Editorial Note: This post is part of our #FaithAndScience series exploring the relationship between science and religion, and is adapted from the author's textbook Faith, Science, & Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge, 2nd edition (Midwest Theological Forum, 2019).
What do you mean when you call God the Creator? When it comes to science and religion, this is the number one question I wish people would ask. Both skeptics and believers all assume that for God to create is half about infinite power and half about some kind of occult engineering. This is why so many believers get excited about ‘God of the Gaps’ arguments like Intelligent Design Theory, making God a ‘how’ explanation for natural phenomena that they think science can’t explain. They conceive of God as something of a hybrid who is part magician, part mechanic, and part micromanager of complex processes. The idea that love is the driving force behind the universe—its reason for being as well as its meaning, never enters their minds.
