From Relevant Magazine....
"Google the name Jeremy England and you’ll come across headlines like this: “God is on the ropes: The brilliant new science that has creationists and the Christian right terrified,” “Jeremy England, the Man Who May One-Up Darwin” and “Has science just disproved God?”
All of the articles focus on the work of a 33-year-old scientist named Jeremy England, one of academia and science’s rising stars.
But the irony of the man who is being described as the “next Darwin” is that England himself prays every day, and is also a student of Judaism and the Torah.
So, what does England’s work mean for people of faith? Do his theories about the origins of life conflict with Genesis? How should new science affect our faith?
We recently spoke with writer and speaker “Science Mike” McHargue about what England has proposed, what it says about creation and how Christians should react.
Q: For readers who aren’t familiar with what Jeremy England is proposing, could you give a brief explanation of how he sees life coming into existence?
A: He’s created a mathematical model, not just a working theory, but an elegant mathematical description that basically says life is an inevitable consequence of thermodynamics given the right conditions.
"Google the name Jeremy England and you’ll come across headlines like this: “God is on the ropes: The brilliant new science that has creationists and the Christian right terrified,” “Jeremy England, the Man Who May One-Up Darwin” and “Has science just disproved God?”
But the irony of the man who is being described as the “next Darwin” is that England himself prays every day, and is also a student of Judaism and the Torah.
So, what does England’s work mean for people of faith? Do his theories about the origins of life conflict with Genesis? How should new science affect our faith?
We recently spoke with writer and speaker “Science Mike” McHargue about what England has proposed, what it says about creation and how Christians should react.
Q: For readers who aren’t familiar with what Jeremy England is proposing, could you give a brief explanation of how he sees life coming into existence?
A: He’s created a mathematical model, not just a working theory, but an elegant mathematical description that basically says life is an inevitable consequence of thermodynamics given the right conditions.
Q: One interesting thing about Jeremy is that he is a devout Jew and is a believer in God. How do you see his theory having implications for believers?
A: The first thing we’ve got to understand is right now this is a hypothesis, kind of like the multiverse theory. It’s getting a lot of press, but it doesn’t actually have any falsifiable claims yet. There’s absolutely no way to test it. At best, it’s a hypothesis, at worst, it’s really kind of a mathematical philosophy.
A: The first thing we’ve got to understand is right now this is a hypothesis, kind of like the multiverse theory. It’s getting a lot of press, but it doesn’t actually have any falsifiable claims yet. There’s absolutely no way to test it. At best, it’s a hypothesis, at worst, it’s really kind of a mathematical philosophy.
You can take this same information and have it make sense in either of those views. Both camps, I believe, will claim this as a win. Naturalists will say, “Well, of course the universe is structured this way.” We have frameworks by which this is plausible from a naturalistic perspective.
People of faith will say, “No, this is a slam-dunk. This is more evidence that the universe reflects some creative intelligence or master planner architect.”
So I think, like so many things in science, everybody will claim it as a win.
People of faith will say, “No, this is a slam-dunk. This is more evidence that the universe reflects some creative intelligence or master planner architect.”
So I think, like so many things in science, everybody will claim it as a win.
Q: In the media, it seems like there have even been headlines and stories taking the two different angles in terms of its religious implications.
A: There’s this great quote Neil deGrasse Tyson said, that basically, “God has to be more to you than just where science has yet to tread.”
There’s this tendency right now [for religious people] to say, “What science knows is science, and what we don't know is God.” And for non-religious people: “Science is science and what we don’t know are things that science will eventually find out.” Relevant
A: There’s this great quote Neil deGrasse Tyson said, that basically, “God has to be more to you than just where science has yet to tread.”
There’s this tendency right now [for religious people] to say, “What science knows is science, and what we don't know is God.” And for non-religious people: “Science is science and what we don’t know are things that science will eventually find out.” Relevant
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Romans 9:20