50-75% of teenagers who attended church leave their faith as a young adult! The stats vary in different reports, but any of the stats are alarming. In one study the Barna research group reported that “Overall…nearly three out of every five young Christians (59%) disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after age 15.” (Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church)
This is a troubling number as I have spent the last 20 years working with teenagers in the context of a church. It is those stories of young adults walking away from their faith that sadden me the most. Through reading and talking with others, I have come to believe that most of the time a large contributor to their apostasy is the church or people in the church. It seems that although the church has done so much good over the years (another post to come on this in a few days) we have been in a defensive posture in modern and postmodern times. Many have characterized the church as people who are against ________ (you fill in the blank) rather than what we are for. Sadly, if I can make a general observation, this is the attitude of the Pharisees, the most criticized group of people in the records of Jesus’ life on earth.
One such area that we (the church) have been historically against is science. In fact in the aforementioned article by the Barna Group, it is reported to be reason number 3 in the top six reasons young Christians leave the church. “…[T]he research shows that many science-minded young Christians are struggling to find ways of staying faithful to their beliefs and to their professional calling in science-related industries.”
It is this aspect of science and faith that I would like to discuss first. In this “anti” position the church has stood in for a long time and in a strong way against science. 
There are many illustrations of this in history, but most notably are Nicolaus Copernicus’ development of the heliocentric theory, proposing that the earth is not the center of the universe, but rather moves around the sun. Even more known is the conflict this developed into between the church and Galileo Galilei for the support of heliocentrism. “In 1633 Galileo was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for ‘following the position of Copernicus, which is 
contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture,’and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.” (Catholic Church and Science) Although there was a process of the church stepping back from this decree against this scientific theory (become proven in reality), it wasn’t until 200 years later (1835) that all traces of this ban were gone.
What was the central issue in this controversy? Scripture. Heliocentrism was refuted because what the Bible “said”. However, one must now see that it wasn’t what the Bible said, but what was the accepted interpretation of what was written in the Bible. This brings us back to the point of the relationship between faith and science. And at the center of this in today’s world is what has become known as the creation-evolution debate. Most polemically this debate is between those who state that the Bible (Genesis 1&2) says God created the earth in 6 literal days by His spoken word and those who say the earth was formed over billions of years beginning with a cosmic explosion of very dense matter.
Now my purpose here is not to state what I believe on origins and give all evidence to support/defend it. (To acknowledge my bias I do believe that what we know of as life and the earth we live on has its origin in God and is written about in God inspired scripture) My purpose is however, to engage Christians with the possibility that we can fully embrace the sciences and be completely true to scripture! In fact, I believe that our faith can be enriched by the sciences! In addition, my purpose is to engage with those who have rejected faith for science in such a way as to create conversations of understanding.
Recently, through a friend and former pastor, I came across an organization seeking to do just what I described, create space for conversation between faith, science and culture. The Colossian Forum created the following video (well worth 8 minutes of your time) to highlight their organization’s purpose and mandate; something I believe is desperately needed.
More Light, Less Heat from The Colossian Forum on Vimeo.
Over the next ten days I am going to be publishing several articles related to the Christian faith in our current postmodern context.
(full disclosure…this is fulfilling an assignment in a seminary class as well as a desire of mine to be blogging more often and interacting with what I am learning)
I would enjoy receiving and interacting with any and all comments you might have regarding my posts. I certainly can’t have any conversations if this is only one-way communication.
The interesting places former pastors of Calvary surface, eh?
Looking forward to the rest of your posts, B.Mo!
Brian,
this is an interesting topic…I went to a non-christian university that emphasized the sciences and came away more impressed with the truth of scripture…not sure how one can see anything but a literal 6 day creation when understanding the Laws of Thermodynamics and other ‘laws’ of nature. There is plenty of good science to support a young earth…Christians should be willing to get involved in the discussion, but not be intimitated by ‘intelligent sounding’ arguments…Do we believe God set the ball in motion, or did He complete the task? I believe the Bible is a tool to help us understand science…not the other way around. Just my thoughts…keep blogging!
Dave, thanks for the thoughtful comment!
I agree that there is a lot of evidence out there to support young earth, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions to go with it. Equally, an old-earth or Darwinian viewpoint has a lot or unanswered questions also.
Honestly, the more I get into evidences I lean toward an old-earth belief. Formerly, to me, this would have meant a denial of scripture and therefore I never allowed myself to consider that. I have come to understand that old-earth conclusions do not necessarily take away from inerrancy of scripture. I think this is where young adults are facing difficulty, where is it “ok” to question without being thrown into a “slippery-slope” argument and having the door closed to exploring what science is discovering and theorizing.
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[...] response to yesterday’s post, my friend Dave, gave a strong comment from his experience in support of young earth and this being [...]
Interesting thesis.
What many grapple with today is viewing the text of the Bible with todays ideals. We have learned so much (science and otherwise) since the translation of the bible, it is nearly impossible to interpret the words as they were originally intended. You even have atheists like the renowned science fiction writer Isaac Asimov explaining away all miracles in his “Guide to the Bible” as literary license, or metaphor, or exaggeration. Thanks to theologans to keep us straight.
The role of the church has changed over the years, decades and centuries. They have been a community center, sometimes have been the only means of education for the populace. Sometimes, this role was mis-used in power struggles in various parts of the globe. In the twentieth century, many relied on church for their family’s moral center: it was a ritual that has become part of the family identity. It wasn’t a matter of IF you worshipped, but where.
When youth grow up, they are faced with many challenges, and often worship becomes lost in the battle for education, a job, “looking cool,” making friends, finding one’s self, etc. Many churches rely solely on the family unit to encourage their children to maintain their connection with the church. If the family connection is weak, or the parents are not strong in their own convictions, it is difficult to convince the adventuresome youth.
The sense of “community” has changed from relying on the church to be the center of all, for all purposes, to one that includes soccer games, PlayStation 3, shared custody, and virtual “friendships” on social media (as I comment to you on this blog). Although churches are making steps to assimilate new media into their mission, understanding how youth connect with each other today (personally and digitally) is paramount to getting/keeping them engaged with the church.
Thanks for writing and inviting me to the discussion, Brian.
I enjoyed the video clip from the Colossian Forum; it was good to see Dr. Miller and hear his thoughts. Mark Noll, too; I’m currently reading through his recent work “Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind,” and it has some good food for thought on the integration of faith and all the academic fields. The basic point is that the nature of Christ presented in the historic creeds provides a foundation for the complexity often encountered in academic work.
I’ve also been thinking a lot in the area of typology, not just in Scripture, but in the vein of Jonathan Edwards as he saw images or shadows of divine things in all of creation. One of his points is that if God often spoke typologically of Christ in the Old Testament, it would make sense that He would also speak that way in His works of creation and providence. In light of that, I find it interesting that in all likelihood, Copernicus had his revolutionary insights about the solar system in the same decade as Luther’s evangelical insights. Though Luther (and the other reformers) denounced Copernican theory, it doesn’t surprise me, if God often makes special revelation to correlate with general revelation, that God should overturn anthropocentric views of both physical and spiritual reality at the same time.
Scott, what a great pithy synthesis of the role of the church through modern history. You make a great point with the church being the center of community for so long, and even further back (in Europe) the church was the center of government and more. When people in the church abused that kind of power/influence (and today as well) many lost “faith”. I’m actually going to post a bit about this in a few days.
Additionally what you mentioned about the family identity being wrapped around where one worshiped, and that now falling apart because it was mostly a ritual that became of little value to the next generation. Makes a strong case for parents living out what we say we believe to our children. And for knowing why we believe what we do, because after a certain age phrases like “That’s just what we believe” and “Because I said so” don’t hold much weight.
Andrew, I didn’t realize you were blogging these days…I’ll have to subscribe to your feed.
I am really intrigued with your proposition of the correlation of God inspiring through new discoveries in general revelation while at the same time renewing/reforming our understanding of special revelation. I’m going to have to ponder that some more because I have been wondering if that is not some of what is going on through our culture these days.
I love thinking through these things with others, even if it is in an online community.
Thanks to all for the insightful comments.
[...] Faith and science My friend and former pastor/coworker Brian Moore has a series going on his blog about faith, [...]
Dave,
Please explain what the second law of thermodynamics has to do with a 6 day creation. Any references on the good science supporting a young earth?
cheers
I am going to try and catch up on this discussion…
Check out Jay Lehman’s October 2011 set of blogs on this same topic.
http://jaylehman.com/2011/10/walking-away-from-faith/#comments. I think this is the first one of a series. Generally speaking the Church has been more of a coddler than a generator of change throughout the years. I think the reason that many teenagers are struggling with their faith is not just the “check your brains at the door mentality” but a serious lack of calling on their lives. Not from God but from the Church…I especially see this in America where the pursuit of many good things (education, sports, employment, etc.) take the place of Christian mission. To be sure there is nothing wrong with many of the pursuits but without a connection to mission, the out of sight out of mind scenario tends to be reality.
I’m probably just rambling here.
I think the young are leaving religion entirely, because they have access to the internet and the message to them can no longer be controlled. They CAN LOOK STUFF UP, discover that religion is total bulls***, and find that the bible is a terrible, terrible book, full of lies, and tells of a god of hate, deceit, genocide, and jealousy. Who would want a god like that? Interesting to read of the very real possibility that Jesus never existed at all, one that I realize that I have accepted myself.
Lee, indeed, access to the internet has increased the information available to those who have connection. WITH that flood of information, it has only fed the presupposition of skepticism in the developing postmodern view. Not only about religion, but about anything in life. If I get a medication from the doctor, I tend to go home and research it on the web to find out more information. Sometimes when a professor is lecturing on a subject, I’ll do a little additional research on the topic and find a lot of information. Or, if one wants a diet plan, you don’t have to go see a dietician (although the personal touch would be most helpful) you can search the internet and find 30 “scientifically proven” methods for weight loss. So here’s my point, just because the information is out there where people can LOOK STUFF UP, gives zero bearing on whether it is true or not.
In my reading of “Finding Faith, Losing Faith” by McKnight and Ondrey, I came across something that was no surprise…reading books is one of the most common of the 3 major influencers of those who leave their faith (whatever faith that is). This is because psychologically we all need an “advocate” to help us process our faith decisions. In absence of a real person, books and (in recent history) the internet have served that purpose. Additionally, in our day the internet provides anonymity to a searching person who may feel they can’t “air out” their doubts in their religious group. This is one big area the Christian church needs to grow, in listening to those who are having doubts and giving them room to explore, even within their established community.
The historicity of Jesus’ existence is one of the most verifiable occurrences one can research, so I’m not sure where you are going with that. In our day and age it is a very real possibility (philosophically) that you or I never existed either.
I would venture to say that your experience with the Bible, religion/church, or someone who claims to be a Christian has been the biggest influence to your viewpoint.
Brian, maybe you should try and revisit your science class. This time you should actually try and learn a bit as well. And no. Thermodynamics is *not*, in any way, supporting YEC (which by itself is as unscientific as one can get).
A very shallow comment JH, and I’m not sure there is anything helpful to this discussion in it. How do you know anything about my science classes?
For a conversation to take place there has to be some sort of mutual respect as thinking and emotional people.