This document discusses the relationship between science and religion, specifically Christianity. It makes three main points: 1) The development of science historically took place within the Christian West, and many early scientists were religious believers, including clergy. 2) Christianity provided the worldview foundations for science by positing a rational, orderly universe created by God to be understood by rational humans. Other religions did not generate a "full-birthed" science. 3) To reconcile the estrangement between science and Christianity, both communities need to re-examine their views - scientists should better understand Christianity's actual claims, while Christians should reject equating evolution with atheism. Without Christianity, there would be no history of

1. Dr. Robert C. Kurka
Professor, Theology and Church in Culture
The Seminary, Lincoln Christian University
Lincoln, IL 62656

2.  The warfare of Columbus [with religion] the world knows well: how
the Bishop of Cueta worsted him in Portugal; how sundry wise men
of Spain confronted him with the usual quotations from Psalms, from
St. Paul, and from St. Augustine, ho, even after he was triumphant,
and after his voyage had greatly strengthened the theory of the
earth’s sphericity…the theological barriers to this geographical truth
yielded but slowly. Plain as it had become to scholars, they hesitated
to declare it to the world at large…But in 1519 science gains a
crushing victory. Magellan makes his famous voyage. He proves the
earth is round, for his expedition circumnavigates it…Yet even this
does not end the war. Many conscientious [religious] men oppose the
doctrine for two hundred years longer
--Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with
Theology (1896), 108-9

3.  Some credible voices who would differ:
* A. N. Whitehead: “My explanation is that the faith in the
possibility of science, generated antecedently to the
development of modern scientific theory, is an unconscious
derivative from medieval theology.”
* Albert Einstein: “Science without religion is lame. Religion
without science is blind.”
* Ernst Mach: “Every unbiased mind must admit that the age
in which the chief development of the science of mechanics
took place was an age of predominantly theological cast.”

5. I. The Parent-Child Relationship: A Long Historical Narrative
* The history of the development of science undeniably took place in
the Christian West
* A “Who’s Who” of Early Scientists reveals that the vast majority of
these were persons of faith, many of whom were professional
clergy.

6. * Enlightenment
* Darwinian Crusade of the late 19th and 20th
Centuries– e.g., T. H. Huxley
* “Orthodox Christian” Blunders

7.  II. The “DNA” Evidence is In: Christianity is
the “Birth Mother” of Science
*An eternal, personal and rational Creator who
creates a universe that reflects his rationality
and “goodness” (Gen. 1; cf. John 1:1-3)
*and Human Beings who are uniquely, his
image and charged with understanding and
stewardship of his cosmos (Gen: 1:27-28)

8. * A WORLDVIEW that makes cosmic
investigation possible (rational universe and
rational humans), permissible (Gen. 1:28), and
predictable (as the history of science
demonstrates)
* Other religions/cultures had some of the
technological “buds” of science, but their
worldview could not generate a “full-birthed”
science

9. * The biblical worldview (especially as it is
oriented in the Incarnate Christ and his
ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and
parousia) is the womb in which Modern Science
was nourished…and a familial relationship
that if broken, ultimately sows the seeds of
scientific demise!

10.  III. Reconciling the Family: Some Modest
Proposals in Bringing the Estranged Parties Back
Together
* To the Scientific Community:
1) Re-visit the history of science (sans White)
2) Do not assume that Evolution demands Atheism
3) Become better students of philosophy…especially
epistemology
4) Avoid caricatures of Christian believers (a la Huxley)
5) Become better students of the actual cosmological claims
of the Biblical material

11. * To the Christian Community:
1) Interpret the Bible according to its historical,
literary, and theological purposes
2)Refuse to make the false “evolution=atheism”
equation
3) Reject caricature of evolutionary theory as well as of
science and scientists
4) Be careful and thoughtful evaluators of the “ID”
claims

12.  Conclusion: Although the “Received View” of the
history of science is steeped in anti-Christian
polemic, the truth of the matter is that WITHOUT
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH:
1) There would not be a history of science
2) More basically, there would not be a
WORLDVIEW that could supply the cosmic
narrative and philosophical presuppositions
necessary to doing science
3) And it is “high time” that Mother (Historic
Christianity) and Child (Science) become re-united
and reconciled…for the sake of BOTH!