Limits of Science and the Christian Faith

This paper is a discussion of the claim that, given the findings of science, the rational stance to take towards Christian belief is eirther to abandon it or to drastically reform it. It is argued that science has a number of limits and when are taken into serious consideration, the claim loses much of its force.

This paper argues that science is limited in various respects: (1) we have propositional knowledge that is irreducibly non-scientific; (2) we have knowledge by acquaintance--a type of knowledge that science cannot provide; (3) there are certain questions that science cannot answer, although they are clearly meaningful; (4) science proceeds from certain presuppositions that cannot be scientifically proved; (5) science involves certain norms for theory construction and theory selection whose vality cannot be proved by science.