No one was more surprised by this than me, because science is not really something I spend a lot of time exploring and thinking about. I barely made it through my maths classes and gravitated toward the liberal arts, studying literature and history in college.
But this speaker was living proof, not just that science can captivate, but that a love and respect for science and a love and respect for God can reside in the same person and in the same world.
People of faith can find themselves scared by science because it is sometimes difficult to reconcile the findings and advances of the scientific community with what we believe to be the teachings of the Bible. This can result in a hostility to science. Now, I can’t take on the whole science versus Christianity debate in this short column, but I can speak to what this distrust of science says to the children and young people in our churches. When one looks at the studies done around why the Church is losing its children and young people, one of the consistent findings is that if faith is pitted against science in our churches, faith almost always loses.
Think about bringing science into your ministries with children. Use science experiments as learning activities
So what can we do to help our children see that love for God and love of science can do more than just coexist in our minds? Can we show them that the two can instead inform each other? Remember, if God is, indeed the creator of all things, is there any scientific finding that is a complete surprise to God? So, firstly, we need to remember that the Bible was never meant to be a science textbook. The stories in the Bible are ancient sacred stories written in a very different time and context from our own. And while the Bible is full of eternal truth, it is not a reliable source for all things scientific. Secondly, when children have questions about the reconciliation of science and faith, do not be afraid to tell them that you don’t know the answer if you don’t know the answer. Tell them that, perhaps, you can explore the answer together. And never tell them something you know not to be true. Thirdly, when children have these kinds of questions, take them very seriously. Always honour these questions. Do not shut them down and act like their questions are not important: doing this will go a long way to teach them that science and faith cannot exist together. Fourthly, think about bringing science into your ministries with children. Use science experiments as learning activities. When kids see you excited about God’s creativity in the natural world and the cosmos, they will make the connection that faith and science are not mutually exclusive.
Finally, educate yourself. As I listened to this astrophysicist last week, I realised how little I really knew about the intersection of science and faith. Right now my answers to the questions of children and young people on this subject would be woefully inadequate. A good place to start might be with a brand new book: Stars beneath us: finding God in the evolving cosmos. It’s just been released in the United States and is by Paul Wallace, the scientist who so captivated my imagination at last week’s conference.
The questions of children and young people about the intersection of faith and science can be scary for those of us who long for our children to love God and live in the way of Jesus, because a love of science and God, these days, can seem like an either / or proposition. Fight the fear and use these questions as an amazing opportunity for our children and young people to love and understand God more.
Ivy Beckwith is the author of Formational Children’s Ministry: Shaping Children Using Story, Ritual and Relationship (Baker Books, 2010) and Postmodern Children’s Ministry: Ministry to Children in the 21st Century (Zondervan, 2004). She is based in Edina, Minnesota
