Our Consistent Approach to Life

The two worldviews of origins, development, and nature of physical reality are known as atomism and creationism. The former is basically pantheistic evolution, while the latter is the Judeo-Christian worldview. The fundamental beliefs of either philosophy of life require assumptions and a theory of matter to integrate science and religious beliefs.

Many investigative minds have noticed that the assumptions and conclusions of modern science based on quantum theory and Einstein's theory of relativity are very different from those of the classical science of Galileo, Newton, Ampere, Faraday, and Maxwell. The two systems of thought are mutually exclusive, although modern science tries to build upon classical science because (1) basic laws of classical science are too well established to ignore and (2) modern science would be incredible without the underlying support of classical science.

The assumptions of the Judeo-Christian worldview are compatible and generally identical with the assumptions and methods of classical science. This permits one to integrate his religion and science and have a consistent approach to life.

True science and Judeo-Christian approaches depend upon at least three underlying assumptions: The first unprovable assumption states that the world is real, and the human mind is capable of understanding the nature of that reality. Classical scientists believe that physical objects have an objective, on-going existence. Modern scientists of the Western world generally hold to a view of "quantum reality" that objects exist or come into existence through an observation or measurement. Cornell physicist N. David Mermin says, for example, "We now know that the moon is demonstrably not there when nobody looks." Many Eastern wise men and even some modern Western scientists take a similar but more subjective view that the only reality is the idea that exists in one's mind.

The second assumption of science specifies causality, the law of cause and effect. This is a rational or reasonable approach in the sense that events are preceded by a cause and happen because of a cause. For example, classical scientists use force laws to specify how one object can have an effect upon another object. Modern science claims, on the other hand, that objects can move, emit force, and emit light on a random and spontaneous basis, independent of any cause.

The third assumption of science postulates unity in the universe. This unity applies to two major areas of physics: force laws and the structure of matter. The force laws should hold for all scales, over nuclear or galactic distances. Spectral emission of hydrogen gas should be the same for hydrogen in a star or hydrogen on earth since the material structure is assumed to be the same. To some degree, modern science has departed from the concept of unity by specifying "strong" and "weak" forces that extend over a very short distance and only exist in the nucleus or when certain particles disintegrate.