The Destruction of the Gods - Has Science Made God Obsolete?

by Vern S. Poythress, Ph.D. , Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Westminster Theological Seminary
Science has now proven those gods to be false idols. Soon all Gods will be proven to be false idols. Science has now provided answers to almost every question man can ask.--Maximilian Kohler, in Dan Brown, Angels and Demons.

Has science made God obsolete? Dan Brown's Maximilian Kohler argues that by giving rational explanations for the rising and setting of the sun, science has made the Greek god Helios dispensable. In every field, the growth of science pushes back the need to postulate the activities of gods. Kohler expresses what is on many people's minds in our day.

Ironically, the rise of science took place in the opposite direction from what Kohler depicts. Kohler suggests that science destroyed the gods. Actually, the destruction of the gods created an opening for science. How?

The polytheistic religion of Greeks said that there were many gods. There were as many divine plans and as many purposes as there were gods. Since the gods interacted in a chaotic fashion, people had no guarantee that the world would show any stable order. Greek religion discouraged any hope for a scientific exploration of a rational order.

Modern science arose in the context of Christian monotheism, which displaced the Greek gods and gave confidence to prospective scientists by means of three fundamental principles:

1. One rational God rules all things (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 33:6), and so we can expect universal order.
2. God made man in his image (Genesis 1:26-27), and so man is naturally in tune with God's mind and has hope of grasping the order that God had given.
3. The world that God made is not divine, and hence is open for human investigation.

In fact, God's word is the foundation for scientific law. According to Genesis 1, God by speaking specified the regular order for the sun and moon and stars, and the regular pattern for the growth and reproduction of plants (Genesis 1:11, 14-15). What scientists call scientific law is in fact their guess about God's law, God's specification, "let it be so." Scientists in their investigation are in fact investigating the mind of God and thinking his thoughts after him--albeit on their limited, human level.

Early scientists like Copernicus and Isaac Newton understood that they stood before God's workmanship. The universe wasbuilt for us by the Best and Most Orderly Workman of all.How exceedingly fine is the godlike work of the Best and Greatest Artist. (Copernicus, The Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres)

To read the rest