Faith and Science
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Rev. Dr. Mary Alice Mulligan
A few years ago, a member of another congregation shared a story about his children. A normal day, driving to school, one child always wanting to show up the other. So, on this day, one child asks, “Daddy, what makes it rain?” Before Daddy can answer, the older child says, “When air gets too heavy with moisture, droplets of water form, and since they are heavier than air, they fall to Earth as rain.” The younger child is aghast. “That can’t be right. Doesn’t God make it rain, Daddy?” Naturally the parent answers, “You are both right. God makes it rain, but science is how God does it.”
Faith and science. As people of faith, part of our job is to try to understand how God intends creation to work and to figure out how we participate in God’s plan. Listen for the word of God as you read Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Nowhere in the passage did you hear, “believe science,” or “let your faith incorporate science.” The passage is all Yahweh, part of the Holiness Code, giving directions to the whole nation: “You shall be holy for I, your God, am holy.” In other words, “You shall be like me.” Everyone is addressed; no one gets off the moral hook. Yahweh is helping them understand, “When you accompany me, you become like me.” The people are headed for the land promised to their ancestors. God created them, the land, and everything else. The directions tell them how to live holy, together, on the Earth God created. So what does faith in God have to do with science?
Well, to start with: Everything is interconnected. All the pieces of reality are intertwined. After all, God is the creator of every atom of matter. Nothing exists in isolation. In the Holiness Code of Leviticus, God is assuming the relationship of all things. We might ask why a farmer would leave perfectly good food at the edge of the field unharvested or whatever produce fell on the ground? Why? Because God assumes farmers will have enough to live on comfortably without these gleanings, so they are to leave them for those who do not have enough. God’s plan is for everyone to have enough. If one child is hungry, we are all lessened. When we live in ways which support how we are woven together, everyone benefits.
Beyond food production, if people always interact honestly with each other, our whole society is stronger. If people refrain from stealing, everyone is safer. (By the way, we should notice in these few verses, Yahweh says, “You shall not steal,” twice, so it must be important. But notice also, the second use of the direction is followed by the prohibition of keeping a worker’s wage until the next day. You must pay those who labor for you at the end of the day. Yahweh seems to equate keeping the pay until the next day with stealing.)
Next follows a section on making judgements. Sounds like the millennium before Jesus was strikingly similar to the second millennium after Jesus. God shakes a divine finger at those who give preferential judgement to the wealthy or the poor. Instead, everyone is to be judged fairly; with justice, we might say. When people know they will be treated equally, all of society is better. Yahweh established the world to function according to particular rules, because everything is inter-related. When people interact in ways which are fair, peace will follow. Hundreds of years after Leviticus was written, a New Testament letter said, “All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) In other words, living according to the purposes of God makes everything work for the good of all. Which means, we are woven together, not just with all people, but with all of creation. Everything is interconnected.
Unfortunately, this means we are in trouble today because the world is in trouble. Earth is in danger. And here’s the really bad news. Not just violence, lies, and mean-spiritedness are poisoning society around us. No, God’s whole Earth is under threat. We are poisoning the atmosphere, the water we depend on for life, and the land we grow our food on. As the population explodes, using more resources, we continue treating the Earth as a garbage can. Even more conservative and cautious scientists admit global warming is real and caused (at least in part) by human greenhouse gas emissions.[1]
Most years, the area of Antarctica doubles over the winter as new ice forms and spreads out into the ocean. But NPR reports, this year the winter ice was about a million square miles smaller than ever before, so as summer comes to the Southern Hemisphere, not only the recent ice will melt but there won’t be the normal amount of ice to protect the glaciers and ice shelves, so dangerous melting will continue. “The West Antarctic ice shelf… contains enough water to raise global seas levels by about 10 feet,” NPR continues, which could threaten coastal Texas and the Gulf Coast within this century.[2] Of course, many island nations throughout the Pacific cannot survive a significant sea level rise either.
Meanwhile, dramatic temperature changes throughout the world are affecting growing seasons, causing floods and droughts, meaning harvests are threatened. Even if there is still land for people to live on above water, what will we eat if we cannot grow food? And this ignores local crises in specific areas, like the locusts devouring over a million tons of wheat in Northern Afghanistan, a quarter of their annual harvest.[3] Someone should be making bumper stickers: “Anyone who isn’t alarmed about the future, just doesn’t get the picture.” We are in danger because Earth is in danger.
So we need faith and science. We need scientists with moral consciences, and we need people of faith who aren’t afraid of science. People who are deeply religious recognize the sacredness of creation, remembering Yahweh’s call to Moses to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. More and more we realize, all Earth is holy ground, because it belongs to God.
But as the world struggles with risks, like exponential population growth, we need scientists. What do we do with all the by-products, waste, and garbage? How do we survive when our CO2 emissions are changing the climate? We claim God’s creation deserves protection, so science is necessary.
We know the Church has not always embraced science. Around the turn of the 17th century, Galileo (churchman and scientist) confirmed our world is not the center of the universe. Earth moves around the sun. Church leaders rejected his ideas because they challenged their interpretation of scripture. Earth could not move. The Inquisition had persuasive techniques for changing people’s minds, so eventually Galileo was forced to recant his findings. Yet, the story arose, as he left court he whispered, “Nevertheless, it moves.” Probably apocryphal, but history proves him right. Religion must be open to science; at the same time science needs religion.
Some people argue science and religion are opposed to each other. Well, perhaps they are, like our opposable thumbs. But every child knows we need fingers and thumbs in opposition if we are going to be able to eat our sandwich. Opposition isn’t always bad. Preacher scholar Joseph Sittler invites the church to make “a counterpoint out of an opposition,” like when we take two melodies together to form a harmonious composition. Our experience is enriched when the two are heard together.
People of faith have worked together through history to make the world better. Often improvements were brought about by scientific discoveries. For several centuries, Christians have built hospitals and provided medical personnel in areas of need because people need faith and science. Christians and other people of faith protested the use and then the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. They argued that creating a weapon doesn’t necessarily mean we have the right to use it.
Christians and scientists often benefit from working together on issues, like world hunger. Last week, Ethiopian American scientist Gebisa Ejeta (Purdue professor) received the National Medal of Science from President Biden for his work on the genetics of sorghum, one of the most important cereal crops world-wide, the second most important in Africa. When he received an award some years ago, people from his home area sent words of blessing, thanking God for his work. They understood that the power of faith and science together might be able to solve world crises. As Christians, we limit our relationship with Earth when we shut our ears to science; and science limits its relationship with the holy and with life when it shuts its ears to faith. We need faith and science together.
Probably most of what we heard today was not new. The intention was to underline the importance of our faith and our participation in the world of science. Each of us here probably needs to be more deeply committed to both. We know the world is in trouble, so individually and together, we must take responsibility to do more to protect God’s creation, using science and God’s power among us. The holiness of God’s call on each of us means we need faith and science to help us protect God’s Earth.
[1] Berkeley Earth, “Know the Facts: A Skeptics’ Guide to Climate Change,” 2014, 8.
[2] Rebecca Hersher,“Antarctica has a lot less sea ice than usual, That’s bad new for all of us,” August 4, 2023, Morning Edition.
[3] An Aljazeera report from June 15, 2023.