This month I want to continue thinking about how best to respond graciously whenever a Christian brother or sister wants to insist that modern science is incompatible with our faith.

We discussed one approach to this last month and, remembering again Peter’s essential advice re answering with gentleness and respect, another possible response is to point out that scripture itself encourages us to learn from creation and see in it God’s glory and power…

You may, personally, have complete confidence that modern science poses no threat to your Christian faith (and likewise that Christianity poses no threat to science), but it can still be difficult to know how to respond when others challenge you on this, especially when they do so assertively or even aggressively.

Building on last month’s blog it can be helpful to think of the Bible and modern science as answering different, but equally important fundamental questions…

The aim of scientific research is to answer what, when and how type questions about creation… How it works? How and when did it start? What is in the universe and what will happen to it in the end? The Bible, on the other hand, is much more interested in ‘who’ and ‘why’ questions about God and our relationship with God.

As a Christian who is a scientist, I am forever advocating that Biblical accounts of creation shouldn’t be read or understood in the same way as science text books… The writers of Genesis, Job and other Bible creation stories had other purposes in mind than telling us how the world works.

However, in my enthusiasm for conveying what these beautiful passages aren’t saying, I am too often guilty of failing to highlight the important truths they ARE giving us…

At this point in history, international figures are blatantly promoting lies, malice and greed, even to the extent of disregarding the law and international treaties. The message is ‘might is right’ and what breaks my heart, is that these same individuals publicly profess a Christian faith and are being endorsed by parts of the church.

Christ preached humility, compassion, love, acceptance of others, ‘blessed are the poor’, ‘blessed are the meek’ – The message and life of Christ is the antithesis of what these leaders are promoting yet they claim to stand for ‘Christian values’!

What an enormous stumbling block.