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BOOK REVIEW: Does Science Make God Irrelevant?

By James Jeffery

Author: Hans Madueme

Publisher: Crossway

Year: 2025

In the West, there is a prevailing belief among many — particularly the intellectual elite — that Christianity and science are mutually exclusive domains. Put another way, you can either have faith or reason, but not both. Consequently, it is believed that the scientific domain belongs to non-Christians, whereas religious matters can be entrusted to those who just have ‘blind faith.’ This perspective has been popularised by figures such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.

Sadly, this faulty perspective has been pervasive in elementary, high school, and college level education. While it may seem compelling at face value, nothing could be further from the truth.

In Does Science Make God Irrelevant?, Hans Madueme makes the case that faith and science are not only compatible, but complementary. With an MD from Howard University College of Medicine and a PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Madueme approaches this topic with a wealth of experience and a sound knowledge of both disciplines. In addition to his own testimony, Madueme points to various figures throughout Christian history who have devoted their lives to scientific investigation for the glory of God. These include intellectual giants such as:

• Johannes Keppler (1571-1630)
• Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
• Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
• Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
• Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
• Michael Faraday (1791-1867
• James Clark Maxwell (1831-1879)

Christianity does not repel scientific inquiry — it fuels it. Madueme argues that our knowledge of God as revealed in Scripture leads us to investigate the world that He has made for the purpose of glorifying Him. Furthermore, because we all — including non-believing scientists — live in God’s universe, even scientists are subjected to divine laws that God has set in place. These govern and direct our understanding of the natural world.

Given that science is the study of the observable, repeatable, and testable, we must undergo any investigation with certain presuppositions. Namely, the universe is a rational and predictable environment, and that truth is knowable because our minds are not completely random. Only these theological presuppositions enable us to study the world in any organised and consistent fashion. This alone reveals that there is no conflict between science and the Biblical faith. Rather, biblical faith enables and ignites the pursuit of knowledge through the sciences.

What Madueme pinpoints is the conflict between a pseudo-religious worldview called ‘scientism’ and biblical Christianity. Madueme writes:

“[Scientism] is the view that only the hard sciences have access to true reality, that disciplines like physics, chemistry, and biology give us the only reliable knowledge of ourselves and the world.” (pp. 27-28)

In other words, those who advance scientism deny any reality outside the material world, including God. To arrive at this conclusion, proponents of scientism must embrace non-scientific presuppositions, such as the belief that there is no God, no reality outside the material world, and that science can reveal all truth to us. These ideas cannot be tested, observed, or repeated by science. They are presuppositions undergirding the worldview of scientism (also commonly known as naturalism). In this sense, scientism has more in common with religious dogmatism than it admits.

Another helpful insight is Madueme’s reminder that many scientific theories are not fixed, but rather evolve with time. At the heart, this is because humans are not omniscient. Therefore, we are constantly uncovering new data, and interpreting old data in different ways. He makes reference to Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which makes this very point. By implication, Christians should be cautious of certain scientific theories that are presented dogmatically as indisputable.

One area Madueme’s booklet is lacking is his engagement with the subject of evolution (specifically, macroevolution). While he admits that it is beyond the scope of the book, I could not help wondering whether naturalistic evolution is the core disagreement between unbelieving science and Christian theism. After all, I have never encountered an unbeliever argue that it is impossible for a Christian to be a chemist or a physicist. When a non-believer posits that there is a conflict between science and faith, what they are really saying is that there is a conflict between evolution and the opening chapters of the Bible.

If unbelieving man does not want to give glory and thanks to God for His creation (cf. Romans 1:21), his natural disposition is to find alternate explanations for how the universe and living creatures came about. This includes unbelieving scientists, whose hearts have not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Rejecting Christ not only affects our relationships with God and others, but also the way we conduct our work. In the scientific world, this rejection of God is most salient in the insistence of macroevolution. 

Macroevolution robs God of His glory by supposing that we are not intricately designed, but rather the product of natural selection. By comparison, rather than giving glory to the Divine Artist, we try to explain his exquisite landscape painting as the consequence of an explosion in a paint factory. It is unsurprising that those outside of Christ have always sought after ways to explain the glory and beauty of creation apart from the God’s creative work revealed in Genesis 1-2. There is no sense in which macroevolution is compatible with God’s revealed Word.

Another issue concerns Madueme’s treatment of the false dichotomy of realism versus anti-realism in the scientific domain. He writes:

“Christians who feel threatened by evolution, or some other scientific claim, will sometimes take an anti-realist view of the offending theory: “The earth isn’t old. It only looks old.” In this way, the data no longer threatens faith; crisis averted. But most scientists are not anti-realists about their work. Most scientists are realists. They see the aim of science as discovering the truth about the world.” (p. 29)

An alternative position would be to interpret scientific data through the lens of theological presuppositions. If one of these presuppositions is that Adam was the first human God created on the sixth day of creation, whose genealogy we have, and from whom Jesus Christ was descended, then it follows that it is not possible that the world could be 4.8 billion years old. Even if one argues that the genealogies we are provided in Matthew and Luke skip over certain figures, it is an unreasonable stretch to extend the timeline beyond 10,000 years.

As various creation ministries have highlighted, uniformitarian presuppositions regarding will inevitably lead one to certain conclusions regarding the dating of the earth. This is not to say that data should be disregarded, but rather that it should be interpreted through a biblical framework. Most aspects of evolutionary biology and ‘millions of years’ cosmology simply does not fit within a biblical framework.

Another theological presupposition Christians must have when undertaking science concerns the origin of death. If death was brought into the world through Adam’s sin, then macroevolution is inevitably excluded as a possible mechanism for the creation of man because it involves death. This is just one of many theological incompatibilities with macroevolution.

Given that God’s Word is the foundation of all truth — including scientific truth — the most realist position to take is to see His Word as the framework through which to undertake scientific investigation. Of course, some scientific issues have no theological bearing whatsoever. However, there are other doctrines which serve as pillars in the ground, around which scientific investigation must be undertaken. To take it one step further, science would not exist without the God of the Bible, as Madueme himself demonstrates.

The Bottom Line

While the booklet is wanting in certain areas, Does Science Make God Irrelevant?is a helpful addition to the TGC Hard Questions series. It is well worth reading for any Christian who is struggling to understand the interplay between scientific investigation and biblical authority.

Madueme shows that the war is not between faith and reason, but between naturalistic atheism (scientism) and Christianity. Scientism stifles science, whereas Christian theism promotes it. This ought to bolster every believer’s faith that we have a rational God who created a rational world capable of investigation and study for the sake of His glory.

High school and university students would particularly benefit from Madueme’s primer given its simplicity, affordability, and accessibility. Though it has no chapters, I can see this book being beneficial for small groups who have a particular interest in science and faith in Christ.