{"id":25,"date":"2009-05-19T09:41:11","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T09:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/a-rational-belief.html"},"modified":"2014-05-19T09:16:35","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T13:16:35","slug":"a-rational-belief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/a-rational-belief.html","title":{"rendered":"A Rational Belief"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Easter<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:<\/b> finsbry \/ Flickr \/ All Rights reserved <\/p>\n

My granddaughter Sara is six years old. About six months ago, her mom called to
\ntell me Sara wanted to talk about some theological concepts. She put Sara on
\nthe phone, and I was peppered with questions like, “Who made God?” and “Where
\nis heaven?” Our discussion led her to pose more questions about the details of
\nwhat happened when Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven. I could tell
\nshe was a little skeptical about all of this but seemed willing to believe me
\nbecause I am her grandfather. As I continued the phone conversation with her
\nmother, Sara called out in the background, “Tell Grampy I don’t believe in the
\nEaster Bunny.” I smiled at the thought that I had been granted the resurrection
\nand ascension, but the Easter Bunny had to go.<\/p>\n

A couple of months after our conversation, Sara lost a tooth. In her growing
\nskepticism of all things childish, she sat down, pen in hand, and wrote a note
\nto the one who normally rewards her for each tooth left under her pillow. “Dear
\nTooth Fairy,” she wrote, “Please don’t leave me any money this time, just leave
\nme a Mary Kate and Ashley DVD, and also would you leave a picture of yourself?”
\nI think she had grown suspicious that her mother was the tooth fairy and
\nfigured out this sly way of still drawing on the benefits — and maybe even
\nincreasing them a little — while satisfying her instinctive desire to get at
\nthe truth. Letting go of her belief in Santa won’t be far behind, but that will
\nbe a little tougher to give up. After all, Christmas presents are considerably better
\nthan Easter eggs scattered around the back yard or a one dollar bill found
\nunder her pillow.<\/p>\n

As we grow up, we let go of the myths of our childhood. And many people believe if
\nwe really<\/em> grow up, we’ll let go of the myth of a creator — especially the highly specific logos<\/em> of John 1: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Surely we ought to be able to let go of that myth by the time we are in middle school. Surely science — which has never been able to detect a creator and is getting increasingly successful at explaining much of biology without a need to invoke God — has made such a view highly antiquated. Why, 150 years after Darwin, do so many adults still believe in the bodily resurrection of a dead person and a God who can hear individual prayers of hundreds of millions of people at once? If my granddaughter can see the parallel between these religious convictions
\nand her former belief in the Easter Bunny at the age of six, why can’t those of
\nus who have been around many times longer see the parallel, proceed to reject
\nit, and then move on? Are we, like Sara with the tooth fairy, just playing
\nalong? Have we been unwilling to relinquish this one last antiquated belief
\nbecause the personal cost is too high?<\/p>\n

It is very clear that evolution has occurred. It is also abundantly clear that
\nnatural selection and other natural phenomena have worked as the driving force
\nbehind life’s amazing diversity (watch this space for more details in coming
\ndays). However, despite the reality of evolution, there is information that leads us to believe in a reality that extends beyond what we can study through science. There are
\ndata, for example, that imply that key elements in the story of Jesus’ life really did take place. If so, a scientist ought not to reject that data without careful examination.<\/p>\n

Much of the data that informs the science of evolutionary biology is historical in
\nnature. As a science professor, when I read a book written by The University of
\nEdinburgh biblical scholar Larry Hurtado<\/a> that explores in detective-like fashion how soon early Christians began to venerate Jesus of Nazareth, I follow the same logic I use when reading evolutionary biology papers. Although the facts may not be as clear cut as those emerging from some of the experiments I’ve discussed with thousands of students over the years, Christian belief is nevertheless grounded in real data.<\/p>\n

To explain the rational base for Christianity Timothy Keller<\/a>, author of “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,” examines the data the same way I want my students to do as they think about the ramifications of the data that emerge from studying the history and diversity of life forms. When I read the work of theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer<\/a>, a 20th century German Lutheran pastor who wrote about the theological ramifications of Genesis 1-3, or Karl Barth’s<\/a>“The Doctrine of Creation,” I consider it as brilliant as the work of my scientific heroes including molecular biologists Seymour Benzer, Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner. Barth, Bonhoeffer, Keller and Hurtado all base their work on profoundly significant data also.<\/p>\n

For graduate students, the unforgiveable sin is to discuss a particular concept as being the only acceptable one when there are other reasonably logical possibilities to explain the same thing. There are some very good reasons to think the God of Christian theology really does exist. Not only has this concept not been falsified, but also there is much data to support its veracity. Those who doubt these beliefs should ask themselves what they have actually done to test that doubt. For example, when reading the
\nepistle to the Romans, have they sincerely tried to picture how someone could
\nfake a document almost certainly written within 25 years after the death of the
\nhistorical person named Jesus? Could something so packed with sincere emotion
\nand veneration really have been faked? Have those same people read Keller’s book with the open mindset that is supposed to be the trademark of any scientist?<\/p>\n

The concept of the God of Christian theology simply does not fall into the same
\ncategory as an easily falsified hypothesis about the existence of the Easter
\nBunny, the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. There are data similar to that which
\ndetectives and historians use to reach conclusions about what is likely and not
\nso likely. It may not be scientifically testable the way the replication mechanism of DNA is testable or in a manner that parallels the experiments supporting the theory of evolution, but there are good, rational reasons that serve as the foundation for a life of faith.<\/p>\n

Sara’s next hurdle is going to be Santa Claus, and whether she will admit it or not, I
\npredict she’ll move that aside within the next year or two. However, the belief
\nthat there may be something more to this universe than what science alone
\nreveals will not fall so easily — not if she is as smart as I think she is.<\/p>\n

Darrel Falk is a professor and chair of the biology department at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and executive director of The BioLogos Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nShare<\/a>
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: finsbry \/ Flickr \/ All Rights reserved My granddaughter Sara is six years old. About six months ago, her mom called to tell me Sara wanted to talk about some theological concepts. 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His range of courses over the years has included senior capstone courses, honors seminars, and undergraduate courses including Vertebrate Physiology, Comparative Anatomy, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Developmental Biology, Cell Biology, General Biology, General Zoology, Vertebrate Biology, History and Philosophy of Biology, and his very favorite, Genetics. Dr. Falk has also taught Sunday School in a seniors Bible class for many years, where he has grown into a much deeper love for the integrity and truth of Scripture. For most of the past 15 years he has also been a part of an ongoing weekly Theology\/Science interdisciplinary discussion group at his university, where he has been privileged to be influenced by Christian colleagues from a broad range of disciplines. All of Dr. Falk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s early work was in the growing field of Drosophila molecular and developmental genetics. He obtained his PhD from the University of Alberta, and did post-doctoral work at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Irvine before taking up a faculty position at Syracuse University. Throughout his first eleven years as a faculty member, his research was funded almost continuously by the NIH and\/or NSF. Desiring to focus on undergraduate teaching in a Christian college setting, and to think about biology more broadly than typically possible in a research university, he moved into Christian higher education 25 years ago. Dr. Falk has given talks about the interface of science and faith at many universities and seminaries in the last several years. Dr. Falk is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Genetics Society of America, and the American Scientific Affiliation. He is the author of Coming to Peace with Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology (InterVarsity Press, Downer's Grove, Illinois, 2004).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/author\/dfalk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}