Science And Religion Can't Be Reconciled?

I read an article in the Huffington Post yesterday entitled,"Science And Religion Cannot Be Reconciled," by Victor Stenger. You can read the whole article here. Reading this article has prompted me to desire that "faith" be properly defined.

"Faith" is active trust in a proposed truth. This is different then a "fact." A fact is an observable truth that coincides with reality as we find it. In this I am assuming the basic reliability of my senses. You see a rock, I see the same rock. You believe it evolved, I believe it was created. You believe that the matter which makes up the rock is eternal, I believe it had a beginning. You and I have very different opinions as to the why’s and how’s of the rock; but we both agree that the thing we are looking at on the ground is indeed a "rock." This is a fact. You could call it any name you wish, but we agree that it is true that the rock exists. This is a fact.

But how did the rock get here? Now we are getting into the realm of faith. You believe that the rock got here by accident, I believe it came into being by design. You trust in the evidence of data collected by scientists of the past who were not in the beginning. You trust in their words as being true. I trust in the words that are written in the Bible as true. I trust in those words because of the character of the one who speaks them. In the character of the one who claims to have been there in the beginning. They do not conflict with the reality that I see. I see a world around me that is ordered. I see a world around me that is designed.

I have "faith" that the world was made by God because he has said so in the Bible, in propositions. You have "faith" that the world came into existence on its own apart from a designer. You believe this on the evidence of propositional truth written by scientists of the past.

We both have faith. We both are putting our faith in propositional truth. We both are putting our faith in the character of the one who has penned the propositions. Mine is in the God of Scripture, your is in the god of man.

Victor Stenger says that through the scientific method, man has "eliminated smallpox, discovered DNA, and flown men to the moon." I am rather thankful for these back-slappings; but Jesus has promised to heal from every disease, created and holds the moon in its place, and designed and ordered all DNA.