The Matter: Two Scientists side-by-side make the same discovery. One says God is alive, the other says God is dead. Which one is saved? What does science have to do with it after death? I don’t believe the world was made for us to twiddle our thumbs and in fact I believe He is pleased at our perseverance and resilience. Even where Genesis 1:28 says “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” I imagine a sound mind would agree that this is impossible without science. It is important to consider here that even without The Fall of Man and should we be in this world without sin, we’d still be developing science but not weapons of war, for example. We’d have no need for medical science (certainly not the same kind but I will strongly defer to the first point since we would not be dying, again certainly not in the same way).

Even still here in 2023 where we have satellites, I believe The Lord is pleased to see us develop flight and space travel; this is not possible without proper cooperation and a sense of justice toward those who would benefit. As He said He will walk among us one day, this was His original desire for us with and in Him. When a teacher has a class under his/her charge, they are able to look over the shoulder of every child and see what they are doing without asking, but they ask for the interaction; the joy in the child’s face as they express what they are doing. In our terms, we would have been able to say Lord, “we’ve developed a new method of plant breeding where we can produce twice as much wheat in half the time” or “Lord, we’ve developed a better way to pressurize our deep-diving submarines”. The Lord made us quite capable.

And yet, there can be an interesting view on the creation narrative. Any astrophysicist would readily say that we are made of star dust, and a believer can always point to Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”. Let’s match up the 7-Day Creation Narrative with 2 Peter 3:8, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”. Doing the math does not create a through-line but conceptually if the unfaithful scientist meets God and says, “but I thought we were made of start dust” God is in position to say, “You mean clay? I said exactly the same thing, but I did not ask if you wanted to understand the creation, I asked if you loved me”.

And yet again, while I don’t doubt that astrophysicists know what they are talking about based on their findings; anyone who discusses background radiation gets the data from the appropriate instruments. However, I believe it’s still an assumption to say the universe goes on forever. Let’s try this also: Place 9 billion Amoeba in the middle of Madison Square Garden and turn off the lights. Then tell them not only to find the exit using whatever they can invent on their own but to open the door. It will never happen. With all of that said these are just thoughts that leave room for an Almighty God to be above us, which is man’s problem; we’re not born wanting to place anyone above us, the science and its findings are not the issue.

This is why Love Don’t Play provides its therapy on 2 levels and 3 where appropriate: The Spirit, our Psychology/Soul and the Flesh (Behavioral Activation, for example). Our psychology has been legitimized many times through scripture (2 Corinthians 10:5, for example). But when it comes to the spirit, we cannot hope to know exactly what we’re talking about (at all). It’s important to understand that God gave us everything Good that we have; science is objective, but I believe at least the simple majority of it is used for good. I believe God only has a problem with Evil science and even the necessary evils (such as military science) give him reasons to hate it that are beyond us. It’s important to consider what is on the inside before we begin to consider our exogenous reasons for pitting science and religion against one another.

Until next time, take care.

Gregory Longmore, LMHC is an online-only Christian Professional Mental Health therapist based in NYC.