How Biology Declares the Glory of God

Being asked to write an article on how biology declares the glory of God, is for me, a slow pitch up the middle. This is what I do for a living, so the only challenge is to not write too much. When people (Christian or not) talk about biology, our minds automatically gravitate toward the practical – biomedical, nutritional, agricultural. Consciously or subconsciously, we ask, “What is it good for?” If it has some utility, we give it our interest. If we don’t, we often discard it as useless information. Even when we Christians seek the kinds of biology that could glorify God, we pursue real needs, even if it’s not health or farm related. For example, Christians often use biology as an apologetics tool. When we learn about and describe the immense complexity of life (such as the bacterial flagellum), it clearly shows intelligent design and defies Darwinism. So, when biology enhances biomedical, physical therapy, biohacking, agricultural, and veterinary techniques that may help alleviate suffering or enhance health in humans or animals, or even when it enhances our apologetic efforts in evangelism, we are all about it. 

Of course, all the above subdisciplines of biology can be used to declare the glory of God, but God’s glory isn’t the chief end of secularists, and often it takes a backseat among Christians (if mentioned at all). Why? It is often eclipsed by the goal of that discipline – be it your gut biome, your dog’s fleas, or your garden’s plague of slugs, etc. Practical biology is great, but it shouldn’t get in the way of declaring the “glory of God” present in fallen creatures. The wonderful thing about studying non-utilitarian plants and animals is that their telos or goal is the glory of God. Unfortunately, because most plants and animals don’t seem to have any practical application in any category mentioned above, they are often pigeon-holed as useless information, and that’s the end of it. Bad or good health and bad or good creatures grab our attention because of how they impinge upon us for good or evil. When we focus our attention on their biology, it is generally not to glorify God. Rather, it is to either enhance their good or mitigate their evil. 

In the rest of this article, I will briefly argue that studying life, without any reference to its utility, declares the glory of God just as much (if not more) as the “useful” biology. We too often think that if we can use our knowledge in some way, it is worth studying and will glorify God more. But in practice, it often glorifies God less, because we are too focused on the goal at hand – our health, our animals, our garden, etc.

What does the Bible say? In Genesis 1:31, it says, “God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good.” Note that it is a universal statement, “all that he had made”. In I Kings 4:33-34, the context of the passage is Solomon’s wisdom. Included in this survey of wisdom, it says, “Also [Solomon] spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.”  From this passage, we find that Solomon studied plants, animals, birds, creeping things, and fish, regardless of their utility. Because his nature observations and lessons are included in his wisdom, we can safely assume that to study it is to study the wisdom of God. Also, in Psalm 104:24, the psalmist, after describing God’s provision of water, food, and habitat for man and beast, proclaims, 

“O Lord, how manifold are your works!
    In wisdom have you made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.”

There you have it, “in wisdom you have made them all”. If God made them in wisdom, then to study it and teach it is to declare God’s wisdom. And in so doing, we declare His glory.

To study and teach Biology without the telos of glorifying God is pointless and wrongheaded. We need to eliminate the practice of learning and teaching biology as some crusty curriculum with no thought of God’s glory.

This is one of the main reasons we produced “The Riot and the Dance” nature documentaries. It was simply to declare the glory of God. To give Him all the glory for his wonderful creation. Almost all the wildlife we filmed has little to no utilitarian value. Most Christians filming nature use it as an apologetic tool. Our target audience was mostly believers, who do not need convincing “that the hand of the Lord hath done this”. They already know that! We are simply declaring the glory of God manifested in his handiwork. We are celebrating the power and wisdom of God through what his hands have wrought. In the same way that studying and teaching about a great work of art glorifies the artist, or studying and teaching about a great machine glorifies the engineer, so also studying and teaching about God’s living creation glorifies God in a very powerful way. In fact, God himself presents his own theodicy in the last few chapters of Job. He describes poetically several of his beasts, the independence of the wild donkey, the untamable unicorn, the speed of the ostrich, the strength and courage of the warhorse, the vision of the hawk, the power and size of Behemoth, and lastly, the ferocity of Leviathan. Why? To overwhelm Job of his power, wisdom, and might. God shows Job that he is Almighty God, Creator, Controller, and Sustainer of all living things, and that is why he can allow bad things to happen to good people. 

Although the descriptions in Job aren’t biology in our modern sense of the term, in our detailed scientific observations and descriptions of living creatures, there should never be a disconnect from the glory of God. To study and teach Biology without the telos of glorifying God is pointless and wrongheaded. We need to eliminate the practice of learning and teaching biology as some crusty curriculum with no thought of God’s glory. God shouldn’t be a perfunctory afterthought or add-on either. Giving God glory should be so naturally embedded and intertwined with the descriptions of the exquisite biological engineering that you could not imagine it otherwise. To study and teach biology without any thought of God’s glory is like being a museum guide at the Louvre who doesn’t even think about or mention the greatness of the masters. 

And even when we find ourselves by necessity, smack in the middle practical biology due to an injury or indigestion or a garden plague and we encounter the glorious engineering of God (in our body or the insects devouring our garden) we often are so consumed with fixing the problem at hand – our joint pain, our gut biome, our pest problem, etc. we are often blind to the immense glory of God staring us right in the face. Be still and know that He is God...even in a fallen world. 

I will conclude by saying practical biology is wonderful. If practical biology helps you enhance the good or fight the bad in your health, animal care, or gardening skills, knock yourself out.  But don’t obsess or allow your pursuit of these things to blind you to the glory of God so evident in you and the life you’re seeking to care for. Lastly, don’t forget the biology of “useless” plants and animals. They proclaim the glory of God without all those practical distractions.

_{1 theological and philosophical attempt to justify a loving, all-powerful God in the face of widespread evil and suffering}