All posts Italian earthquakes shake faith in science
11/2/2012 8:35:01 AM
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge with Scott Lamb
Christian columnist John Stonestreet, in discussing recent news from the field of physics, explained that there exists an enormous – almost unimaginable – amount of mystery in the physical universe. He wrote:
“For example, only 17 percent of the matter of the universe can be accounted for by “our understanding of the universe.” We can only infer the existence of the other 83 percent, known as “dark matter,” from the speed at which galaxies rotate and the way that they cluster. In other words, a huge chunk of the visible universe remains completely mysterious to us.”
This fact of scientific mystery might unsettle some people. After all, hasn’t science pretty much nailed down all pertinent areas of knowledge and understanding? Can’t we trust in the inevitability of science to come up with an authoritative answer to … everything?
Apparently not, as Stonestreet concludes:
“… some humility and appreciation of mystery is in order. There is so much that we don’t know and a lot of what we do know may be, as recent events have reminded us, wrong. There is a healthy caution here for scientism — the worldview, which says science, is the ultimate authority with explanations for every phenomenon, including creation. Not quite so.”
I was thinking through this issue of the “scientism” worldview this week as I read a news story coming from Europe. An Italian court found seven scientists – geologists and disaster experts – guilty of manslaughter for failing to provide adequate warning about a deadly earthquake in 2009.
Prosecutors argued that the experts displayed “monumental negligence” because it was deemed that they did not communicate the risk accurately. The experts were not exactly faulted for failing to predict the earthquake, but for keeping back alarms and panics at the pre-quake seismic activity in the area. But, such seismic activity is hardly rare for the region.
Rightfully so, the American Association for the Advancement of Science condemned the verdict.
“There are swarms of seismic activity regularly in Italy and most do not end up causing dangerous earthquakes, said geologist Brooks Hanson, deputy editor of the [AAAS] organization’s Science magazine. He said that if seismologists had to warn of a quake with every series of tremors, there would be too many false alarms and panic. ‘With earthquakes,’ Hanson said, ‘we just don’t know how a swarm will proceed.’”
What does science have to say about earthquakes – both before they happen (is science useful for prediction?) and after their devastation (is science useful for explanation?)?
With so much of nature harnessed for the benefit of humanity, many people believe it also has explanatory powers for areas beyond the physical realm – metaphysical concerns (“meta” = above, beyond).
All that comes crashing down, literally, when earthquakes destroy buildings and kill children at play. “What happened to the omniscience and omnipotence of science to know this was coming?” one might ask.
But, for most areas of study for scientists, there never will be a complete knowledge of the way nature operates. Therefore, when people have wrapped themselves in a semi-religious security blanket of science, it is no wonder that “acts of God” strip that security away in one terrifying moment.
It is interesting that one of the convicted defendants, Bernardo De Bernardinis, said, “I consider myself innocent before God and men.”
When faced with mystery in the natural universe, Christians are not to be people who give presumptuous and often hurtful answers to the “why?” questions. But neither are we to keep quiet when we see people being led to worship at the altar of scientism. Science cannot even explain the entire natural universe, let alone provide true answers for the questions that are only answered by God’s revelation to humanity – the Bible.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple; Psalm 19:1,7
This post is not the last word on the subject. The daily newspaper provides us with plenty of opportunity to build our Christian worldview muscles as we interact with events and analysis. Seize these opportunities to have great conversations about God and His world with your children and teens. And, be sure to email us links to news items that you are seeing out there.
Here is promotional video for a new book that explains how C.S. Lewis gave prophetic warning about rise of scientism.
“Beloved for his Narnian tales for children and his books of Christian apologetics for adults, best-selling British writer C.S. Lewis also was a perceptive critic of the growing power of scientism in modern society, the misguided effort to apply science to areas outside its proper bounds.”
UPDATE: Here is a New York Times op-ed, asking the question, “Is failure to predict an earthquake a crime?”