Science vs. Christianity

On the way into work today, I listened to Annie Lennox's "Why". It's a very dramatic and sad song, but to me, like all good tragedy, it has some wonderful comic proportions, too. For instance, when I encounter something that's frustrating or stupid or confused, sometimes that song, particularly the long, drawn-out "why", plays in my head. Very loudly. For specific instance, every time I encounter a science vs. Christianity debate, I roll my eyes and sigh, and sometimes even sing along out loud with "Why" while it's playing in my head. I imagine the people adjacent to my cubicle make a mental note to never invite me to a karaoke party.

Look. Science and Christianity are simply different things. It's not even an apples and oranges comparison, it's more like apples and lightbulbs.

Science, and let's be precise here in that we are talking about "hard" science - physics, biology, etc. - and not "social science" - like anthropology or psychology; science is about observable, predictable facts and, because of that, is limited in its ability to describe much of the human condition outside of the mechanics of the human body, the effect of the physical environment upon the same, and descriptions and manipulations of physical properties. Science is about how the heart works, computers, electricity, gravity, chemistry, and stuff that blows up real good.

Christianity, and the text that documents the source and history of it (the Bible, for those of you in the cheap seats), is about humanity and its relationship to God, and our relationships to each other. Nothing about science.

Simply put:
Science = Explorations of physical reality.
Christianity = Relationship with God.

Pardon me, but I'm just not seeing the intersection there. To which someone might say, "Excuse me, but don't you consider God part of physical reality?" To which I'd answer, "No, He's outside of it." Therefore, He's unknowable save for perhaps the little He has told us about Himself.

Now, personally, I accept as reasonable the justification some folks proffer where just the fact that we exist, the wonderfully balanced laws of the universe, and the possibility that evolution can explain our occurring naturally is enough for them to believe we came to be by some phenomenal accident, which doesn't require God as part of the explanation or equation. To me, that's just as plausible a cause for their belief as is my accepting the New Testament as the literal truth and real history of Jesus is a plausible cause for my belief. That belief that natural accidents may explain away God is the one place where science vs. Christianity connect very tenuously. Still, I think that particular leap is based on only one implication among many possible ones, and it is quite a leap. Even a leap of faith.

Two people observing a marvelously complex and robust system can come to the opposite conclusions that 1) someone consciously designed and constructed that system and that 2) it just occurred all on its own by sheer happenstance, and having no proof of either the two will just have to accept each holds a possible valid conclusion.

Outside of dubious theological missteps and overreaching, such as denying the earth goes around the sun because we have to be at the center of God's creation because he just wuvs us SO MUCH!, Christianity just hasn't got all up in science's process. Well, unless you count the anomaly known as Creationism. Creationism is to science as stage magic is to real magic (if real magic existed, of course). Creationism's attempt to meld science and religion is as misguided and futile as strapping rocket jets to your roller-skates - see any Roadrunner cartoon or MTV's "Jackass" for proof, provided you're immature enough. By the way, believing that God created everything does not make you a Creationist. Glad we got that out of the way.

Nothing in the Bible makes any claims or statements on scientific knowledge or the advancement thereof. It is all about people and God. Now, everyone knows that it contains a couple creation stories (yes, it does have two), but these are either allegorical or vastly simplified in the same way an explanation to a three-year-old on where kittens come from is. The reason for this is apparent, at least to me. How do you really explain how you created everything when your audience has no previous experience with any of the concepts they'd need to begin to understand, and really your most immediate concern is to introduce yourself, tell them to quit cheating and killing each other, and demand that they stop fucking goats and stuff already. (If you want a book that starts at the dawn of time and realistically walks you through the continents forming, life populating the earth, and finally places you on the front steps of modern times, read a James Michener novel.)

The first five books of the Bible were by Moses or about Moses, and all of the things God conveyed to Moses, including the creation stories. Can you imagine how it might have gone if God had tried to explain the big bang, the basics of matter, and evolution (if evolution was the mechanism God used to form us) to Moses?

GOD: "Hi Moses. Take off your shoes; this is holy ground. Don't get too close. That robe looks pretty flammable. Get comfortable, this may take a while."

Moses complies.

GOD: "Well, in the beginning, I created a proto-singularity that contained the proto-matter from which I would construct all matter, such as atoms and molecules and the various forces to bind them all together."

MOSES (with a very puzzled expression): "Atoms? Proto...what?"

GOD: "Hmmm. Okaaay. Lessee. First there was nothing and then I created this huge explosion that threw matter everywhere."

MOSES: "Matter?"

GOD: "Um, 'stuff.' I made the earth, moon, the sun and the stars from that stuff. Then, I evolved all the animals and you humans from the same single-celled organisms, though I formed you humans in my image..."

MOSES: "Evolved? Single-cell organwhatis?"

GOD: "Well, it was like I made jelly fishes turn into fishes, and the fishes turned into a lizards on the land, then I made little furry things like mice out of those lizards, those lizards became dinosaurs, later after going through many kinds of animals, I made humans from the same animals I made monkeys from."

MOSES: "Holy Shit! Monkeys? What the hell is a dinosaur?!"

GOD (the bush burning a little more furiously than usual): "Oh for heaven's sake, I'll let you guys figure out all that stuff later yourselves. Just write this down: I started with nothing. I made everything over a period of time, like seven days is a "period of time," and then I made a man called Adam, and from him I made a woman called Eve..."

MOSES: "Are atoms and Adam the same guy?"

GOD: "Oy."

A little later...

MOSES: "I always knew I didn't like snakes for a good reason."

GOD: "Um, yeah. And, here, take these few simple rules down to the folks. I'll be in touch."

So Moses goes down the mountain and finds everyone in the middle of a drunk, nekkid orgy around a golden statue of a cow (at least it wasn't a monkey), and flips out.

MOSES: "Holy cow! A golden calf? What, you've all gone Hindu on me, now? You! Put some clothes on. You! Put on some coffee! We've got a lot to cover. And leave that goat alone!" (Moses thinking to himself all the while that he's glad he didn't have to explain the stuff about the atoms and the monkeys.)

And then, in this day and age, a scientist gets all fussy when s/he doesn't find the equations for atomic states in the footnotes of Genesis, and declares the whole thing bullshit.

<Annie Lennox>Whyyyyyyyyy... </Annie Lennox>