Science Fairs and a Biblical Worldview
By Dr. Bryan Smith
O
VER THE PAST twenty years, I’ve seen quite a
few Christian school science fairs. I’m happy to say
these schools take the Bible seriously. One way they show
their commitment to the Bible is by requiring students to
include—somewhere on the display board—a paragraph or
two under the heading “Bible Application.”
What do students put in those paragraphs? Well, I’m not
so happy about that. One student did an experiment on
dog behavior—how different factors affect a dog’s disposi-
tion and how he interacts with others. The Bible application
focused on Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog returneth to his vomit,
so a fool returneth to his folly.” Then there was the student
who did an experiment on yeast growth and how different
factors affect it. This time the Bible application was based
on Galatians 5:9: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
Such attempts get a Bible verse on the display board, but
they don’t have anything to do with the topic. And that’s a
problem. Why? We live in a secular age that treats the Bible
as irrelevant to our modern, scientific world. So, for Chris-
tian parents and teachers, science fairs are a golden opportu-
nity to teach young people that our secular age is wrong. The
Bible is important to all of life, and it’s vital to the work of
science. But if we approach a science fair in the wrong way,
it will be a missed opportunity.
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The Bible is important to science but not in the way we
may think. It doesn’t mention by name the various prob-
lems we try to solve with the scientific method. It instead
reveals who we are, why we’re here, and what God expects
from us in this world. Those “big ideas” relate to the work
of science in fundamental ways, and getting students to
grapple with them is essential if we are to teach science
from a biblical worldview.
Let me give you three “big ideas” that will help young
people understand how the Bible and science are connected.
I’ll state them as questions.
HOW CAN MY TOPIC HELP OTHERS?
One of the most important verses in the Bible is Genesis
1:28. It’s often called the “Creation Mandate” because it
reveals our relationship to the rest of creation. Here God
tells us the reason he made the human race. We are to rule
over the world in His name.
This is the reason science is important to the Chris-
tian. It’s a powerful tool for helping us uncover the latent
potential God has put in this world. Electricity, buoyancy,
magnetism, solar energy—you name it!—are all important
to the Christian because they help people in the ongoing
work of dominion.