Mythbusting Quiz: How many of these 10 Faith and Science questions can YOU get right?

Busted! – This myth gets it wrong about both science and faith. Most scientists insist science will never explain everything, indeed science in the last century has repeatedly shown that every answer science come up with raises new questions. This myth also gets faith wrong. For people of faith, God is so much more than an explanation of why things are the way they are. Faith is primarily about relationship.

Think of it this way. You are having trouble in math class. Chris, who is really good at math, offers to help you. With Chris’ help you come to really understand the math involved and can do it well yourself. But you also become good friends with Chris. If one of your friends said “Since you are able to do the math yourself now, there’s no need for you to have anything to do with Chris.” You would say “What are you talking about. Chris and I are friends now; of course we are going to do things together. Our friendship is a lot more important than a math problem.” In the same way, our faith is about our relationship with God – the most important relationship in life. Yes, our faith also helps us better understand much about life and about this world, but it about so much more than explaining things.

CONFIRMED – Scripture indicates that our calling from God (our vocation) is to be “salt, light, and leaven” in the world (Matt 5:13-16; 13:33).  We live out our Baptismal calling in a variety of relationships and contexts.   One of those ways may be in a career as a scientist.

The Bible is the story of our faith. The Bible was not written to be a scientific treatise on how the world began, how diseases are cured, or how people interact in a social group. Novelist Flannery O’Conner wrote: “A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.” Similarly, a scientific theory is not designed to elucidate the meaning of life or to serve as a creedal statement of faith. Albert Einstein wrote, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

As young people in the church grow in the living out of their Baptismal calling as they move into adulthood, these words from Martin Luther and his colleague Phillip Melanchthon provide support for science as a valuable Christian vocation:

“God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.”

– Martin Luther

“Whatever brings the whole of [hu]mankind a greater use than science?  Not arts, not business, not even the fruits of the Earth itself, not even the sun that many believe is the creator of life is more necessary than science.”

– Phillip Melanchthon

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, sponsors a Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion which facilitates communication between scientific and religious communities.  Check out resources here.

BUSTED! – While popular films, such as “Jurassic World” make for an interesting look at what it would be like if humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time, of course we know it has only happened in the movies. While, dinosaurs lived roughly 200 million to 65 million years ago, early humans began to walk upright only 6 million years ago.

In the timeline of human culture, the biblical narrative was written based on an oral tradition approximately 3,000 years ago and included the creation story featuring the Garden of Eden. At that time dinosaurs and many other animals were extinct, but what is the creation story telling us considering we are a relatively new development when it comes to life on earth? And what does it mean we have evolved in light of the biblical account given in Genesis?

There has been plenty of public debate on evolution as of late. There are many though who would describe themselves as evolutionary theists. They say that the sacred text gives witness to the ultimate divine source of all of nature and in no way specifies the means of creation. They hold that the divine creates only indirectly through evolutionary processes without any intervention in the order of nature.

Lutheran theologian Dr. Phil Hefner writes: “Physically and chemically, we reveal our ancestry in the galaxies and stars in which the elements of our planet and our bodies originated. We are creatures of stardust, some like to say. Biologically, we declare our kinship with all life forms that emerge in the primal soup, or the primal steam vents, or whatever original conditions are denoted by the various theories of life’s origins.”

To learn more about human origins this summer there is an interesting exhibit from the Smithsonian Museum coming to a town near you. Go here for more information on this traveling exhibit and on human origins visit.

Busted! – Our creeds state that God created all things.  Genesis 1 starts with “In the beginning” and various passages look to the end of the world.  The basic idea of the Big Bang theory is that the world started in a singularity that expanded outward.  While the future outcome of the universe is still in debate, most current views hold that life in the universe will have an end.  The Big Bang theory is consistent with the Christian idea of a universe with a beginning and an end and can be looked at as the best current understanding of how God created the universe.

The Big Bang theory has its roots in the observation by George Lemaitre that if we have an expanding universe now then we can trace it back to the beginning. George Lemaitre was a Belgian priest and astronomer.  So one of the key astronomers that laid the foundations for the Big Bang theory was a Christian.

You can agree with a scientific understanding of creation and still believe in God and in fact many Christians today do agree with evolutionary theory as well.

BUSTED! – Finding life on another planet would not disprove Christian faith. Three reasons support this position. First, for nearly 8 centuries now Christian theologians have debated whether or not other worlds exist, and whether or not ETI exist. Theologians both pro and con have stepped to the plate. Nobody has seemed nervous about discussing the matter. Second, the PETERS ETI RELIGIOUS CRISIS SURVEY of 2008 found that more than 90% of believers show no fear of a faith crisis prompted by the confirmed existence of an extraterrestrial civilization. This is the case for Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, Evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Mormons, and Buddhists. Third, the Christian doctrines of creation and redemption include the entire cosmos with or without space neighbors. To complain that the Christian faith would face a crisis is a myth, a busted myth. 

CONFIRMED – A number of surveys confirm that many scientists are people of faith. A 2009 survey by Pew Research found that over half of American scientists surveyed said they believe in God or some sort of higher power. A survey of scientists in 1996 used the same questions as a 1916 survey of scientists and found that the percentage of scientist who expressed a belief in God had not changed significantly in the 80 years between the 2 surveys. Many noted scientists, including Nobel prize winner Charles Townes, geneticist Francis Collins and physicist John Polkinghorne have written about their faith. There are many organizations which explore the intersection of faith and science and include many scientists who live out their faith as they do their scientific work.

BUSTED! – Christians and all people DO need to care about the environment and take responsibility for acting in ways that do not harm it. Yes, God cares for creation and for people and all other creatures, but we humans need to respond to the love and gifts of God’s creation by using our intelligence to make sure we do not destroy or pollute earth’s air, water, or land that we all depend on. No one knows when the world might end (Mt. 24:36). Meanwhile, we do our best to keep the earth and its systems thriving. Though it took a while for some churches to get on board with ecological concern, there are many Christians now who promote such concern, as you can see in the ELCA’s statement on caring for creation. Pope Francis has called on people around the world to act as stewards of creation.

BUSTED! – Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is a remarkably valuable asset in physics. It says that space intervals and time intervals (both long considered to be absolute) are relative — they change when viewed from moving platforms. But other quantities such as the speed of light in a vacuum (long considered to be relative) are really absolute. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is separate from the idea of relativity in ethics, the study of principles of behavior.

CONFIRMED – In 1993 a broken stone fragment with writing was discovered at Tel Dan (an ancient town at the northern edge of today’s Israel). The words from the 8th century B.C.E. crowed about a king of the Aram-Damascus kingdom who conquered some other kings. (See below, [there still are some missing words]) It names kings in the bible who were members of the Davidic dynasties. Outside of the Bible itself, it was the first archeological find that mentions King David and these others. The discovery is of particular importance because some people had been skeptical about or even had said there really was no King David, Solomon or their children. This archaeological science confirmed some of the historical narrative that the Bible recounts.

Some archaeological discoveries do the opposite, of course. Some evidence from digging into the past casts doubts on events as told in the bible, like the walls of Jericho falling down in one day. It is important to remember that the Bible was not written as factual history or like a science book. Our faith in God does not stand or fall because every word or story or depiction in the Bible is literal. Our faith is a response to the good news of God’s love that the Bible teaches, especially the news about Jesus Christ. (Jesus and the belief in his crucifixtion are mentioned by other non-biblical sources.)

“And Hadad went in front of me, [and] I departed from [the] seven [ …-]

6. s of my kingdom, and I slew [seve]nty kin[gs], who harnessed thou[sands of cha-]
7. riots and thousands of horsemen (or: horses). [I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab]
8. king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]
9. g of the House of David. And I set [their towns into ruins and turned]
10. their land into [desolation … ]
11. other [ … and Jehu ru-]
12. led over Is[rael … and I laid ]
13. siege upon [ … ] [6]”

From http://biblicalstudies.info/top10/schoville.htm

BUSTED! – The following are all quotes are from ELCA social statements, that is, from its official teaching documents.

1) “In our time, science and technology can help us to discover how to live according to God’s creative wisdom.” [Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice, p. 3]

2) “There is no inherent conflict between scientific findings and the understanding of God as creator, redeemer and sanctifier.” [Genetics, Faith and Responsibility, p. 4]

3) “While religion and faith provide subject matter and methods to speak of God’s role in the origin and purpose of creation, we do not claim that they provide a scientific account of how the natural world functions.” [Our Calling in Education, p. 27]

Please note that the responses in this Mythbusting quiz were written by members of the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology. We work with the ELCA, but do not speak on behalf of the ELCA.