Is Science a Belief System?--Professor Brian Cox

"We live on a world of wonders. A place of astonishing beauty and complexity. We have vast oceans and incredible weather. Giant mountains and breath-taking landscapes. If you think that this is all there is, that our planet exists in magnificent isolation, then you're wrong. We're part of a much wider ecosystem, that extends way beyond the top of our atmosphere.

As a physicist I'm fascinated by how the laws of nature that shaped all this, also shaped the worlds beyond our home planet. I think we're living through the greatest age of discovery our civilisation has known. We've voyaged to the farthest reaches of the Solar System. We've photographed strange new worlds, stood in unfamiliar landscapes, tasted alien air."--Professor Brian Cox.

These are the opening lines of the BBC award-winning documentary Wonders of the Solar System with Professor Brian Cox, physicist. It was aired last fall on Discovery Science Channel in five one-hour episodes and was recently re-aired on the same channel. That is how it wound up on my DVR.

I'm a sucker for shows like this because I have a grand curiosity and sense of wonder. I love this stuff. I could sit and watch it all day. Brian Cox comes across as a very likeable guy, someone with whom you could have great conversations in your living room after a polite dinner with the family. He's wonderful. He reminds me of Keanu Reeves--only with a high IQ and a British accent.

In the first episode he discusses the power and influence of the sun. In the opening segment he takes us to India to see a total eclipse of the same. The wonder he expresses in the scenes that follow as he explains what is about to happen and then witnesses it are echoed by the wonder that I feel whenever I have the opportunity to learn, understand, and experience the greatness and complexity of this creation in which we find ourselves. It is this sense of wonder that often lifts my heart and mind toward God in worshipful adoration.

Something Brian Cox says in the first episode, first segment, grabbed my attention. We are in the Indian city of Ayodhya, a city known to ancient Hindus as the Solar City. As Professor Cox introduces us to the locale and sets up the event that will follow he says this,

"Science is different to all the other systems of thought, the belief systems that have been practiced in this city for millennia, because you don't need faith in it. You can check that it works."

What he says affirms what I have thought for a long, long time. Many scientists view science as a "belief system." It is their religion, as it were. Science, to them, is more than just a method of inquiry by which truth is ascertained. Science is a belief system, one which replaces traditional religion and therefore cannot be compatible with it in any real sense.

But there is more than that in what he says. Not only does the statement reveal the inherent atheism in much modern scientific thinking (Cox is an atheist), it exposes a lack of understanding that Professor Cox shares with many Christians about the relationship between faith, science, and ultimate truth.

Science and theology are two perfectly compatible methods of inquiry into the truth about the nature of the universe around us. They are different methods, for sure, but (don't miss this) all truth is God's truth. Both science and theology operate on the bases of reason and logic. Both utilize faith. Both require thinking and education. There is poor science; there is junk science. There is poor theology; there is junk theology. The war between the two disciplines is unfortunate, unnecessary, and a detriment to knowledge and human advancement.

In spite of what Professor Cox asserts in the statement above, it is not exactly true that everything that science posits as truth is testable. There is an entire discipline of physics, for example, known as "theoretical physics." Theoretical physicists are some of my favorite people on Discovery Science. Their purpose, their passion even, is in thinking about and proposing new ideas to challenge old ones, new theories about the nature of our universe. Many, indeed most of these theories are untestable. There is some evidence for them, but as yet no proof. Some of these theories will be rejected immediately by most other physicists. Some will slowly gain acceptance. Some will eventually gain a wide enough acceptance to actually replace older theories, theories that have been proved false by newer facts and data. Belief in any of these theories requires faith.

So I am going to disagree with Professor Cox slightly and state that science is not a belief system, but rather a method of inquiry by which our beliefs may be tested. It is one of several methods of inquiry available to us and by which we may come ever-closer to ascertaining ultimate truth. The truths revealed by science are perfectly compatible with the truths gleaned through theology, philosophy, historical investigation, or any other discipline or method of investigation.

All truth claims, whether they be theological, philosophical, historical, or scientific can and should be tested by whatever means are at our disposal in order that we, as fallible beings, might come closer to knowing ultimate truth. I am convinced that there is nothing in our lives, indeed nothing in this universe more important than that. Certainly as Christians we believe this. It is Paul who said,

"test everything; hold fast what is good."

Jesus said,

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

So I have to further disagree with Professor Cox and say that Christianity is a belief system which can and should be tested also. Because faith is involved does not mean that logic and reason are thrown to the wind. Faith must be reasonable or it is not faith at all, but foolishness. Every truth that science uncovers is compatible with genuine faith. Oftentimes these truths add to our faith and increase our wonder and awe of God.

At one time scientific inquiry was bound by religious orthodoxy and dogma. Certain questions and lines of thinking were taboo. Our potential increase in knowledge was stymied by artificial fences placed by institutions that held power and feared losing control. Today the pendulum has swung the other direction. Now there is a scientific dogma that cannot be questioned, an artificial fence in place that stifles much genuine inquiry. That the dogma itself is not scientific at all, but rather philosophical never seems to occur to the dogmatists who set themselves up to be sure that this fence is maintained. This dogma states that science and religion are incompatible, that faith and reason cannot co-exist, that all genuine scientific inquiry must begin and proceed from an atheistic worldview. Looking at the data from a theistic worldview is simply not allowed. Those who disobey this dictum are ridiculed and marginalized in order to keep any dissent from this scientific orthodoxy minimal.

That is a shame and a crime against truth.