So outrageously successful has been the work of science the past two hundred years that perhaps most people have settled with the idea that science is the only reliable way of knowing.

Science and revelation as ways of knowing

Epistemological rigidity
So outrageously successful has been the work of science the past two hundred years that perhaps most people have settled with the idea that science is the only reliable way of knowing. We can’t know anything for certain that hasn’t been discovered or confirmed by scientists.

This is why “panels of experts” or scientific journals and studies are so frequently appealed to in advertizing. Even poll data is regarded as a form of science, and features large in whatever we want to learn or know about the state of whatever.

Science, at its most fundamental, is a method for getting at reliable knowledge via the process of observation, hypothesis, testing, refinement, and confirmation. It is, indeed, as Carl Sagan reveled to insist, a powerful method for arriving at reliable knowledge which can be used in a wide range of applications.

But is science the only way of knowing? More specifically, can revelation also be a way of arriving at reliable knowledge?

Most scientists are skeptical of this. Peter Medawar’s view of revelation represents that of perhaps most practitioners of the sciences: “I do not believe that revelation is a source of information, though I acknowledge that it is widely believed to be so – and that Coleridge judged theology the Queen of the Pure Sciences for that very reason” (The Limits of Science, p. 82).

Scientists don’t mind people having faith and believing in revelation, they just don’t want revelation to get in the way of the quest for truth (witness the concerns expressed by many scientists over the appointment of evangelical Christian Francis Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health; see “The Covenant” in The New Yorker, September 6, 2010).

People of faith have reason to question Medawar’s epistemological rigidity, especially when it is apparent that many of the teachings of Scripture and the Christian tradition, still accepted as reliable truths today, antedate the work of science – which can seem at times, to be just catching up to revelation. Let’s consider one example.

Revelation on singing and music
We do not have to argue very strenuously that the Bible has much to say about the importance of singing and the value of music to a healthy and wholesome way of life. Christians have understood this throughout the centuries and, like no other faith or worldview, have devoted themselves to creating and singing music of all kinds.

Certain hymns, such as the Kyrie, have proven themselves so powerful in expressing human sentiments and convictions that they have endured through the centuries. Christian monks invented the eight-note scale to facilitate even more expression and affection in singing. Some of the greatest musicians in the Western classical tradition were motivated and guided in their musical composition by a sincere faith, grounded in divine revelation. Among these count Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, and Mendelssohn.

Christians sing and make music to the Lord because they are directed to by the revelation of God in Scripture; and they find, as they obey that instruction, that their faith is strengthened and they become more whole and complete as persons. Revelation, received by faith and acted on in obedience, has yielded in this area a certain kind of reliable knowledge about the value of music and singing. Those believers who neglect to sing or who practice singing but a little usually suffer in their sanctification, lacking some of the joy and power for loving God and neighbor they might otherwise know.

Christians have known from the very beginning, based on divine revelation confirmed by obedient living, that singing and music are good for us as human beings. Now science is beginning to confirm those centuries of practice in some very exciting ways.

Science and music
A recent issue of Science News was devoted to a symposium on music and the benefits it brings to human beings (August 14, 2010). Tom Siegfried reported on studies showing that music can bring health to our brains, strengthening synapses and alleviating various maladies. Bruce Bower explained the value of music in building early communication skills in children. He observed that many scientists “regard music as a universal practice with still mysterious evolutionary origins…”

Susan Gaidos cited studies showing that music enhances brain functioning by causing many sections of the brain to work together at once. She explained the findings of Stefan Koelsch, who wrote on the social value of music. He observed that music doesn’t seem to have any direct evolutionary value – survival or advantage over rivals – and so “researchers have long wondered why humans developed the capacity to perform and enjoy it.” Other articles continue the discussion about the many benefits music brings to brain health, communications skills, and social life. As Koelsch aptly summarizes, “Already, research confirms that most people are better off with a dose of music.”

Not news
Except for the detailed explanations, none of this would come as a surprise, or even as new knowledge, for most Christians. They have “known” all along that music and singing are important, and, speaking as one of that number, it pleases me to learn that scientific studies are catching up with divine revelation and helping us to understand why that revelation can be trusted in this, as in many other, areas. I don’t resent the findings of science, nor do I have any reason to doubt their value.

I read the findings of science on the value of music to human life as a sort of “Like He says,” nodding in the direction of Scripture and the long and venerable history of Christian experience.

So if Christians have “known” – quite apart from science – what science is only now coming to “know” by its own methodologies, should we not in some way acknowledge that revelation and Christian experience can be reliable means of arriving at true knowledge, when practiced within proper guidelines and traditions?

Scaling the last height of knowledge
In one of his popular books of some years ago, agnostic scientist Robert Jastrow pondered the question of the relationship between science and revelation. He saw the scientific enterprise making great strides toward discovering the final frontiers of knowledge, but always challenged to climb a little higher in their quest by mysteries yet unresolved. He envisioned the scientific community as a team of mountain climbers, who keep pressing higher and higher in their search for all truth. He wrote that, as scientists finally reach the last plateau, scale the ultimate height of knowledge, and pull themselves up over the ledge, they will discover, to their chagrin, a band of theologians who have been sitting there for years.

T. M. Moore is Principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe (www.myparuchia.com) and Dean of the BreakPoint Centurions (colsoncenter.org). Sign up to receive his daily devotionals, Crosfigell, at MyParuchia.com, ViewPoint at colsoncenter.org, and Pastor to Pastor, at worldviewchurch.org.