This Sunday we’ll have a special single online church experience focussed particularly towards questioning people in and beyond our church: Science and Christianity in a COVID-World. The service and live stream Q&A will be on our website and also on Facebook here.
What will be presented in this conversation between the bible (Jim) and science (Tim)?
We will Talk up Science
We are all rightly impressed by scientific wisdom. It’s amazing! For this reasons, so many hopes are rightly pinned on it just now. Christians should rightly talk up science as a wonder-filled tool of knowledge. In fact, we’ll see that the curiosity that powers science was present even in a great Bible-figure - Solomon, who also assumed that a natural order helped us know the world better. So firstly, the bible guy (Jim) is going to talk up science, with the science-guy (Tim) filling in the actual knowledge about science.
We will Talk about More than Science
But wisdom has its limits. The wisdom of Solomon, for example, was great with science and proverbs, but ran out on relationship advice. The wisdom of science is great on things as big as galaxies and as small as virusses. However, its’ wisdom runs out on some pretty deep questions - can you do anything to anyone to make a vaccine? Can you make a cure for loneliness? Or a vaccine for death? Why should we share? What is life about? Scientific wisdom is vast, but not complete. We need to talk about science, and we need to talk about more than science.
We will Talk Jesus
When we seek this other, extra wisdom for life - answering even bigger questions - Why do we matter? What can we rightly do even in search of good things? What should our attitude to death be? What is this life about? - we wonder where to look. It would be a pretty amazing ethics committee that could answer all the above. Scientists can’t get close enough. Ethicists make some educated guesses.
Christians talk about Jesus because he does not cancel out other wisdom, but because he is the unique wisdom of God on the big questions on life and death, ultimate purpose and meaning - and not just the small fry of sickness and health (thought that feels pretty big right now!). Knowing Jesus for us has us talking up scientists, but thanking God even more for the wisdom of Christ.
Final Words
Simple. Tune in on Sunday. Share with others. Look forward. Pray. Expect God.