When you hear the word truth, what comes to mind? Over the last few hundred years we have seen a drastic change in common thinking about how we define truth. Truth is seen as only literal and factually proven and anything apart from this ceases to be truth – this was not always the case. I was listening to a podcast recently where the speaker was dissecting The Lion King scene by scene and analyzing it from a psychological point of view. Commenting on the archetypal themes found within the narrative, he makes a statement along the lines of, “what’s to say that these architypes are not more true than tangible reality?”.
When it comes to faith and science, we find that we are often given the option of one or the other. We either believe in the transcendent and metaphysical at the expense of rational, logical, and scientific thinking. Or alternatively we can take the route of science and atheism. Many of the modern atheists hold that if we let go of religion we will be propelled into rationalism, and it will be a step forward for humanity. This is obviously the extreme opinion. Many just believe that religion is irrational and struggle to fit it into their scientific world view.
We are not smarter than all who have preceded us, to think along these lines would be extremely ignorant. We have not arrived at a point of enlightenment that enables us to now see what those before us could not. Many of the fathers of science believed at least in the metaphysical if not in the Christian God that we do. Isaac Newton would give glory to God for his discoveries. The fact that throughout history so many people have believed in something that cannot be discounted as ignorance or stupidity.
As a believer, the Bible is ultimate truth to me. I hold scripture as truer than any science or philosophy, but not at the expense of reason. Ultimately, I believe in God because of my personal relationship with him and the evidence of what He has done in my life. But my faith is not blind or irrational, in fact, the more that I study and research, the more that my faith is solidified. Truth does not have to be either science or religion. Just as thousands of people have done before us, we can believe in God whilst navigating our worldview around scientific and philosophical movements.
By Stuart Stark
