The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Curtis Meyer reporter
There are many arguments that have been waged over the years between the proponents of science and those of Christianity. The most famous one I can think of was in 2014, when Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” debated the famous creationist, Ken Ham.
While most people seem to think that Bill Nye was the clear winner in the debate, a lot of sources agree that it was all merely a spectacle. Though points on both sides were legitimate and factual, it failed to resolve any significant issues.
I don’t want to debate the topic, but rather want to show how pointless the debate really is. The problem most people and even a lot of Christians have with the science debate is that they don’t realize it’s based on faith. We believe in an all-powerful God. One that can do whatever he wants, without any ifs, ands, or buts. By trying to explain God, we effectively put limits on his power.
You can use Jesus raising from the dead as a perfect example. Physically, it’s impossible, especially with the technology of the ancient Romans. Even today you won’t find a several day-old corpse and bring it back to life. By natural laws, Jesus could not have raised from the dead.
That’s where it becomes faith. We have no way of going back in time and checking Jesus’s pulse. So, to be a Christian, you are required to have faith. Otherwise, you don’t believe the very thing you represent.
In the same way, as a Christian you must accept that God created the world in the way that the Bible describes. Some point to parables, some to a sort of meshing of ideas that God started the evolution wheel rolling, but at the end of the day it requires faith to believe that God did something that wasn’t humanly possible.
Of course, the atheists out there don’t have faith in God. If they did, they wouldn’t be atheist. So, for them something that is physically impossible therefore can’t happen.
That is the heart of the issue regarding evolution vs. creationism, science vs. Christianity, you name it. It’s not so much an issue of whether it’s physically possible, but instead whether you believe that God did it.
So, what good does it do us to debate as Christians? I will turn to my favorite source of information, the Bible. Looking at Acts 17, the latter half of the chapter tells us about Paul’s trip to Athens. I don’t have the time to tell the whole passage, so I would recommend reading it in your own time or looking it up on your phone.
In this story, Paul travels to Athens, having just been kicked out of Thessalonica. Athens has always had a history of being a city of philosophy, dating back to the ancient Greeks. Athens at the time was a cultural hub and had a dozen different gods they worshipped.
Seeing this, Paul is moved to deliver a speech of sorts, preaching in the open marketplaces of Athens. The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers debated with him and quickly ushered him to the Areopagus, a group of the town’s leading minds.
He presents the gospel very succinctly, not trying to out-philosophize the Athenians but instead laying down the facts as he knows them. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.” (Acts 17:24)
Paul lays out what each Christian should believe according to the Bible. God made the world and everything in it, he oversees the world or in control, and he does not live in temples made by human hands.
Humans cannot build any temple, any box, any theory that would house God. He created the world. You can’t govern him by our laws. Any attempts to constrain God’s actions will fail. This is the choice we face. Faith or no faith.