Can Science and Faith Co-Exist? (Romans 1:19-22a)

Series: Questions About FaithPreacher: Ps. James TangDate: 3rd August 2025Passage: Romans 1:19-22aSermon Summary:Since the popularization of science during the Enlightenment era, faith and science have been pitted against each other. Reason replaced theology as the primary source of authority and legitimacy. Influential thinkers started to argue for a complete rejection of religion and religious authority. But the thing is, there’s no real reason to reject faith in favor of science. Science helps explain why things work the way they do, but it is faith that tells us why they even bother to work in the first place. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul makes it clear that God has revealed Himself to all mankind through His creation. (1:19-20) We see how true this is as we spend time in nature: from the dragonflies that migrate each year from India to Africa; to the enyzmes that start to denature once the human body raises its temperature above 37°C, there is an entire world that runs without our interference. The creation requires no involvement from us to keep itself going. Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer and mathematician, once stated that he was simply “thinking God’s thoughts after Him” in his research. Kepler is best known for his three laws of planetary motion, and yet he acknowledged that he wasn’t coming up with anything new. He was merely discovering the intricacies that God had already embedded into His design. Kepler recognized what many of us have yet to grasp—that science serves as a signpost to God. It is in itself vastly insufficient to save. God the Father sent Jesus the Son down to point specifically back to Him: Paul writes that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Col. 1:15) By Him “all things were created, in heaven and on earth…all things were created through him and for him.” (v.16) Only through Him did God reconcile to Himself all things; only by His blood shed on the cross are we saved. (v.20)