philosophy, theology and even quantum physics will eventually be unified in the truth of God.

…to bring all things in heaven and Earth together under one head…⁴

This book attempts to find this unity between true science and reasonable faith, so that we can live coherent lives.

Francis Collins was in charge of the Human Genome Project, an international project, centred in Washington that discovered the complete sequence of human genes. Until his late twenties, he was a very outspoken atheist, but he then became a convinced Christian. He sees no conflict between being a scientist and a Christian. As a scientist, he is discovering the wonder of God’s creation. He said, The work of a scientist involved in this project, particularly a scientist who has the joy of also being a Christian, is a work of discovery which can also be a form of worship. As a scientist, one of the most exhilarating experiences is to learn something…that no human has understood before. To have a chance to see the glory of creation, the intricacy of it, the beauty of it, is really an experience not to be matched. Scientists who do not have a personal faith in God also undoubtedly experience the exhilaration of discovery. But to have that joy of discovery, mixed together with the joy of worship, is truly a powerful moment for a Christian who is also a scientist.⁵

So an honest quest for real answers about our existence should be rewarding – so long as we look in all the right places, the places where God has revealed the answers. The finite can be investigated by science but clearly the infinite, God, is unknowable by us finite people, unless he chooses to make himself known, to reveal himself.

In this book, we will be looking at the scientific evidence that a personal God has formed this world. We will then investigate the astounding claims of Jesus to be both the creator of this universe and the embodiment of God in it. The historical evidence on the life and work of Jesus is very strong and the effect he still has on people is extraordinary. There are two major explanations for the source of the universe, and both of them are extraordinary. These may be summarised as follows:

1. In the beginning there was a ‘big bang’ and the matter formed had the inherent properties to develop naturally over time into our universe, world, life and human beings. There is no need to invoke a creator.

2. In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth…

These are similar to the two alternative views put forward by the Stoic Roman lawyer, Cicero (106–43BC) when he wrote, When we see a mechanism such as a planetary model or a clock, do we doubt that it is the creation of a conscious intelligence? So how can we doubt that the world is the work of divine intelligence? We may well believe that the world and everything in it has been created for the gods and for mankind.⁶

The Atomists (who were Epicureans) disagreed. Cicero presented their views that an intelligent designer was unnecessary, ‘The world is made by a natural process, without any need of a creator…Atoms come together and are held by mutual attraction.’

Yet the Bible begins, In the beginning God created… God could have created the world with a supernatural beginning in which all the necessary properties were placed into matter at the start so that everything developed naturally. Alternatively, God could also have intervened miraculously at various stages, as he saw necessary. Whatever the mechanism, the Bible teaches that God lovingly created this universe for man and wants to have a relationship with us.

Although mechanisms and timing may be debated, these basically remain the two alternatives. We have all decided, perhaps subconsciously, which explanation we want to follow. If we claim that we are here by accident then we are accountable to no one but ourselves, but creation implies that we are ultimately accountable to a creator.

It is a disaster that the word ‘creationist’ is often used today to describe a person who accepts Bishop Ussher’s chronology of a young Earth. Yet there are many who have concluded that although the Earth is old there still must be a supernatural creator.

It used to be claimed that science was antagonistic to the God of the Bible – but today it is being increasingly recognised that scientific discoveries are demanding that there is a mind behind the organisation of the universe. Thus science now points back to God. As one university lecturer succinctly said, If we need an atheist for a debate, I go to the Philosophy Department. The Physics Department isn’t much use.⁷

In order for science and religion to come together, it may mean there has to be a rethink from both parties. In medieval times, the church was strongly opposed to the views of Copernicus and Galileo when they said that scientific evidence pointed to the Sun as the centre of the Solar System and not the Earth. Their arguments were both historical; hadn’t people always believed the Earth to be the centre, and also there were proof verses in the Bible. Now nearly everyone has accepted that in this example it was mainly the Bible scholars who needed to change their views on how to understand the text of Scripture.

Augustine wrestled with these problems. He gave some excellent advice in his book, ‘The Literal Meaning of Genesis’, written around AD 415, He gave three warnings over what today would be known today as the relationship of Scripture with Science. Firstly, he warned that an over dogmatic, idiosyncratic interpretation of the text could be harmful to the advancement of the essential Christian faith.

In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision, even in such as we may find treated in the Holy Scripture, different interpretations are sometimes possible without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such a case, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. That would be to battle not for the teaching of Holy Scripture, but for our own, wishing its teaching to conform to ours, whereas we ought to wish ours to conform to that of Sacred Scripture.⁸

Secondly, Augustine warned Christians not to think that their interpretation of Scripture gives them a superiority over those who have obtained their knowledge from studying the natural sciences. Such Christian people are not only made to look stupid but give the impression that the Scriptures are wrong too. He said,

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the Earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the Sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to, as being certain, from reason and experience. Now, this is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an unbeliever to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these subjects; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of the Scripture are criticised and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion (quoting 1 Tim 1:7).⁹

Thirdly, Augustine stated that the Biblical truths would always be rational. The God who had created our minds intended us to use them in order to seek God and his truth.

When they are able, from reliable evidence (verax documentum), to prove some fact of physical science, we shall show that it is not contrary to our Scripture. But when they produce from any of their books, a theory contrary to Scripture, and therefore contrary to the Catholic faith, either we shall have some ability to demonstrate that is absolutely false, or at least we ourselves will hold it so without any shadow of a doubt.¹⁰

Thomas Aquinas also entered the debate about the interplay of science and faith saying,

Although the truth of the Christian faith which we have discussed surpasses the capacity of reason, nevertheless that truth that the human reason is naturally endowed to know, cannot be opposed to the Christian faith. For that with which the human reason is naturally endowed is clearly most true; so much so, that it is impossible for us to think of such truths as false. Nor is it permissible to believe as false that which we hold by faith, since this is confirmed in a way that is so clearly divine.

It is the object of this book to help people overcome prejudices and look at the evidence given both by Scripture and by science. All truths must be reconcilable. We must then decide on what is reasonable, based on all the evidence.

The Bible does teach however that man has a natural bias within him. Our rejection of God stems primarily, not from intellectual difficulties, but from a moral problem. If there is a creator God, then he should rule. This bias is there when we face the evidence for Jesus. All people suffer from an inordinate self-centredness, an egocentricity, which the Bible calls sin. This rebellion against God is most often seen as a ‘practical atheism’. In this condition, people live, whatever their stated creed, as if God does not exist. It is so hard to be honestly open-minded.

Chapter 2

Have Theologians Made Mistakes?

If one God created this world then it is very likely that there will be a unity between the truths discovered in different fields of knowledge. A study of the cosmos or biology should reveal some evidence for a creator. Similarly, any true intervention of God into his world should be open to ‘scientific’ investigation in the broadest meaning of that word. Since the renaissance began at the end of the fifteenth century, modern science and Christianity have worked hand-in-hand. Most of the tensions have arisen from either a misunderstanding of science or a misunderstanding of the Bible.

King David recognised, around a thousand years before Christ, that God does speak to us through two books, nature and the Bible. He wrote,

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the Earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19:1-4

God is angered when people wilfully twist the evidence and refuse to think clearly about the evidence. Thus Paul wrote,

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. Romans 1:21-22

There is a constant barrage of television programmes telling us that ‘life arranged itself’. It is suggested that even chemicals have minds and can make decisions. It is clear that choices have been made in order that life could occur and yet many do not want ‘God’ to be that mind. Little recognition is given to the fact that modern science developed