Just because a scientist says so doesn’t make it so

C.S. Lewis, 20th century Christian author and British academic, was a man of many varied interests as the books he wrote demonstrate. On the subject of human origins and the theory of evolution he seems to have had some shift in his beliefs over time. Space does not allow more than a very brief review of his ideas here.

Lewis grew up believing what he later called evolutionism. The mere idea of biological evolution through common descent did not bother Lewis through most of his life, but the notion that random material change could explain life so completely that it could compete with traditional monotheism on the subject of origins was, he insisted, a myth and not science.

Eventually the proponents of biological evolution became so dogmatic and intolerant that their “fanatical and twisted attitudes” had taken them beyond objectivity, logic, and truth as Lewis wrote in a letter to an opponent of evolution. By the time he wrote his final book Lewis was so skeptical of scientific objectivity that he argued that scientific theories should not be confused with facts. If there was no way to test or falsify them, they could never get beyond the status of theory.

My point is not to take a position on any theory or the objections to it. Rather I am opposing what I consider the myth of scientific objectivity. We weren’t there when the universe was created. The truth about origins cannot be determined by reason alone. Everyone takes some things by faith. It should be rational rather than irrational faith. Biblical faith in the Creator is easier to defend logically than faith in mindless matter creating life. I think Lewis would agree.

Pastor Dan York can be reached at Dover Community Church.