Can Science Tell Us Why?

We scientists have a real scam going on. People frequently ask us why something happens, but we answer with a description of how things happen. Most people walk away satisfied with our answers, not realizing that we haven’t answered their original question at all. The scam is so slick that I doubt even many scientists are aware of it. But looking only at the how overlooks the most important answers about the world.

Heavy on the How

People sometimes ask scientists why a fig falls from a tree (trust me—no matter what you’ve heard, Newton saw a fig fall from a tree, not an apple). We scientists may answer that question by saying, “Gravity,” and most people seem to be satisfied with that answer. But one definition of gravity is the observation that objects appear to fall to the earth. So simply saying “gravity” as the answer doesn’t ultimately explain why objects fall—it only names the phenomenon. When we answer the question, “Why does a fig fall?” with “Gravity,” we have basically said that a fig falls because a fig falls.

We could answer the question a bit more fundamentally by discussing Newton’s law of gravity or Einstein’s theory of gravity (general relativity). But Newton’s law of gravity describes how the force of gravity depends upon the masses of the objects involved (such as a fig and the earth), as well as the inverse square law of distance. But notice that this describes how gravity works, not why gravity works.

Ditto for general relativity—it describes a bit differently how gravity works, but it doesn’t address why gravity works nor explain why gravity exists in the first place. While we physicists know a lot about gravity, we really don’t know what gravity is. So we can describe how gravity behaves with remarkable accuracy, but its ultimate nature remains mysterious.

The same thing is true of many other areas in science. Newton’s three laws of motion? They describe how objects move in response to forces, but they don’t reveal why. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the entropy in any isolated system never decreases, but it doesn’t explain why. Statistical mechanics goes a bit deeper to describe at a microscopic level how the entropy of the universe increases, but it doesn’t tell us why. Snell’s law describes how light refracts as it moves from one medium to another, but it doesn’t tell us why. The laws of electricity and magnetism tell us how electrical charges and magnets behave, but they don’t tell us why they behave that way.

Asking Too Much

Lest you despair over how little we actually know about the universe, consider that, perhaps, we are expecting too much of science. Any system of knowledge must begin with a few assumptions, things that appear to be obvious to all, such as axioms, postulates, and definitions. One then builds upon these starting assumptions, and without these assumptions, nothing can be built.

For instance, geometry begins by assuming that points, lines, and planes exist. In a similar manner, physicists assume that matter, energy, space, and time exist, even if we don’t know what they are any more than we know what gravity is. From there, physicists have managed to learn much about each of these entities and study how they behave. But all that we know about the physical world is more about how the world operates rather than why the world operates the way that it does.1

But Why?

The question of why ultimately belongs to philosophy and theology, not to empirical science. Yet most scientists unknowingly start with the assumption of naturalism, that only the natural world exists. In other words, naturalism assumes that there is no God or at the very least, that God is irrelevant to the natural world.2

The assumption of naturalism has no expectation as to why the world exists as it does.

The assumption of naturalism has no expectation as to why the world exists as it does. The world exists the way it does because that is the way the world evolved. The worldview of most scientists excludes the possibility of God designing the world, so why would they look for design that they don’t think is there? It makes no sense to ask why questions about the world. All that matters is the question of how the world operates.

Scientists who are Christians also are interested in the how questions, but they ought to be keenly aware of the why questions as well. Christians understand that because God created the world with purpose, we have a good reason to explore why the world is the way that it is.

For instance, gravity follows the inverse square law of distance (gravity decreases proportionally to the square of the distance between objects). This has profound design implications. If gravity followed any other function of distance, stable orbits as we know them would not exist. If gravity did not follow the inverse square law, then the moon likely would not orbit the earth at all, so what we see as the beneficial effects of the moon on the earth would not exist.

The naturalist may respond that the inverse square law is the consequence of the world possessing three dimensions of space. This is true, but that merely pushes the why question back, for it doesn’t answer the question of why the world possesses three spatial dimensions. Why not two or four? The world could have more or less than three spatial dimensions, but it doesn’t because God chose to create it that way to best bring him glory.

Even though creation is under the curse and groans with corruption (Romans 8:20–22), it still operates with remarkable order, all under the sustaining hand of the Creator who holds all things together and imbues his creation with purposes he designed (Jeremiah 33:25; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3).

A major part of the motivation of creation scientists (such as myself) is to help understand and share with others more about the why of the world, something that scientists normally are not well equipped to answer. Because we begin with God’s Word for all our thinking, creation scientists search for and readily see design and purpose in the natural world because we expect to see design and purpose (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20). We believe that there is more than nature behind the natural world.

The Who Behind the Why

What we see in the universe goes beyond simply making life possible. The design reveals something about God. Psalm 19:1 tells us that the heavens declare God’s glory. Romans 1:19–20 goes further, telling us that the world around us demonstrates that God exists and that he is very powerful. We ignore this warning of Romans 1:19–20 at our eternal peril.

Notice that the natural world reveals God’s existence, eternality, creativity, and divine power, but it doesn’t reveal all his attributes. To understand the fullness of God’s holiness, righteousness, and perfection, we need his specific revelation from the Bible. We also need more than the natural world to inform us that we stand as sinners before God and hence require the method of salvation that God has provided.

We can learn those answers only by studying God’s Word—the ultimate book of How and Why.

As helpful as science is, it cannot give us ultimate answers to life’s biggest questions. We can learn those answers only by studying God’s Word—the ultimate book of How and Why.

The next time you ask a scientist a question about the world, why don’t you ask him how something happens? You already know the why.