I received an advertisement for a conference where the question “Science & Faith: Friends or Foes?” will be answered—or at least discussed. I don’t know what the speakers will say about it, but I thought it was an interesting question.
The answer is that anyone who puts any stock in science has faith that the future will behave as the past. This is one of the fundamental assumptions on which science is built. When you do an experiment on Tuesday, under the same conditions, you expect the same results on Thursday.
If you try to start your car, and it doesn’t turn over, you wouldn’t assume the laws of physics had changed. You would assume the laws of physics were the same, and that the battery was dead.
Atheists have no good reason for this fundamental assumption. They don’t believe there is someone or something that ensures the laws of the universe will remain constant. Essentially, their faith in science is blind.
Many atheists I’ve spoken with mock Christians for being unscientific. The irony is that they cannot account for why science works.
If you ask an atheist why he or she assumes the future will behave as the past, you won’t get a good answer. Usually, the individual will offer a fallacious answer: The future always has been like the past so it always will look like the past. That is begging the question. If you get him or her to understand this answer is flawed, the atheist will usually say that he or she will continue to trust in science as long as it continues to work. By saying this, he or she admits to being irrational and having no reason for his or her beliefs—taking a blind leap of faith.
Why, then, does science work? What makes the future behave as the past? Christians have an omniscient Being who has revealed to us that He upholds the universe (see Colossians 1:17 and Hebrews 1:3). He maintains order in the world. He is the reason science works.
The ultimate authority for Christians is the God of the Bible; He provides reasonable answers for why the world works. Atheism is bankrupt, because its ultimate authority and assumptions are fallacious. Atheists who love science are being inconsistent with their own worldview, and borrowing from the Christian worldview. Science and the Christian faith are indeed friends.
Christ Alone Wyoming 
Most excellent observation, Bill! Many thanks for posting.
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Related to the Bill’s post, people may want to listen to a message by the late Greg Bahnsen asking the question “Is Evolution Scientific?” Part 1 of 2 can be found here.
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Wow thank you brother Michael for sharing the Bahnsen message. As a big Bahnsen fan, I’m encouraged and find this as another golden jewel from this legendary apologist!
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By the way Bill, good use of probing the problem of the principle of uniformity that’s the foundation for science!
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This was excellent.
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Have you seen Bill Nye’s rant against creationists? If you haven’t, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU
Then, check out our video response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRiwOd6vnBE
Real Truth Matters
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You do not need faith to believe in science because science is fact. We can see the reactions, touch and smell them, we don’t need faith because it is real, right in front of our faces. You need faith to believe in some higher being controlling everything because you read it in a book that has been passed along and changed and translated hundreds of times. You have no proof that God or Satan exists you only have good and bad situations and good and bad people. Religion was created to control the masses, start using your brains instead of mindlessly believing in a book.
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Hi Daniel,
It seems like you may not have read the post, or at least missed the point. To summarize, it says that science assumes that the future will be like the past. Science wouldn’t work if that assumption weren’t true. The question for atheists, and yourself, would be what is your basis for that assumption? Since you didn’t attempt to answer the question, your comment was kind of silly.
Also, in your comment you raised another issue that is impossible for atheists to answer. You said there are good and bad people. How do you determine what is good and bad? For example, is murder wrong? Why?
Thanks for your comment.
Bill
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