From Dust to Dust

1. FROM DUST TOFROM DUST TO
DUSTDUST
Discourse on Science & Theology
a ministry of the
ACADEMY FOR CHRISTIAN THOUGHT

2. We are all born to die, no one escapes the biological
expiration of our existence.
So what does it mean when we use the phrase, from
dust to dust?
It means we return to the source of our composition –
biochemical components physically constructed
to harness the power of self-conscious thought.

3. Premise
Science without Religion is Lame;
Religion without Science is Blind
… Albert Einstein

4. 1. Thesis
Knowledge of science & theology
in their proper contexts enrich our
understanding, make theology
clearer & science more meaningful.

5. Crisis of Faith in the 19th Century
• Disenchantment with Christianity: Moral
repugnance of eternal damnation.
• Naturalism in the new Historical Sciences
• Unbelief in Miracles
• Darwinism: Are we Rising Beasts or Fallen
Angels?

6. 2. Fallacies
1. The Bible makes no mention of science
(Moses in Acts 7:22)
2. Science was divorced from religion in the
17th century (No fusion. Rather,
subordination to differentiation)

7. 3. Facts
1. The scientific method can neither prove
nor disprove the existence of God.
2. The Bible cannot be used to make
scientific judgments.

8. Premise
Philosophy helps Science and
Theology to maintain their
boundaries of competences

9. 4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (a)
Science offers the most reasonable account of
observed phenomena
(chronic or temporal truth).
Theology explains truths of reality that we are
given before we can understand
(kairic or eschatological truth).

10. 4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (b)
When the implications of science
exceed their explanatory boundaries
(e. g. when biological evolutionary
theories claim that God is
unnecessary), it is a bad use of
science or a use of bad science.

11. 4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (c)
When biblical exegesis of Genesis is used to
claim that Adam and Eve is inconsistent
with the existence of hominids (and the
thousands of fossils found), it is bad
theology making scientific claims.

12. 4. Bad Science & Bad Theology (d)
Scientific conclusions may lead to
implications which neither support nor
diminish theological claims.
Theological reflection may lead to
implications which neither support nor
undermine scientific views.

13. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (a)
Philosophy has no content but asks
probing questions of any discipline to
determine its coherence and
consistency. It keeps them honest!

14. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (b)
The philosophical key: Learn how to
spot the difference between
MEANING and IMPLICATIONS of
both science & theology.

15. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (c)
Scientific investigation is selective and
the chosen methodology is socially
constructed by the peer group that
serves as gatekeeper to the guild
which issues credibility.

16. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (d)
All scientists have to earn passage into
their chosen circle of credits.
Once this is achieved, they have more
freedom to dissent or depart from
existing orthodoxy.

17. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (e)
Reading the Bible with care helps us avoid
unnecessarily importing unsustainable
implications.
That Jesus is both God and resurrected man
is a doctrinal fact. That we will be divine
like Jesus is an implication with neither
warrant nor evidence.

18. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (f)
Biological evolution as change over time
is a scientific fact but that natural
selection is the mechanism is an
implication that is not supported by
scientific investigation.

19. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (g)
Ask if a scientific or theological truth claim is a fact, a theory
or doctrine, an inference, or an implication (FTII).
1. Facts are self-evident
2. Theories and doctrines are testable or falsifiable.
3. Inferences are reasonable guesses about the unknown
based on the known.
4. Implications are possible consequential outcomes which
may or may not be the case.

20. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (h)
FTII tables for Darwinian & Post-Darwinian Evolution
There is no GodImplicationCommon AncestryInferenceNatural SelectionTheoryBiological EvolutionFact God ExistsImplicationCommon AncestryInferenceDivine SelectionTheoryBiological EvolutionFact

21. 5. Philosophy keeps
Science & Theology honest (i)
Post-Darwinian biological evolution need not
necessarily give rise to atheism.
The fact of biological evolution may be explained
by the theory or doctrine of divine selection
by which we infer that there was a common
ancestry which implies that God exists to
effect the fact.

22. Premise
Science and Theology are mutually
beneficial and enriching

23. 6. Science teaches us about God
Augustine’s ‘Egyptian Gold’
Discovery of Ugaritic
1. The Flat Earth
2. The Ends of the World
3. The Young Earth Conjecture (YEC)

24. 7. The Bible encourages Scientific
Investigation (a)
The Doctrines of Creation & Providence
(Creatio initio, continua & nova) provided
the philosophical foundations for the
scientific method involves the regularity
of the orders of the universe.

25. 7. The Bible encourages
Scientific Investigation (b)
Rene Descartes and the Tricky Devil
The Assumption of Universal Mechanical
Regularity & the Reality of Miracles

26. 7. The Bible encourages Scientific
Investigation (c)
1. Projection Theory of Religion (PTR) Feuerbach’s
explanation for the phenomenon of religion
2. Mathematical Cognitive Convergence (MCC): How can we
know what we know about knowledge?
3. Contingency of Morality (COM): Is God good? (The
Euthyphro Dilemma)

27. 8. Implications
Good science is always curious about extra-
scientific resources to enhance the
investigative enterprise.
Good theology acknowledges that because God
made that exists, any study of creation
leads to knowledge about God.

28. 9. Applications (a)
1. Invite science into Christian thinking: Adam & Eve were
the first ‘scientists’, so we ought to reclaim the methods
of scientific inquiry as the tool of the discovering divine
disclosure that it is.
2. Invite Christian beliefs into scientific investigation:
Christian beliefs provide insights into the purpose of
why things are the way they are, asking the questions
pertaining to justice, mercy, altruism and charity.

29. 9.Applications (b)
3. Encourage dialogue between the disciplines to
develop a comprehensive view of reality.

30. 10. WHY IS THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN SCIENCE & GOD IMPORTANT?
Our theological posture about
responsibilities as custodians of science
and technology conditions even if it does
not determine, how we use its awesome
powers for good and ill.