Introduction
On Friday and Saturday February 17 and 18, I attended the Annual Dallas Baptist University’s Discovery Institute Conference on Science and Faith that had caught my eye months ago. It lasted less than 24 hours (a Friday evening session and a following morning/afternoon session). A large crowd attended in its Pilgrim Church on the quite beautiful Dallas Baptist campus, with many more streaming in. That’s the church in the 0:08 video above from the outside and in the picture below from the inside.
These were cold and overcast days deep in the heart of cowboy country, a wonderful contrast to a sunny and bright feeling at the conference.
In 2022, I couldn’t get my mind off the conference because I’d read most of the books written by its featured Contributors – pretty much a Who’s Who of Christian worldview leaders.
Have you seen the movie, Avengers: Endgame?
Neither have I. But I did watch its last 15 minutes while on our elliptical a couple of days ago. It’s a 2019 film with a greatest hits version of Marvel comic superheroes male and female led by Captain America (on a basis) who defeat Thanos, an extremely evil character who has already destroyed half of life in the universe.
Well, the Avengers is what the Dallas Baptist team of Discovery Institute Contributors are to me, and I was not disappointed. 
Let me say this: I wish my adult children (ages 39, 35, and 33) and their spouses could have been there. No, I wish all of America and Europe could have been there. What the heck, why not everybody around the world on a virtual basis?
With that kind of an audience, what we’d experience would be an explosion of Christian and otherwise Abrahamic religion in an Awakening.
Not that it isn’t happening anyway due to the efforts of the Discovery Institute, Dallas Baptist University, and other similar Protestant, Catholic, and other Christian institutions across the West. Yes, these are very exciting times we’re living in. Contrary to popular belief, they are far more light than dark.
But one has to be listening to the right people, like Science & Faith Contributors Stephen Meyer, Frank Turek, Nancy Pearcey, and Titus Kennedy. (By the way, Titus is a living Indiana Jones, I kid you not.)
What I realized by lunchtime on Saturday is that we are seeing the dawning of a new age of discovery and religious Awakening that will last for decades to come.
Approximately 500 years ago, the West led an age of geographic and scientific discovery, changing the world forever. The same thing is beginning again that will focus us outward toward space and inward toward the cell. It will be a period of flourishing under the right circumstances.
I know this might not sound like new information to you, but what we are seeing are the obstacles to mankind’s advancement being defeated one-by-one. The Dallas Conferences Avengers with their highly skilled supporting cast swept away materialist challenger after challenger with the ease of the final scenes from the Book of Revelation. Anyone with commons sense and an average IQ could have grasped this – me being example A.
Clearly, religion (belief in the spiritual) undergirds science, and science points to religion (even more so than during the Scientific Revolution).
There is no conflict between religion and science. In fact, religion is the only pathway to science and truth. Human beings and science simply cannot flourish without religion.
Religion and science are one in truth.
There is no way I can summarize the Conference’s findings to you in 1,000 words or less, so, instead, I’ll offer just a few of its key takeaways (or truth claims). We have commented on some before in Praxis Circle posts.
Seven Truth Claims
(1) Intelligent Design (ID) scientists have defeated Methodological Naturalist (MN) scientists, and agnostics will increasingly recognize this. Darwinism and materialism are dead.
(2) Similarly, Christians will sideline Wokeness, cultural Marxism, and postmodernism. Truth wins in free circumstances over the long run.
(3) Science cannot explain creation, evolution, chemistry, or biology without a Mind. Anyone can recognize it’s ludicrous to think so, if presented the simple arguments. Information is data arranged with a purpose every time encountered, and all purpose originates from Mind.
(4) The universe, life, and human body are far too complex – unspeakably so – for chance to have created them. This is mathematically impossible and against all we know about nature unaided with Mind. The human mind (scientists, we shall call them) will never recreate life or humanity in a laboratory. Many know this now and are not being honest to serve their own selfish purposes of many kinds.
(5) What science does is infer causes from effects backward, and all of science points to Mind, whether the motion of universal objects or the activity of molecules and cells. Indeed, the complexity of the micro world makes the macro world look like tick-tack-toe.
(6) Archaeology is confirming the people, places, and events of the Bible. No discoveries conflict with the Bible’s account. Miracles defy the laws of nature and are common.
(7) Philosophy, experience, and faith underly all religion and science, and it’s “worldview wars” we’re experiencing. Also worth mentioning: it’s a “truth vs. error” and “good vs. evil” contest (not Left vs. Right). Admittedly, that’s our worldview, but with the qualifier that the Discovery Institute’s A Team could probably convince you this is true.
Conclusion
Science cannot and will not flourish in our New Golden Age of Exploration until it gives up methodological or philosophical naturalism.
Today, God is letting us see miraculous detail – His, Her, or Its Glory – as an observer only, so we can know His Power and that we are nothing on a relative basis. This is the Creator God Narrative in contrast to the Man God Narrative.
We human beings are living miracles with the greatest miracle not being the Resurrection but Creation itself.
My last takeaway from the Dallas Discovery Institute Conference? We must understand and safeguard these miracles:
In order to understand this one:
Finally, we’re excited to say we will be interviewing some of the Dallas Conference Contributors this year. Until next time, bon voyage to all Magellans. As springtime approaches, we wish you smooth sailing in Praxis Circle’s worldview seas.
