Short Answer
Science has limits when it comes to explaining creation, because it operates within the natural laws that God Himself created. While science can observe how the world works now, it cannot fully explain how everything began. Ultimately, creation is understood by faith in God as the Creator, not by human reasoning alone.
The Overview
The relationship between science and creation often raises difficult questions. Science is a tool that studies the natural world by observing patterns, laws, and cause-and-effect relationships. However, these methods depend on the very system they are trying to explain. When it comes to the origin of the universe, science reaches its limits because it cannot step outside of those laws to explain how they came into existence.
The Bible presents creation as an act of God bringing everything into existence out of nothing. This concept—often called creation ex nihilo—means that God existed before space, time, and matter, and established the very rules that science now studies. Because of this, attempting to fully explain creation using current scientific frameworks is inherently limited. Those frameworks did not exist before creation itself.
This does not mean science is useless. In fact, studying the natural world can reveal the complexity, order, and power of God’s creation. Scientific discoveries often highlight how intricate and well-designed the universe is, leading many to a greater sense of awe and reverence for God. However, science cannot replace the need for faith when it comes to understanding ultimate origins.
In the end, the foundation of the Christian worldview is not built on proving every detail scientifically but on recognizing that God is the Creator and humans are His creation. This truth establishes God’s authority and forms the starting point for understanding everything else, including the message of the gospel.
Key Takeaways
- Science Has Limits
It can explain how the world works, but not fully how it began. - God Created the Laws of Nature
The rules science studies were established by God. - Creation Is an Act of Faith
Understanding origins ultimately requires trusting God’s revelation. - Science Can Point to God’s Power
Discoveries can increase awe and appreciation for the Creator. - God as Creator Is Foundational
Recognizing Him as Creator is essential for understanding the gospel.
The Source — The Speaker Transcript
00:00:00
Paul, you’re on the air with Mike Fabaras. How can I help? How can I help? Hi, really great talking to you. I uh I really respect you as a Christian and your intellect uh your wisdom. So uh given that I would like to uh uh talk about a subject and that is uh Christian apologetics has its place. It’s wonderful. But when we come to the discussion of Genesis chapter 1, uh I do find that my perspective is that a lot of Christian apologists and scientists are trying desperately to make the creation
00:00:44
story fit into science. And before you respond, let me say here’s my definition of science. Science is finite man’s feeble attempt to understand the world that an infinite God created. And so I find that we have uh apologists always trying to make the creation story fit into science and that will never work. God says, “I’m unsearchable.” And I think at times he’s saying, “So, don’t go there. You just trust in faith. Uh, we’re never going to win the world to Christ by proving or
00:01:34
disproving the creation story. Okay. Uh, I’m with you on that. I don’t think I disagree with you, Paul. Uh I do think science right this this way in which we’re saying that one thing follows the next that there’s a logical order and a set of rules in this universe and we’re looking at the universe trying to apply those rules and try to make uh statements about them particularly historical statements like where the world came from how we came to be uh you’re right I don’t think we’re
00:02:05
going to find all the answers and I think even the most intellectually savvy modern atheists who are trying to explain the world without God struggle with this and they struggle even to define what life is or what consciousness is or what we are as a person. Those things are really really difficult and if you get into the ivory tower of today’s intellectuals you’ll find it gets really squiggly and squirly. Not to mention when you try to apply rules of quote unquote science to the whole big bang theory which is the
00:02:37
modern accepted cosmology of how we got here and they’re going to say well there’s a set of rules that uh had to be in place before the common and and and current set of rules that we know now and utilize in science were in place. So even the creation itself as they would say selfcreation of the universe had a set of rules that we know nothing of. Well, it’s really hard to convince me of something that I have to employ a set of rules you know nothing of. It’s like me turning in a math assignment uh to my
00:03:07
algebra teacher in junior high and say, “Well, I had a set of rules that you know nothing about, and here’s my answer, and I know it’s right.” And that’s the problem. I agree with you, Paul. We cannot take the real infinite God’s work of creating us and saying, “We’re going to be able to figure that out by the rules that exist now.” because according to the Bible, the rules were made by the rulemaker and the rule maker existed before the rules were set in place for the physical world. So
00:03:34
I agree with that. I do think creation at least at the basics of saying that we cannot start a conversation about the gospel until we know that God is creator and we’re creature. That has to be established and someone has to get to that place. That’s why an atheist who doesn’t even believe there’s a creation that somehow we got self-created we made ourselves. It’s hard to talk about God having any authority or jurisdiction over us until we say well there is a God and he made us. So, we got to start
00:04:03
where the Bible starts at least with the fact that God made us. You follow that, Paul? You good? Oh, I absolutely do. And that’s my point. It’s that God is creator. Correct. And in his word, he set forth how he created and finite man is never going to understand the trinity. We’re never going to understand the virgin birth. We’re never going to understand creation. Yeah. And so, it’s futile. And to search an uncarchable God and for biblical academics to have the arrogance to critique God, I think is foolhardy
00:04:42
and I think it grieves God and his Holy Spirit. I I couldn’t agree with you more, Paul. I’m I’m on the same page. And and I agree there. There is no way to write a science textbook on Jesus healing the man with a withered hand or to have a chemist explain how Jesus turned water into wine. You’re not going to have a textbook that’s going to explain that. And and that’s what we we’re dealing with in the creation in Genesis 1, the exelio creation. That’s the phrase that that describes God
00:05:10
creating something out of nothing. And and God does that creates the material world starting with the fact that he creates the concept of space and time itself. So if you study physics uh and you look at all that we we understand about the world which has changed a lot in the last few hundred years uh even in the lastund years uh we start to recognize there’s a lot going on that we we can’t just put in in a in a bottle and explain it. What I can explain is how the modern world works. But that
00:05:39
world didn’t exist before God spoke it into existence. And now you’re going to talk about how it was spoken into existence in a in a textbook. That’s going to be really really difficult to do. So I agree. Apologetics has its limitations, Paul. And go ahead. Yeah. You know, the wonderful thing, the the thing that brings tears to my eyes of joy is to see how science and technology progresses and shows the infinite almighty God of grace and his infinite power. He has all power. and they prove
00:06:15
it more and more and more with their advancement of their scientific method. And it it just causes me to fall to my knees and recognize that this being we call God. It’s so much more beyond our understanding. It’s so much more to be feared and loved and and worshiped than, you know, I have ever, you know, for me at any other time in my life than when I search out these issues that are uncarchable. Yeah, I’m with you on that, Paul. That’s a great way to put it. We we have at our church one of our value
00:06:56
distinctives beyond our doctrinal statement, the statement that we believe that we should maintain a high view of God. And I think Awtoer put it well that if we start to domesticate our God and try and put him in a place where we can handle the the totality of what we mean by God, we’re going to struggle. We can understand his rules. We can understand his word, but God is an infinitely great God. And your iPhone’s not going to work unless God is is decreeing the the the structures of how science operates,
00:07:25
right? How the rules of the world operate. Unless God keeps all that going, he he sustains the universe by the word of his power. Great call, Paul. Thanks so much for the question. And the reminder that apologetics can only go so far. We can’t twist someone’s arm into uh into the belief that there is a God who creates something out of nothing.
