February 8, 2018

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psalm 19:1 NIV)

The author of Psalm 19 starts with statements about creation; the heavens and the skies. The author says that the heavens and skies speak of one thing, that God is their glorious creator.

There are some who believe that science contradicts the Bible and that the Bible stands in conflict with the scientific method. Can this be?

Barth Netterfield is a Canadian astrophysicist and a Professor at the University of Toronto. Recently, Professor Netterfield was featured in a comic strip in the University of Toronto Magazine (Autumn 2017). The title of the article was “How did the universe begin?”  He does not see science as contradicting the Bible but as complementing the Bible. Dr. Netterfield grew up in a pastor’s home. His parents never saw science as an attack on the Christian faith. His grandfather told him, “In science, you will see the glory of God”.   At his Christian liberal arts college, he was taught that the Bible was never meant to be taken as a scientific account of how God created the world. God left that up for us to discover through science. Dr. Netterfield also says that science can tell us how the universe behaves. However, science cannot tell us why the universe behaves that way.

As I read Dr. Netterfield’s account, I ended up worshipping God as the glorious creator. Dr. Netterfield tells us that the more he finds out about the universe, the more he is in awe of the creative majesty of God.

Below is a link to the article and  a pdf copy of the article.

http://magazine.utoronto.ca/autumn-2017/how-did-the-universe-begin-barth-netterfield-jonathan-dyck/

HowDidTheUniverseBeginBarthNetterfieldUofTMagFall2017

Pastor Pye