With the ongoing discussions about Bruce Waltke’s video at the BioLogos website and his subsequent resignation from RTS, as well as the long comment thread here at Evangel about events in Genesis, I thought I would post some thoughts about the relationship between science and religion that were gathered from a series of helpful lectures from the Teaching Company. Some might find it helpful and others, I’m sure, will not.
Miracles
Though God can do anything, He adheres (though not strictly) to a type of “covenant with creation” where scientific investigation is made possible. However, those times when he breaks with that “covenant”, where scientific investigation is not possible, are when the miraculous becomes a reality. Miracles are the suspension of the laws of nature (which God normally upholds) that bring about an effect of the divine will or a disproportionate effect to a secondary cause (for example, the wind blowing so magnificently that it parts the Red Sea). While miracles are supernaturally caused and cannot be explained in scientific terms, they do not necessarily stop science from investigation. To verify a miracle one must do a searching inventory of possible natural causes to conclude that none of them would be adequate to explain the event in question. Daniel Dennett, a notorious naturalist, agrees, “Miracle-hunters must be scrupulous scientists” (Dennett, 2006: 26).
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