SCIENCE AND
RELIGION
Lawrence T. Slaght
Lawrence T. Slaght, Editor, The Watchman-Examiner. Reprinted by permission from the Issue of Oct. 21, 1965.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Here, in the very opening words of the Bible is the start of the story of creation. It all sounds so simple and straight-forward, which in part it is. Like the iceberg, however, the further beneath the surface one goes the more massive becomes the subject. Sometime ago a Belgian priest, Georges Le Maitre by name, proposed the theory that all the matter of the universe was once gathered together in a huge ball. With the passage of time, the attraction of gravity increased so that finally the pressure and temperature of the huge mass became so high that it exploded like an atomic bomb. "Thus our universe began its first day with a Big Bang," explains one prominent scientist, according to a recent report by the Religious News Service. He continues by showing how this harmonizes with such Biblical phrases as "God separated the light from the darkness" and "without form and void."
Well, perhaps so. We wouldn't know. Science is not our forte. Furthermore, while not wishing to be flippant or ungrateful for help along the pilgrim pathway, isn't conflict between science and religion somewhat inevitable? The two fields of intellectual endeavor are so very, very different. Furthermore, life without tension would be frightfully dull and would surely result in stagnation. Let science challenge faith. If faith be faith it can only be strengthened, and science certainly cannot be harmed by faith.