Quality science is built on regimented processes such as the scientific method that limit the influence of inaccuracy and personal biases. However, people are people and human error is inescapable. Science produces fruit by the labor of human hands, and thus will be tainted by sin in some way. Scientific observations, experiments, hypotheses, and studies may seem accurate, but scientific claims must always be taken with a grain of salt, in acknowledgement that science is an imperfect process.
Neta Bahcall, a cosmologist at Princeton University, states that “We are…struggling to figure out the nature of our cosmos. And that’s very humbling—very humbling, but very empowering.” Bachcall acknowledges that this is a sort of paradoxical statement, an intersection of feelings we wouldn’t normally associate. A dichotomy of attitudes is contained within this sentence: people can either use science to grow in humility, or let science become the point of pride in their lives, idolizing it as the god many secular scientists ironically seek to avoid.
Albert Einstein proposed the notion of the cosmological constant within the static universe to explain why gravity does not pull everything within the universe together. He abandoned the constant when Edwin Hubble proved the universe was expanding, not standing still, calling it his “greatest blunder.” Yet now, scientists have reintroduced the cosmological constant to explain the forces behind dark matter!
This struggle is far, far more common in science than immediate success in discovery. Rarely does anyone hit the nail on the head in the first series of hypotheses and testing. Even when people do manage this, it often still requires more work to be profitable for the scientific community. Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician who came up with roughly 3,900 mathematical equations and theorems during his lifetime. What was especially unique about him was not the number of ideas he came up with, but the fact that he did so without any clear reasoning process. He solved so many equations by sheer intuition alone without writing long, tedious proofs to show his work, and over 99% of his arguments have been proven correct. But despite this daunting number of equations and impressive accuracy rate, all of these equations and theorems were practically useless until the additional work was done to prove them.
Vera Rubin played a leading role in gathering the research for the hypothesized existence of dark matter, amongst many other contributions to science. However, she gained such research opportunities because she had access to materials at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, an uncommon opportunity for women in the mid-20th century. Among varying reasons for this exclusion of women in the sciences were many stigmas that were used against women which were, at the time, deemed “science.” It’s crazy to think how much progress could have been lost, or at least forestalled, because so much faith was placed in rationalized sexism.
True science should be a work in process, a humbling practice, requiring one to be continually open to criticism from others. Scientists ought to present their findings in total acceptance that they could be completely wrong, acknowledging that even a step off track is still a step in the right direction.
C. S. Lewis once wrote, “Love, having become an idol, becomes a demon.” Yet, “love” can be substituted here for any earthly thing.. Science is the faith of many nonbelievers. But, unlike the faith in God which is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1), the faith of science is the changing, the tangible, the human. Rather than placing trust in a transcendent God, people place trust in themselves, giving in to the natural state of the human heart Satan took advantage of when he tempted Eve in becoming “like God”, in being in control, or at least having the illusion of control. This poisoned view and usage of science is obviously not profitable to someone as a person, and is likewise damaging to scientific progress in the long run.
True science leads people towards the image that God He created us to mirror. Christ commanded us, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1st Peter 5:6). As astrophysicist Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. elegantly explains, “A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.”
