Does science conflict with Christianity?

A recent conference held at St. John's College in Durham discussed how science can be studied within the context of the Christian faith.

According to Christian Today, Tom McLeish, Durham University physics professor and co-director of the project "Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science," said that people can view science within a theological perspective, in the same way that many scientists like physicist-mathematician Isaac Newton and mathematician-astronomer Johannes Kepler have done. McLeish cited astrophysicist Joseph Taylor who discovered the binary pulsar and whose work supports the Big Bang Theory.

Taylor said, "A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world."

He also mentioned physicist/mathematician Max Borne, who said that whoever says that studying science "makes a man an atheist must be rather silly," while theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg said that the first drink from the glass of natural science would turn one into an atheist, "but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you."

During the conference, the attendees discussed what is called the "conflict model," which says that science and religion are perenially at odds. This they called a historical myth, although it pervades to modern times.

The project is challenging "the caricature of the conflict model and present a more nuanced account of science and Christianity" by letting people know of the historical and modern scientists "who view the relationship between science and religion as mutually enhancing" and opening dialogue between church leaders and scientists who are believers and who are not.

During the conference, McLeish also mentioned theoretical physicist Max Planck, who said, "Both religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations... To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalised world view."

Meanwhile, another organization in the United Kingdom called God and the Big Bang is also challenging the notion that religion and science can't go together. The project, which holds events that involve around 120 students, is not aiming at coverting school kids, instead it wants to help students have a deeper understanding of both science and faith.

"The aim is to get young people across the UK thinking about the compatibility of science and faith," project coordinator Steph Bryant told Christian Today. "It's hands-on and interactive and allows a different way of approaching science and faith."

God and the Big Bang is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. It is supported by the Church of England, the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Christians in Science, and the Institute of Education at the University of Reading.