Faith and Science: Friends or Foes?

Can a person believe in science and faith or are they mutually exclusive? Michael Frost explores how one affects the other.

Questions for Discussion and Personal Reflection

  1. Does a belief in the supernatural exclude belief in the laws of nature?
  2. In what ways has science increased or decreased your faith in the supernatural?

Yeah, I don't buy the, the science vs. religion dichotomy, myself. I, I don't see any reason why they have to be mutually exclusive. I, I can buy the science, and I can still have faith in God. I, I've never understood the idea that somehow a defense of faith in God and the supernatural, by its very nature, means that I can't actually believe, uh, in the advances of science and, and observation of, uh, of laws of nature. Uh, I think that in that regard, uh, the more we discover scientifically about our world, about ourselves, about the universe, to me, all that does is invite me further and further into the wonder of the complexity and the beauty of, uh, of the cosmos. And all that does is then invite me to, to dare to believe the, the extraordinary idea that this could actually have been part of design, that this actually reflects the complexity and the grace and the beauty of God who is behind it all. Now, I readily acknowledge that that's a matter of faith. I have faith in believing that, and I respect people who don't have faith. But I, I say, don't, don't put me in a box where I have to disregard all science in order to believe in God. I can have the science, and I can have God. And in fact, I think my understanding of the science only increases my faith in God.