Conclusion

Conclusion

I remember well as a student, over forty years ago, meeting with an elderly Anglican clergyman in Dublin, Ireland. During our conversation, I asked him how he had found a personal faith in Christ. He explained that as a young man he had been sceptical about Christianity, claiming to believe that there was no God. One evening he got into discussion with a Christian who pointed him to Psalm 14, which begins, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'." Having read it, he went outside and looked up at the stars in the heavens. At that point it dawned on him that he had indeed been a fool! His conversion to Christ followed as a matter of course.

Lord Kelvin, one of the most prominent scientists of the latter half of the nineteenth century, declared, "If you think strongly enough you will be forced by science to the belief in God." The insights science has given us over this last generation as to the amazing structure and development of the universe provide even greater reasons for faith.

Bestselling novelist, Susan Howatch, had houses in several countries and drove a Porsche and a Mercedes. She said that after the break-up of her marriage, "God seized me by the scruff of the neck", and she became a Christian. Recently she gave £1 million to Cambridge University to finance a lectureship in theology and natural science, having come to the conclusion that science and theology were "two aspects of the truth".

We need science. Above all we need Jesus Christ. The two happen to be on the same side.

Good books on this subject

The material I have used for writing this book comes from quotes I have gathered over forty years. However, there are three recent books which I have found particularly helpful in putting it all together. Each author has a background in science. A more detailed recording of the sources of some of the quotes I have used can be found in these books. They are:

Creation and Time: A Biblical and Scientific Perspective on the Creation-Date Controversy by Dr Hugh Ross (NavPress, P.O.Box 35001, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80935)

Creation and Evolution: Rethinking the Evidence from Science and the Bible by Alan Hayward (Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438)

Worlds Apart: The Unholy War Between Religion and Science by Karl Giberson (Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, Missouri)

Acknowledgements

In publishing this booklet I particularly want to thank the following persons who read the manuscript and offered encouragement and helpful comments: Dr Vivienne Burrows (zoologist), Dr Colin Burrows (botanist), Dr John Polkinghorne (theoretical physicist and Anglican clergyman), John Dunlop (Education Officer, Auckland Observatory), Dr Harold Turner of the Gospel and Cultures Trust, and Daphne Lee (geologist) who has also written the foreword.

The chapters Christian foundations of modern science and Christian foundations - 1st to 14th centuriesof are taken almost exclusively from notes supplied to me by Dr Harold Turner from seminars he has conducted on Science and Religion. For this I have been most grateful.