How Should A Christian Relate To A Scientific Naturalist?
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Here are some of the philosophical presuppositions of science:
•the existence of a theory of an independent, external world
•the orderly nature of the external world
•the knowability of the external world
•the existence of truth
•the existence of the laws of logic
•the reliability of our cognitive and sensory faculties to serve as truth gatherers and as a source of justified beliefs in our intellectual environment
•the adequacy of language to describe the world
•and the existence of values used in science (e.g., “Test theories fairly and report test results honestly”).
Second, there are true, rational beliefs in fields outside science. Strong scientism does not allow for this fact, and it is therefore to be rejected as an account of our intellectual enterprise.
Moreover, some claims outside science (for instance, “Torturing babies is wrong” or “I am now thinking about science”) are better justified than some believed within science (for example, “Evolution takes place through a series of very small steps”). It is not hard to believe that many of our currently held scientific beliefs will and should be revised or abandoned in a hundred years, but it would be hard to see how the same could be said of the nonscientific propositions just cited. Weak scientism does not account for this fact.
In sum, scientism in both forms is inadequate, and it is important for Christians to integrate science and theology with genuine respect for both.