What would happen to science if supernatural causes become legitimate scientific explanations? That earthquake might have been caused by the shifting of tectonic plates, but it could also be a punishment for the sinfulness of those now suffering the rubble. Why bother to conduct an exhaustive search to find the source of HIV when clear-thinking ID scholars have concluded that it was sent as a divine warning against deviant lifestyles? Even the rainbow might just be a phenomenon presented to us by a “whimsical” designer. Why worry about the physics of light when the mystery of the rainbow can be solved by easy reference to the personality of the creator?
Once the supernatural becomes a valid element in scientific inquiry, science will cease to be an empirical search for the truth of the natural world. Like faith itself, theistic science, will be subjective window on the world that reflects the innermost convictions of its adherents and not the outer reality of nature, the stringent standard by which speculation and hypothesis are forged into scientific theory. A theistic science may be friendly to the tenets of faith, or at least to the faith of some, but it will no longer be science. It will cease to explore, because it already knows the answers. Humankind will remain ignorant of truth.
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