Welcome everyone. So who here had a chance to look at the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn last night? My name is Ed LaBelle and I am an engineer in the semiconductor industry and live in Austin, TX. Astronomy is a hobby that I picked up about 10 ten years ago. I learned very early on that a telescope is a people magnet: set up a telescope in a public place and people will wander over and ask “hey, what you looking at?” My involvement in sidewalk astronomy is what got me interested in sharing the beauty and majesty of God’s universe through astronomy. 1
The outline of my talk is as follows (read the slide.) • Review recent surveys about how the “conflict” between Science and Faith is impacting young Christians. • Briefly discuss the Christian concept of Dual Revelation. • Show how we use sidewalk astronomy to have discussions with passersby about God. • Review the Psalm 19 Astronomy science-based educational focus. 2
Francis Schaeffer was quoted as saying “Christianity does not start with “Jesus saves you from your sins” Instead it starts with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There’s a reason why the Bible starts with Genesis 1:1 instead of with the oldest book – Job. The early Christian fathers, inspired by God, wanted to start at the beginning which predates Job and all of the other books. The Bible begins with how God created the universe as the home for human beings, made in His image, to ponder his glory. In this talk, I hope to show how Christians with a background in science can use this gift or talent to share the beauty and 3
majesty of God’s creation with people they meet. 3
I would like to delve into the current state of Christian belief in America. The Religion News Service has been producing a “religiosity index” in America since 1934. They look at multiple data sources to create this index which includes surveys of Americans and worship attendance. This is their latest chart showing the index in religiosity from 1945 to 2013. Now do not interpret the left axis as percentage of the population as the axis is arbitrary, similar to the Fahrenheit temperature scale, or as we like to say in the engineering business, the axis has been normalized. The thing to note is that religiosity is fluid in America. Religious faith was low after WWII but experienced an awakening through the 50’s and 60’ until the Hippie generation in the late 60’s. There was a modest drop in the 70’s that leveled off in the 80’s and 90’s and then a steady decline since the year 2000. I’ll dive into one reason for this decline in the next several slides. 4
Three surveys were taken between 2011 and 2015 by Pew Research, the Barna Group and American Pastors Network, about the change is religious demographics in America. A common finding among the three surveys is that Science is one of the top reasons why young people are walking away from their Christian faith. 5
America, we have a Christian religion problem! This survey by Pew Research in 2015 shows an alarming trend in our religious landscape. During the timeframe from 2007 to 2014 the Christian population declined from 78.4% to 70.6% - a whopping 8% in only 7 years. The red lines are sub groups of Christians that have left Christian denominations. As you can see these red lines are trending down from 2007 to 2014. Evangelical Protestants, Catholic and mainstream Protestant faiths are all losing membership. Looking at the gray lines we can see where the loss is going to - the unaffiliated, often referred to as the “ Nones .” Not shown in this chart are those joining the ranks of unbelievers. Time doesn’t permit me to go over the Barna Group and 6
American Pastors Network Surveys but they are both in agreement that Science is one of the wedges separating our youth who were raised in the Church from their faith. 6
This chart from the Religion News Network sums up the state of Religious Affiliation as of 2017. Protestants make up 33% of the US population, Roman Catholics 21% and 34% the Nones. This is the first time in our US history that the biggest slice of the pie of the population does not hold to a major branch of the Christian faith. Think about this question for a moment. Where have nearly everyone from Generation X and younger gotten the bulk of their scientific education from? From our public schools where they spend about 35 hours per week being immersed in a secular education. An education that teaches there can only be naturalistic explanations for how life began. Teachers can’t teach creationism in our public schools. Teachers can’t teach intelligent. Nor can they teach about the weaknesses in neo- Darwinian theory. 7
And these same students get less than 2 hours a week in religious education at their churches and virtually no classes on the harmony between science and the Bible. Are we not surprised that this is the case? I would put forth that we should be surprised that it took so long for this drop in religious faith to occur. So we now have a pretty good picture of the current state of religious faith in America. Our younger generations are leaving the faith they grew up in and joining the ranks of the Nones or the Unaffiliated. 7
What can we do about it? 8
So what can Christians and specifically we apologists do about it? I would like to suggest that the conflict between Science and Faith is man-made. This conflict is fueled by ideologies that seek to perpetuate this dichotomy. • Use science to show the beauty and majesty of God’s creation • Emphasize that the same God who created everything from subatomic particles to galaxies also created them • Show people that there is harmony between scripture and science i.e. dual revelation 9
I love this quote by Nobel Laureate Derek Barton, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1969 “God is Truth. There is no incompatibility between science and religion. Both are seeking the same truth...” We have to remember that ALL TRUTH is GOD’s TRUTH. 10
So what is dual revelation? It was first proposed by St. Augustin around 400 AD in his book Confessions and reinforced by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13 th century AD. It is often referred to as God’s Two Books: the Book of Nature and the Bible. General revelation is what God has revealed about Himself to everyone at all times. This includes the knowledge that God exists, is the Creator, is powerful, glorious, and righteous. Special revelation – God has revealed himself to specific people at specific times in specific places. God has made himself known to His prophets, to His Chosen people, and through His son Jesus Christ and through his word, the Bible. 11
Another thing to keep in mind is that both General Revelation and Special Revelation require that we humans interpret the information God is providing us. There will be no conflict between God’s World and God’s Word when properly interpreted since God is the author of both books! 11
• We can use dual revelation as a way to start conversations with people about God • We can show that the heavens can be used for evangelism by using God’s World and God’s Word to produce a model that is consistent and non-contradictory • We should understand that Young people and millennials today are very technology and scientifically savvy. They have been immersed in Science all of their educational lives – from kindergarten through college. They are very familiar with the authority that science has been given in our modern hi-tech world. Science is what makes airplanes and jets fly and sends astronauts and satellites into space. 12
Science is what harnessed the electromagnetic waves so that our personal devices from cell phones and other wireless communications, remote controls and Bluetooth devices all work. This generation never knew a world without technology. They were weaned on computer games, digital media, and wireless everything at the touch of a finger. To them, Science is what is curing diseases. Science is what is providing all of the comforts of modern life. And Religion is something that happens on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights! Dare I say that science and technology have become the millennial generation’s new golden calves? 12
So now we are ready to read what Scripture has to say about the universe. Now I want to caution you that the Bible was not written as a scientific text. Since God is the author of both books we would expect to find golden nuggets and jewels of scientific knowledge sprinkled throughout scripture. And we do as the next series of slides will allude to. I normally review 11 verses from various books of the Bible in this section but due to time limitations, I am only going to cover 3 verses and reference the other 8. 13
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1 -2) The Bible says- “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The physical universe (all the cosmic stuff) has a beginning. The Bible’s first lines reveal the source of the Big Bang! Recall Francis Shaeffer’s quote, “Christianity starts with … In the beginning, God Created the heavens and the earth .” My favorite bumper sticker is this one: “The Big Bang Theory: God spoke and bang!, it happened.” 14
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