James Tour: Friendship Across Disagreements

There is also lack of public trust from many people today who think that the coronavirus SARS-COV-2 virus is not real, or the COVID-19 as an illness is not that bad, that masks do not help reduce disease spread, etc. I know you fight for the truth in that area, which I greatly appreciate: So you should realize that lack of public trust does not mean a particular scientific theory is untrue.

There actually is not great evidence that people have lost their careers over these issues. I do not think that any tenure committee has directly pointed to someone’s stance on evolution as being the reason they did not win tenure, the committees state other reasons. Unfortunately, bias can of course occur in the process, it would just be hard to prove that it did.

Also, a relatively small group of people having some strong convictions does not make something true. Scientists challenge each others ideas all the time, its part of the process of science that leads to testing of and improving upon theories and ultimately building consensus. In spite decades of attempts, YEC and ID scientists have failed to disprove the theory of evolution and have not built consensus among mainstream scientists on their side.

You seem to be afraid that science will draw people away from the faith. This fear is unfounded. Rather, it is the false narrative that there is a debate between science and faith that draws people away from faith. Thus, we need to work harder to demonstrate the fallacy of that debate narrative.

Based on other statements you have written on other threads, I wonder if you are confusing science with scientism and naturalism. There are many scientists who use the scientific method and follow principles of methodological naturalism every day in their work, yet hold to a strong faith in God. Many famous scientists in history have not lost their faith while using scientific methods including people like Newton, Mendel, Pasteur, and also there are many scientists alive today including John Lennox and Francis Collins who have a strong Christian faith. You have also interacted with many scientists here on this forum here who hold to methodological naturalism and keep a strong faith in Jesus as their savior. So you do not need to fear the scientific method or any particular scientific theory. Scientism (the idea that all knowledge comes from science) and naturalism (the idea that only natural forces operate in the universe) are the problematic philosophies, not science itself. Those of us scientists who hold to faith and believe in miracles can do so because we know that there are different ways of knowing that do not include science. We can trust historical evidence, we can understand theological reasoning, and we can know from our personal experiences that God exists. Christian theology actually led people like Mendel and others to use science to study the natural world: because our theology tells us that the God of the Bible is a God of laws and of order. That led to the idea that we could study his creation and there would be laws governing the universe that would help us make sense of His world. Thus, science can draw people to worship.

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