Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Our interpretation of the world around us fundamentally shapes our outlook. We will
only look for evidence that confirms our beliefs if we have already decided how and what
to think about something. But if we keep our minds open, we may be surprised at what we
discover. And how we choose to view the world seems to increasingly frame contemporary
issues of tremendous societal importance, from climate change to the way we teach science
in public schools. At stake is how we interpret nature, and what, if anything, we can learn
from the world around us.
Geologists make sense of ancient events by piecing together stories archived in stone
and inscribed on the land; we attempt to forge coherent theories that stand up to evidence.
Most attempts fail. But that's central to an ongoing process of pushing old theories until
they break in order to improve upon them. Yet, we've seen how the scientific establishment
can be inherently resistant to change, favoring familiar theories over new or uncomfortable
ideas. What distinguishes science from religion is that in science even cherished ideas must
stand up to the test of new evidence.
By design, science excludes miracles because there is no way to test them through ra-
tional analysis. Science cannot address supernatural or divine action any more than Seattle
residents can will away gray skies. Creationists and advocates of intelligent design seize
upon this fundamental limitation of the scientific method to allege that science denies the
existence of God. But science can no more prove God does not exist than it can prove He
(or She) does exist. And no matter how much we learn about the material characteristics,
properties, and history of the universe, such knowledge will not explain why the universe
exists or how it came to have the properties it does. This will always be a matter of specu-
lation—or faith.
However, we cannot simply compartmentalize science and religion into tidy, noncom-
peting domains because some scientific discoveries are not compatible with particular reli-
gious beliefs. Few religious ideas can be tested, but some are refutable. Science has demon-
strated that once-conventional beliefs concerning the physical world are wrong—like the
ideas that we live at the center of the universe on a six-thousand-year-old planet shaped
by Noah's Flood. I believe faith and science can peacefully coexist, so long as we don't
founder on or cling to the rocky shore of either. What this requires is open-minded thinking
guided by humanity's greatest asset—the gift of reason.
