We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

When Science Starts to Smell Like Religion

image via theologicalgraffiti.com
Most of you know that, here at ReKnew, we try to come against some of the popular antagonism between the church and science. We think it’s a shame when christians pit themselves against legitimate scientific inquiry and discovery based upon a questionable reading of scripture. ReKnew strives to be a place where good science is not feared or mindlessly dismissed.
But sometimes the unthinking antagonism flows in the other direction.
T.C. Moore wrote a thoughtful, smart review of the first episode of the new Cosmos program starring Neil deGrasse Tyson that we wanted to share here. Entitled Cosmos, Episode One: A Religious Approach to Science and an Unscientific Approach to History, T.C. does an excellent job of pointing out deGrasse’s biases that he unfortunately presents as objective science.
From T.C.’s reflections:
The reality is faith and science are not enemies! As Hess points out, “Missing were the stories of Catholic astronomers such as Copernicus and Galileo, Protestants such as Brahe and Kepler and Newton, or Fr. George Lemaître, proposer of the Big Bang.” 10 One of my personal heroes of theology is also a world-renowned physicist: John Polkinghorne. 11 He would certainly not say that science and faith are enemies, but would most certainly say they are complementary. Also, there is a whole host of noteworthy theologians and Christian church leaders who also affirm science and see no irreconcilable conflict between the two. One particularly clear space where these two worlds are both celebrated is in the BioLogos community.
We look forward to the day when people of faith and people of science can lay down their assumptions and stop insulting one another. In fact, it’s quite possible to be both a person of faith AND a person of science. These are not mutually exclusive ways of seeing the world.
You should check out Biologos if you’d like to learn more about the compatibility of faith and science.
Category: General
Tags: Biologos, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Religion, Science, T.C. Moore
Related Reading

In light of Einstein’s conclusion that time is relative, how can you believe that God is not above time?
Relatively Theory basically stipulates that whether an event is viewed as being in the past, present or future depends on where one is in relation to the event in question as well as how fast one is moving. Some people conclude from this that Relativity Theory lends support to the classical view of God in…

The Cosmic Dance Origin Story
In this video, Greg introduces The Cosmic Dance, by explaining what motivated him to write this quirky little book. If you live near the Twin Cities, come to the launch party Friday June 24th where you can purchase the book at a discounted rate. Click here for information on the launch party.

On The Calvinism Debate In Chicago Last Week
For those of you who were unaware of it, there was a debate in Chicago last week on New Calvinism that was sponsored by Sojourn Network. Our friend T. C. Moore did an outstanding job of covering it. You can read his impressions over on his blog by clicking here. He also has embedded video of…

What’s Your Favorite Insight from Quantum Physics? (podcast)
Greg takes a quantum leap. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0706.mp3

The Kind of Sin Jesus Publicly Exposes
Image by danny.hammontree via Flickr Religious sin is the only sin Jesus publicly confronted. The religious variety of the forbidden fruit is the most addictive and deceptive variety. Instead of acknowledging that judging others is prohibited, religious idolatry embraces the knowledge of good and evil as divinely sanctioned and mandated. It gives the illusion of being on…

Glorious Creation
I’m not a scientist, but I’ve always loved to dabble in it. In fact, I collaborated with some friends and wrote a quirky picture book on the interfacing of various areas of science (e.g. quantum theory, chaos theory) and the open view of the future. It’s called The Cosmic Dance and, just to let the…