But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully. – 1 Peter 3:15, Amplified Bible (AMP)

The other day I was speaking with a group of teenagers, and one of the young ladies in the group said this:

I had a girl on my soccer team say that she couldn’t be a Christian because she believes in science, and science says that Christianity isn’t real. I really didn’t know how to answer her. How would you have handled that situation?

I was very thankful for the opportunity to address this question, for this young lady’s dilemma is one that Christians face on a regular basis. My response was to suggest a multi-step process that went something like this:

1. Get on the same page as to what “science” means. I told the young lady to ask her friend what she means by “science.” Chances are, the friend won’t know how to answer. Then, the young lady would have the opportunity to teach her friend that Webster’s Dictionary defines “science” as “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation.” The key here is that true scientific discovery is rooted in what we can observe.
2. Ask how the universe began. I suggested to the teen that she next ask her friend her opinion of how the universe began. The most popular “scientific” response today is the Big Bang Theory, which basically states that the universe exploded into being from nothing. In other words, there was nothing – no matter, no atoms, no nothing – and nothingness somehow gave birth to somethingness. After her friend identifies the Big Bang as how the universe began, I suggested that she ask her friend a question, “Has anyone in the history of mankind ever witnessed nothingness spontaneously explode into somethingness?” Of course, the answer is, “no,” which then leads to the statement, “The Big Bang is based on a phenomena that NO ONE has ever observed or measured. So, is the Big Bang Theory really science? Or, just blind faith?”
3. Ask about the strangest secret of modern science. Next, I suggested that the young woman ask her friend this question, “Do you know what the unspoken assumption is that serves as the foundation of all science? That makes science even possible?” When the blank stare comes, the answer is this: the universe is full of order. Modern science relies on the understanding – and reality – that the universe is governed by observable, predictable, measurable processes (often call laws, like the Law of Gravity) that scream, “Order!” If everything was random – if there was no predictable order to the universe – then scientific experimentation would be useless because there would be no universal patterns, processes, or laws to discover. The point? Just like no one has ever observed nothingness exploding into somethingness, no one has ever witnessed randomness give birth to order. Where does observation teach us that order comes from? It teaches us that order comes from a designer. So trusting in theories like the Big Bang and Evolution – both of which claim that chance random processes miraculously produced tremendous order – requires a belief in something that no one has ever observed. Is that science? Or, blind faith?

Such arguments alone are not meant to prove that the God of the Bible exists. That takes a lot more than a 3-step process. But, they can make people begin to see that having faith in “science” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, opening up discussions that otherwise would never be held.

Never be bullied into thinking that Christianity rests on “blind, illogical faith” while science is founded on “logical thinking.” In cases like the Big Bang Theory and Evolution, it’s the other way around.  Observable reality supports the idea of a Designer creating the universe. Observable reality does not support the underlying assumptions of the Big Bang Theory and Evolution. If you can pry open the skeptic’s mind with a few well-placed questions, you may just be able to plant the seed of the Gospel in what was once unplantable ground.