Creation Moment 11/17/2025 - The Poverty of Scientific Language

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18

The BBC recently ran an article titled “The Mystery of Why Leaves Change Colour in the Autumn,” November 1, 2025. True to form, it spoke the language of science: chlorophylls breaking down, anthocyanins forming, wavelengths shifting under cooler light. It was all accurate, all informative—and yet somehow insufficient.

C.S. Lewis once warned that the more precise our language becomes, the less real experience it can contain. “There is,” he wrote, “a

special region of experiences which can be communicated by Scientific language, namely its common measurable features—but most experience cannot. To be incommunicable by Scientific language is, so far as I can judge, the normal state of experience.”

Science is a marvelous servant but a poor companion.

Its precision is power, but also poverty: a self-imposed blindness to what cannot be quantified. 

Science can measure wavelength but not vision—the crystalline sparkle of an Autumn morning. 

It can weigh pigments but not beauty. 

The very act of quantifying the world narrows it. Like reason itself, science holds to truth only when it knows its limits and limits its knowledge-claims.

We live inside a drama—the living world, the interplay of time and

season—and science writes its own narrative about that drama. The BBC article, like most in its genre, sought an evolutionary explanation of the “mystery,” invoking the E-word five times: perhaps red leaves warn insects; perhaps the pigments protect the tree as it retrieves nutrients before winter. Every explanation presumes that there must be an evolutionary explanation—an adaptive reason for the color.

Q: But what if the colors are not primarily adaptive? What if they are beauty that functions?

Evolutionary thinking assumes that beauty must pay its way, that splendor is tolerated only if it serves survival. A teleological view begins elsewhere: that beauty itself belongs to the design—not accidental, not adaptive, but intrinsically expressive of order and the value woven into the world." 

CEH

"Typical Autumn Colors:

Red: Often associated with warmth and excitement, red is a prominent color in autumn foliage. It symbolizes passion and can create a striking visual impact when used in designs.

Orange: This color embodies the essence of fall, reminiscent of pumpkins and autumn sunsets. It evokes feelings of warmth and comfort.
Yellow: Bright and cheerful, yellow represents the fading sunlight of autumn days. It adds a sense of brightness and optimism to the fall palette.
Brown: Earthy and grounding, brown reflects the natural elements of the season, such as tree bark and fallen leaves. It provides a warm backdrop for other autumn colors.
Gold: Often seen in the changing leaves, gold adds a touch of elegance and richness to the autumn color scheme." 

msn