The Christian Perspective at Lenoir-Rhyne College

Stephen Scott

The mission statement of Lenoir-Rhyne College states, in essence, that education is best sought through the Christian perspective. Education is the process whereby one seeks knowledge. Knowledge may be defined as justified true belief. Furthermore, a liberal arts education provides knowledge that is relevant to all aspects of life with the goal of training and educating a person to be a knowledgeable and good citizen.

Obviously, there will be an epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical foundation for the acquisition of knowledge and the training of good citizens. Behind these philosophical foundations will be a presupposed authority. It is in the authority of the Triune God who is revealed in Scripture that there is straight thinking and true belief and ethical norms.

As a member of the School of Natural Science, I will address issues that are particularly relevant to my discipline. Science, by the prevailing definition, is the acquisition of knowledge through observation and empirical testing. It presupposes a natural explanation for all events, and explicitly excludes a supernatural metaphysic. This is taught in our textbooks. Therefore, the very philosophical and theological assumptions of science, as taught in our books, run amuck of what Scripture teaches. Our science books teach that there is a natural explanation for the origin, the regularity of nature, and the intricacies therein. By fiat, our books have denied fiat creation and the doctrine of providence. Science is not neutral, and we should not implicitly indorse the theology of secular science.

Science works because of the regularity of nature (metaphysics), because of honest research (ethics), and because of the constancy of the laws of logic (epistemology); yet each of these cannot be explained by the philosophy of naturalism. None of the underpinnings of the scientific method can be tested by the scientific method. Nevertheless, science out of hand proclaims that the origin of life and the origin of humans occurred by the random actions of molecules.

Secular, naturalistic science in the end demeans life and personhood. There can be no human nature, just an individual analyzed within the context of a population or a culture. One biology text states that an individual is nothing more than a container of DNA whose sole purpose is to pass on the DNA, after which the individual is expendable. Science is not neutral in its ethics, and it has no teleology.

If a human is just a container of DNA, then a stem cell obtained from an embryo is just another cell in a container, and the embryo is expendable. Science does not shy from proclaiming that something is not a person even though by its self proclaimed methodology it cannot test personhood. Science is not neutral in its metaphysics.

Naturalistic science proclaims that the human mind is rational and neutral, but it from the outset denies a supernaturalistic explanation for the ultimate questions of origins and purpose. If we believe the Scriptures that the unregenerate mind is at enmity with God and suppresses the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1), then the rationality of science is in trouble. In fact, naturalistic science believes our rationality originated in the irrationality of the black night of chaos. Science is not neutral in its epistemology.

Few scientists dwell on or discuss any of the above mentioned assumptions and presuppositions of science. Science is not neutral, and we should not be (Jude 3b, 2Cor 10:5).