Does Science Make God Irrelevant? (TGC Hard Questions Series), Hans Madueme. Crossway (ISBN: 9781433597978) 2025.

Summary: Proposes that science and faith may coexist as allies and that Christian assumptions make science possible.

“Does science make God irrelevant?” In my experience, that is not even a question for many. Rather, they assume it is a settled fact. For such people, they do not object to belief, if you need this to get through life. Rather, they make sense of the world just fine without God, thank you. It’s also my experience that many of these people have high moral standards. After all, integrity is a high value if you are doing good science.

Hans Madueme, in this concise little book, proposes that pursuing science, and living by faith may walk hand in hand. He begins by debunking the idea that science and faith have been at war. Many of the earliest scientists were believing Christians, including Galileo. Galileo got into trouble more because of the politics of the religious establishment rather than a conflict between science and scripture. The Scopes trial was as much about promoting the town of Dayton as it was a faith-science conflict. John Scopes was put up to it by the ACLU.

In fact, Madueme argues, Christian assumptions undergird science. The Creator-creation distinction encourages investigation of the cosmos because it is not divine. Christian assumptions that the world is knowable, rational, and dependable are basic to science. Even the fall is related to science in providing a basis for empiricism rather than the assumption that one may simply philosophically “know” the world.

Rather, the problem for Madueme lies with “scientism,” the belief that “nothing but” science is needed for all human knowledge. Ironically, that assertion is not scientifically demonstrable. However, although Madueme argues against ideological naturalism, he notes that most Christians have no difficulty embracing methodological naturalism, seeing it as the way we study the book of nature.

Having argued that faith and science may be close allies, he discusses the challenge of evolution and the different ways Christians approach this challenge. While he tries to clarify some language, like “creationist,” he doesn’t propose a resolution in this short booklet. Rather than encourage an anti-science response to instances of bad science, he affirms the commitment Christians and most scientists share to integrity, to following the data where it leads. I would like to have seen Madueme address the anti-science stance in some parts of the church and the politicization of science.

Finally, Madueme concludes the book with a brief description of the “fine tuning argument.” This is the idea that there are some particular stringent conditions under which life may arise and that the odds of this happening are incredibly high. The presence of an intelligent creator is certainly consistent with this reality, although this does not constitute proof. He notes the multiverse theories proposed as an alternate explanation. However for the believing scientist, the incredible order of the world, its intricacy, and beauty all move one to praise.

Madueme does all this in 65 pages of text. Of course he offers brief summaries of much longer discussions you can find in his notes. But I’ve found in many conversations about such things, most people are not that interested (at least initially) in wading through a technical text of several hundred pages. A brief, cogent summary is often what is needed and what Madueme has provided.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.