Can You Be a Science Person and Still Believe in God?
By Dr. Xunkai Chen, PhD in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering, Research Scientist, and Campus Light mentor
"Doesn't science disprove faith?" "I'm a science person, so I can't be religious." "How can you prove God scientifically?"
The list goes on and on. These are the types of questions I constantly run into while engaging students on the college campus, and have for the past 5+ years. I totally understand where these questions come from, because I had the same questions before I became a Christian!
My name is Xunkai, and I'm a college mentor at Campus Light. During the day, I work as a Research Scientist at a startup working on cutting-edge battery cathode materials. As someone with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering, I can confidently say that you can be a "science guy" and still believe in God, without having to put your brain away when dealing with questions of faith. As a matter of fact:
A 2009 Pew Research survey found that 51% of U.S. scientists believe in God or a higher spiritual power (read the article).
A study of Nobel Prize winners between 1901 and 2000 found that 65.4% identified as Christian across various denominations (Baruch Shalev, 100 Years of Nobel Prizes; summary here).
Many renowned scientists, throughout history and today, have been Christians: Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Georges Lemaître, Francis Collins, John Lennox, and more.
Where I Started
Growing up in China, I always thought religion was for people who needed emotional support, and that only people who lacked the intellectual ability to reason would believe in religion and the idea of a God. Yet when I first started to investigate Christianity intellectually in college, I found surprising evidence for the historicity of the Bible and sophisticated, satisfying arguments for the existence of God.
For example, far from being legends and fairy tales, the Bible is grounded in historical facts, surrounded by archaeological evidence, and widely regarded by scholars as one of the best-attested ancient documents we have. What about the existence of God? Well, there's the Kalam cosmological argument, the fine-tuning of the universe, the moral argument, and more. And the continuing discoveries of modern science, from DNA to the Big Bang, raise questions that, for many scientists, are best answered by a Creator.
Francis Collins' testimony:
Different questions, different tools
Science investigates the question of how. Faith answers the question of why. Science limits itself to the natural, observable world and seeks to understand its patterns, while faith addresses the big questions of life that can't be measured in a lab. Using science to evaluate faith is simply using the wrong tool for the job. They come at reality from different angles, and they don't conflict with each other.
So instead of feeling sheepish whenever you get asked these types of questions, try these resources to brush up on your scientific apologetics. You'll find that not only does science not contradict faith, but scientific findings are far more consistent with a Creator than with a universe that came from nothing.
Books
Can Science Explain Everything? by John Lennox, math professor at Oxford University
Demolishing Doubt by Cliffe & Stuart Knechtle (Yes, Cliffe just came out with a book, and I've been loving it! You'll see many of the questions you run into on college campuses.)
Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen C. Meyer (three scientific discoveries that support intelligent design)
The Reason for God by Tim Keller
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (an all-time classic, and more philosophical than the others)
Other resources
Film: The Story of Everything (Stephen Meyer's book, in film format)
Website: BioLogos, founded by Francis Collins, former director of the NIH
Website: Reasons to Believe, led by astrophysicist Hugh Ross, covering modern scientific discoveries that point to God
A quick note: these authors don't all agree with each other on every question (especially on how God created), and that's OK. Christians can hold different views on the details while agreeing on the big picture: that the universe has a Creator, and that science is one of the ways we get to explore His work.
Have a science-and-faith question you're stuck on? We'd love to talk it through with you. Find out where and when we meet at campuslight.org/connect.
Xunkai Chen holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering from Princeton University and works as a Research Scientist at Nascent Materials. He has mentored college students at Campus Light for over five years. Questions about this post? Email Campus Light at campuslightchurch@gmail.com.
