Todor Veltchev

The advances in science during the last two centuries challenged some basic Christian doctrines – in particular, the doctrine of creation. Many Christians in the Western world engaged actively in development of “scientific apologetics”, i.e. apologetics in the field of science, and initiated debates on the fundamental theories of contemporary cosmology (the Big Bang theory) and biology (evolution of life). What are the key positions of scientific apologetics now, as the frameworks of these theories seem to be experimentally confirmed and established in the scientific communities worldwide? I argue that a consistent scientific apologetics shall not take a side in the disputes on the purely scientific problems of theories but rather focus on the worldview questions which these theories lead to. As examples, I will briefly review two issues in astrophysics that raise in-depth worldview questions: the beginning of the Universe and its fine tuning (“anthropic coincidences”). Also, a worthwhile for a scientific apologist is to elucidate the common historical roots of science and theology (in the prescientific era) and to show that they are not only of historical interest – indeed, their interaction and complementarity allow for building up a holistic, deeply satisfying view on reality.

A personal introduction

My personal struggle with the supposed contradiction between science and Christian faith was initially internal: I became a Christian believer as being a second-year university student in Physics and desperately needed a clear understanding whether of my new faith is compatible with a scientific career. People who know life under Communism from experience and the propaganda images of religion as incompatible with science, can imagine what kind of processes took place in me.