God's Outrageous Universe
Faith and Science 
By faith we know that God created the Universe and all that is in it through Jesus Christ – “without him nothing was made that was made” (John 1)
By faith we know that God (of the Bible) is good, true and trustworthy and we are free to explore His creation
Science can neither confirm or deny the existence of God – But nature reveals the glory of God.
Science is a human invention that neither confirms or denies the existence of God - But 21st century science knowledge points to a Creator.
Foundations
Sombero Galaxy (28 million light years away): This image was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. In this image we see the dust on the outer part of the disk of stars and the glowing bulge above and below are stars as well.  Galaxies such as this one contain 100 billion stars or more. many with a super massive black hole in the center.  Light, both visible and infrared  provide the evidence for our knowledge of the heavens.  More on the Spitzer Space Telescope Site

The Biblical View of Faith
“God our Father has made all things depend on Faith so that whoever has faith will have everything and whoever does not have faith will have nothing” (p13, On Christian Liberty (The Freedom of a Christian), By Martin Luther, Translated by W.A. Lambert and Revised by Howard Grimm, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, Augsburg Fortress, 2003

Faith and the Holy Spirit
Now about spiritual gifts.  ….. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good, to one is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, ….. to another faith by that same Spirit…All these are the work of one and the same Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12: 1-12)  

Faith (believing and trusting) and righteousness before God
But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made know, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  (Romans 3: 21-31)

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from the first to the last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

Faith and Salvation
Jesus said to her (the women who touched the edge of his cloak), “Daughter, your faith has healed you, go in peace.” (Luke 8:48)  

For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it’s the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,  which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2: 8-10

Faith as Shield
Finally be strong in the Lord and his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so you can stand against the devils schemes.  ….. Take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (Ephesians 6: 10-18)

Faith as certainty of revealed knowledge of God 
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.  (Hebrews 11:1-3)

But the righteousness that is by faith says,….But what does it say? “The word in near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart”  that is the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:6-8)

The Nature of Science
“Science is an organized body of knowledge and a method of proceeding to an extension of this knowledge by hypothesis and experiment”  Glenn Seaborg (Discoverer of Plutonium and 9 other elements, Nobel Prize in Chemistry for modern version of the periodic table, statesman and advisor to 10 Presidents.) 

Science is the study of nature at all levels from the macroscopic to the microscopic.

Scientists observe and question cause and effect relationships, infer hypothetical explanations, make predictions and test these predictions.

The Scientific Method* is flexible, highly creative and built on three broad assumptions:
•Changes occur in observable patterns that can be  extended by logic to predict what will happen next.
•Anyone can observe something and apply logic.
•Scientific discoveries are replicable.

Scientific Theories:*  A culmination of facts, concepts and principles that have been thoroughly tested and found to be true and predictive in all cases without known exception.
•Must be logically consistent and lead to testable predictions about the natural world.
•Have strength based solely on the accuracy of their predictions
•Theories that have the least underlying assumptions are likely to be stronger.

*from: The Science Framework for California Public Schools; Chapter 2 the Nature of Science and Technology

Science seeks the truth in that it is a replicable body of knowledge not subject to cultural or national boundaries.

Fundamental of Science of the 20th and 21st Century:

All that exists in the universe had a beginning and the cause of the beginning is outside the scope of science investigation.

The Big Bang theory of the universe is confirmed by mutiple scientific lines of evidence and the age of the universe is know to be just under 14 billion years.

The universe was finely tunned for the existance of life to such a high degree that it appears to be outside the realm of chance.  The design hypothesis is an alternative.

The origin of life remains a fundamental mystery with no adequate naturalistic/ materialistic explanation.

The structure of DNA and proteins have an interdependancy in propagating life that put life's orgin outside the realm of chance   Howver the design hypothesis is still largely rejected by the mainstream science community

Light is a form of energy and is packaged in photons.  Light appears and both particles and waves.   There are 100,000,000 photons for every proton in the universe.

Matter and Energy are the same thing and transformations follow known rules

Space and Time are interchangeable and follows known rules

Matter and Energy come in discrete states (packets) and are governed by known rules

Mass/Energy are conserved and all changes in matter and energy tend toward greater chaos – a universal experience of humankind

Complex systems change according to a small set of relatively simple rules.  What happens in all changes and over time is the most probable thing to happen and the number of ways can be counted.

Complexity can be understood by breaking systems into component parts and the behavior of  systems are driven by a few fundamental forces

Energy transfer, transformation and storage are essential for understanding complex systems.

Genetic variations and natural selection enable life systems to evolve in response to many environmental changes.

For every known particle there is an antiparticle – antimatter encountering matter annihilate giving only light and these interactions follow know rules.

Matter in the universe consists of 1 part visible matter, that takes the form of atoms and 5 parts "dark matter"  We don't know what dark matter is just that it is needed to explain the formation of stars and galaxies.
Caution for Science

Proverbs 3: 5-6  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. 
Caution for Faith

Attributed to Galileo quoting Augustine: "If anyone should set the authority of Holy Writ against clear and manifest reason, he who does this knows not what he has undertaken, for he opposes the truth - not the meaning of the Bible, which is beyond his comprehension, but rather his own interpretation, not what is in the Bible but what he has found in himself and imagines to be there."