Science and the Bible by Bolton Davidheiser Chairman, Science Division Biola College A FISH IN THE M ILK
H e n r y T h o r e a u once said, “ If you find a fish in the milk, it does not prove anything, but it is good circumstantial evidence.” A class of over a hundred college biol ogy students was given this state ment and asked, “ It is good circum stantial evidence of what?” Only three gave the correct answer: “ Someone added water to the milk.” It is a tribute to the high standards of modern American dairies that most students have not heard of wa tered milk. Since there are various ways by which a fish could get into the milk, the presence of a fish there does not prove the means by which it got there, but the most likely explana tion is that someone wanted to stretch the milk to make it go fur ther, and to accomplish this added water to it intentionally and at the same time added a fish unintention ally. This is deductive reasoning. In deductive reasoning certain assump tions are made, and from general izations an inference is drawn about a specific instance. It is assumed that cows cannot produce fish and that people do not put fish into milk intentionally. The conclusion is that someone put the fish into the milk unintentionally while intentionally adding water to the milk. The scientific method employs rea soning of the opposite kind. Gen eralizations are drawn from individ ual observations. This is inductive reasoning. It is the principle of learning by experience. Professor S. 0. Mast o f the Johns Hopkins Uni versity used to say that a dog is, in a sense, a scientist, because it learns by experience. If people repeatedly throw stones at a dog, the dog will start to run when a person bends over, even though the person has no intention of picking up a stone. Since the deductive method of rea soning is based upon the acceptance of certain assumptions as true, it may be said to involve faith. Eucli dian geometry is a system of deduc tive reasoning based upon certain assumptions which are called axioms, such as belief that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Einstein and others ques tioned this, and non-Euclidian ge- N0VEMBER, 1964
ometries resulted. Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and the logical result of this is that missionaries are sent into all the world to proclaim the gospel o f sal vation by grace. Those who start with a different assumption send missionaries to do other things, such as to improve sanitation, or they do not believe in sending missionaries at all. Although the scientific method in volves inductive reasoning, scientists also use deductive reasoning. The scientific method is based upon faith in the uniformity of nature, that is, that under the same circumstances the same cause will always produce the same result. Carried to its logi cal conclusion, this rules out the supernatural acts o f God, such as miracles. Most scientists do not think of their belief in the uniformity of nature as involving faith because they experience it every day and they deny that miracles are real. Although Christians accept the Bi ble as the Word of God by faith, this is not unsupported by evidence. Among the evidences is prophecy. Science and liberal theology have been very optimistic about the future of man in a utopian world, but the Bible says that conditions will be come worse until the Lord returns. Carefully documented disclosures have been made of conditions in our country which are so shocking and so contrary to all common sense, that it seems these things just could not be going on in a free country. It seems that a responsible citizenry would be horrified, and would take steps to make immediate and lasting drastic changes. But people are so blinded by greed and have such dis regard for the welfare o f the future that they abandon all logical reason ing. Thus se eming l y impossible events are leading us to destruction. In these critical times we are grow ing more Godless as a country, in stead of turning to God for help. Christians, however, have the joy of knowing that the Lord will take them to Himself before the very worst times come. A new species o f freshwater shrimp, Streptocephalus dichotomus, reported from India, was found alive — in a pail o f milk.
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