Over the course of the last 10 months, the mantra from presidential candidates to states’ governors to some guy commenting on Facebook has been “Trust the Science.” My governor, Tim Walz (DFL – MN), regularly makes use of the phrase to validate his executive orders covering everything from athletics to zoos.
In its corollary use, these three little words are the automatic response to any who push back against lockdowns, school closures, physical distancing, and mandatory masks, “You know what your problem is? You just down trust the science.”
What science exactly are humans supposed to trust? The discipline of science is in a continual state of change. Researchers hypothesize, test, challenge, and often reverse previous conclusions with the result that science has been wrong at a head scratching rate.
For example, in the field of astronomy, the settled science for millennia asserted our sun circled the earth. The conclusion was filled with problems when other celestial objects did not want to “trust the science” and revolve around the earth too. The science changed only after the genius intellects of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton investigated over centuries the movements and fixed points in the heavens.
George Washington’s stepdaughter suffered horrifically from seizures. So serious was Patsy’s condition her mother did not leave her unattended at any moment of the day. Standard medical science in the 18th century prescribed blood letting as a necessary treatment.
At the time of Washington, bloodletting had been used by medical personnel for thousands of years. Clearly, the practice was established science. Basically, medicine concluded all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood. Bloodletting, it was held, cured illness and disease by the withdrawal of blood from a patient by means of a physician’s scalpel or by leeches attached to the skin. Remove the blood, remove the illness.
Patsy died at 16 years of age, but you know, “Trust the science.”
Further, science cannot account for everything. Science cannot tell us why one person sees a sunset and smiles while another sees the same sunset and cries. Science cannot tell us why Chicago's Roman Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Blaise Cupich, received a COVID-19 vaccination ahead of others in his denomination, including priests and nuns. Science cannot answer our questions in the fields of aesthetics, ethics, or assumed scientific theory.
An internet search reveals the ongoing shortcomings of science in biology, forensics, astronomy, medicine, and physics, but the problem is not with science. The problem is with humans’ approach toward science. Science is a gift. Science does not give gifts. Science is a servant. Science is not a master. Instead of trusting science, we should value science. Humans direct trust only to God.
The contributions of science cannot be exaggerated. Our 21st centuries lives, while busier and maybe more complex, have been made much better and in many ways easier that any of our ancestors. Household chores, travel, communication, education, medicine, and more are all vastly superior for the human experience today than they were centuries and, in many cases, decades ago. Consider the Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD).
A few days from now will mark five years since my mom went to be with the Lord. She died of the number one killer of women, heart disease, but she would have died much sooner without an LVAD.
In layman’s terms an LVAD does a lot of the work a diseased heart cannot do. An LVAD is not a mechanical heart, but it functions in many ways like a mechanical heart. The surgery to implant the device is long and difficult on the patient. Following implantation, the device requires high dosages of blood thinners to operate well and uses an exterior source to power it. During the day, my mom wore a harness that carried multiple battery packs in similar weight to heavy vests athletes use to train. At night she charged her batteries and plugged her device into a wall outlet, and then went to sleep valuing the science but not trusting the science. Her trust and mine was directed elsewhere.
LVADs work best as a bridge for those awaiting heart transplant. The overall survival of patients receiving continuous flow LVADs is 89% at 12 months and 87% at 24 months. My mom was not interested in a transplant, but her two LVADs (you read that correct, two!) lengthened her life by years. My family values science.
We value science as God’s gift to us. Science teaches us the benefits of nutrition in our diets. Science aids us in understanding the development of children’s minds and bodies. Science informs us about viruses like COVID-19.
For the coronavirus we know the virus is highly contagious. We know the potential for death increases with age and comorbidities. We know the range of symptoms is large and impacts individuals differently both in kind and severity. The science determines possible responses – vaccines, quarantine, masks – but the suggested or mandated responses cannot guarantee you won’t acquire the disease. We value science, but we do not trust science.
As Christians we trust the giver of gifts, our God, and we value the gifts he gives us, science for example.
Psalm 31:19 is one verse of scores if not hundreds that call God’s people to trust the Lord or record the actions of those who trust the Lord or that show the power of God applied to those who trust the Lord.
Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!
Science delivers valuable information to parents regarding stages of child development, but trust God’s revelation in His word about how to parent your children. Value the science for your parenting, but trust God for your children.
Science delivers valuable information about staying heart healthy, but trust God’s revelation in his word about the only reason your heart is beating while you read this post. Value science for your overall health, but trust God for your life.
Science delivers valuable information about the impact, prevention, and possible cures for infectious diseases, but trust God’s revelation about how to live in a world full of infectious diseases. On disease and all other matters, God instructs us to live wisely and not foolishly. He also tells us not to live in fear though we live in a world dominated by death. Value science for disease prevention, but trust God for how to live life in a diseased world.
Christians trust God for all things in eternity and for all things temporal. Christians thank God for gifts that come from science that make our temporary life better, healthier, or safer. But we acknowledge the better, healthier, and safer as blessings from God not blessings from science. We do not bow down to science. We do not place science in the position of omniscience or omnipotence. Our adoration and trust is reserved for heaven. We trust only the Lord.
Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Value science, trust God is all fine and good until the science and God’s revelation conflict. Society is not interested in God’s revelation when it conflicts with science. "The Church is tolerated only to the extent that she does not take any stance on the moral assertions that supposedly derive from science, understood as the only valid form of knowledge," Augusto Del Noce.
For example, the church has no authority and may not call humanity to submission to God in conversations about gender identity, sexual orientation, multiple races in the human family, the origin of the species and the cosmos, or the necessity of the state to educate children. On these subjects and more, science is the authority. Science must be obeyed. Science is God. If you must be religious, value God, but trust science. We will shame you until you do, and we will deprive you if you do not.
So, Christians, in our world moving along at warp speed, we will find it increasingly necessary to trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding of the science. Science is not God and must never be worshipped as if it is God.
Job 38
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone?”
As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.
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Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision