My mom reaches for the computer and clicks play on the video as I sit attentively in anticipation.  An image flashes onto the screen, it’s a new photograph taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.  I stare in wonder at the shining array of glowing dots that compose our universe.  A sage looking astronomer now occupies the screen and begins to explain what the image reveals about our universe.  He explains that each of the thousands of dots in the image represent a single galaxy.  He expounds further that each galaxy contains hundreds of millions of stars, and spans several hundred thousand light years. This blows my mind.  He begins to explain in detail how the images reveal the existence of dark energy, I lean forward and tilt my ear towards the screen as he continues.   As I carefully listen he explains that the pictures reveal that dark energy makes up nearly 70 percent of the universe. It holds together the fabric of the universe while simultaneously sending billions of stars and planets careening off into the dark energy void.  The astronomer then admits that no one knows what dark energy is made out of, what it looks like, or how it works.  Dark energy, the astronomer says, is completely invisible. Scientists have only proven its existence through convoluted and mystifying mathematical calculations.  As I watch, I begin to feel curious about how the scientists calculated that dark energy exists.  Why am I so curious about such a nebulous scientific topic?  Because I believe in God!

After watching the video, I’m compelled to reflect on what this new science means to me as a religious person.  I can’t help but see the similarities between the scientific description of dark energy and the creation of the universe and the Christian teaching of a God who creates and directs the universe.  Science says that everything we see around us stems from the initial start of the universe in the big bang.  I view God as the cause or start of the universe, also known as the big bang, and this is why I find things like the James Webb Space Telescope and dark energy so interesting.  As someone who is religious, I actually view science, which is the study of the nature and behavior of the things around us, as something that reveals details about God, and that is so exciting! 

It’s the same for me with other aspects of science.  I love my AP Biology class because I think it reveals important details about the way God made things, and this view of science makes me actually more interested in biology and better at it.   I have an A in AP Biology, and I find it absolutely fascinating  to study life and the complex chemical pathways that make life possible. 

My parents instilled in me from a young age a trust in science and a belief in objective truth that you can test through experimentation.  They also encouraged me to view science from a religious God believing perspective.  For me these two things are not in conflict.   My earliest memories are of my mom taking me to the DuPage Children’s Museum and her explaining to me how the exhibits showed certain properties of physics and chemistry. In one memorable exhibit, there was a toilet mechanism enclosed in a glass box.  You could pull the chain to flush the toilet, and you could see exactly how the mechanism that causes the toilet to flush works, illustrating laws of physics. I loved visiting the Children’s Museum and learning about how the world works at a fundamental level.  My natural curiosity was coupled with a belief that science revealed aspects about how God made the universe, and to this day, it makes me passionate about studying the sciences and being a better student in my science classes.  Being someone who believes in God and who is also passionate about studying science is a significant part of my identity.

However, many people still think that belief in God and trusting science are in conflict.   This is probably what motivated University of Rochester Psychologists Jonathan McPhetres and Miron Zuckerman to propose what I believe is an inaccurate connection between being religious and one’s attitude towards science.  They argue that “religiosity is negatively related to science knowledge and is associated with more negative attitudes towards science.”  McPhetres and Zuckerman go on to argue that these “attitudes are related to lower levels of science literacy and less trust in scientific sources of information.”

I understand where they’re coming from, that many people have negative attitudes towards science and reject science because of their religious beliefs.  I, however, argue that this is because many religious people are unable to reconcile their belief in God and belief in Science. I argue that for some religious people, belief in God and trust in science are not in conflict, and I think that having a worldview based on belief in God can make you more interested in science if you have the right attitude about it.  Some religious people, such as myself, find that having a belief in a God who created the universe makes you more interested in science and better at it.  

My belief that God created the world and everything that science seeks to understand makes me more interested in science than the average person.  My interest in science motivates me to spend more time learning about science and personally researching topics that I find interesting. I spend much of my time just reading about scientific topics online that I find interesting.  The extra time that I spend learning about science, motivated by my belief in God, actually makes me better at understanding science. It’s time that being religious and believing in God is longer synonymous with disliking science or denying it.  I encourage people to stop viewing religion as primitive or uneducated, and understand that one can be both a scientist and a believer in God.

When I reflect back on watching the video about the James Webb Space Telescope, I feel a rush of motivation to learn more about the science behind dark energy and our universe.  The video I watched was just a small instance of something scientific that piqued my interest. There are so many more topics I want to learn more about, from epigenetics to string theory to neuroscience.  Science is important because it’s empirical, measurable, and gives the absolute reality about a given topic through experimentation.  Believing in God and being religious helps one find meaning in life and feel fulfilled.  The common belief that these two things are in conflict causes many to accept one, and reject the other.  This is a shame, and I encourage people to reject the idea that religion and science are in conflict.