Science is not supposed to be influenced by beliefs, but only by the data gathered by observation and experimentation. But that is not normally the case. Even the data has to be interpreted through some belief system, and if the beliefs are not true, it results in false conclusions.
For example, one recent headline read: Venus was likely habitable for 3B(billion) years. Then something mysterious happened. There is no actual science posted in this article. It is all speculation by certain “scientists” who are proposing a hypotheses. Everything they propose is a naturalistic interpretation of raw data, with nothing to explain why their belief should be taken seriously.
Another recent headline read: Huge asteroid triggered ancient ice age after dust blocked sunlight for 2M(million) years. Looking at this article, there is, once again, no data to support its conclusions. Just another “scientist” throwing out an unsupported hypothesis.
The problem with both of these articles is that they claim to be based on science, but are actually nothing more than philosophical speculation. In the first article, the writer begins with the belief that life possibly existed on Venus 3 billion years ago, and he began looking for reasons why the planet can’t support it any more. The only problem is, there is no actual science to demonstrate any of the speculation. In the second article, the writer began with the belief that the ice age that occurred 466 million years ago could not possibly have happened by natural climate activity on the earth, so he speculated about what it would take to block the sun enough to cause an ice age. His conclusion?: That the particles from a 93 mile wide asteroid broke apart and the particles from it fell to earth over a period of 2 million years to cause the ice age. Neither of these articles are based on actual science. They are purely speculation about what it would take to make their theory a possibility.
This is not a knock on science. Christians firmly believe in science as a way of understanding the natural universe that God created to operate based on natural laws. What this is a knock on is speculation based on naturalistic philosophy trying to pose as science. There are scores of examples of this as various “scientists” try to promote naturalistic philosophy (which is actually a religious belief) and pass it off as science.
Naturalism powerfully influences virtually every part of modern society. As such, it is critical for Christians to understand when people are trying to use naturalistic philosophy to support untruth. This understanding is greatly facilitated by a knowledge of worldview concepts. I hope you will take the time to explore the MarketFaith Ministries website (www.marketfaith.org) and take advantage of all of the great worldview resources we have posted there.