It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it

"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is 'mere.' I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination - stuck on this carousel, my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light... Or see them [the stars] with the greater eye of Palomar, rushing all apart from some common starting point when they were perhaps all together. What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvellous [sic] is the truth than any artists of the past imagined! Why do the poets of the present not speak of it?" ~ Richard Feynman

I agree with the eminent Dr. Feynman that science does not detract from the beauty of nature. But I would add that knowing Who created it doesn't diminish the wonder of science. As David wrote in Psalm 19, "The heavens declare the glory of God," but so does the periodic table and the structure of the atom.

I've been listening to The Disappearing Spoon, a fascinating history of love, loss and the periodic table,  and physics lectures for Muggles non-scientists. I've been trying to bone up on my physics so my eyes won't glaze over when my daughter explains what she is learning in class. The other reason is I haven't outgrown my inner nerd even though my chemistry classes are decades behind me. But my appreciation for science has changed, and it's primarily due to the doctrine of God.

Perhaps this is why I have a hard time understanding why some Christians can be afraid of science. Not afraid because of the difficulty of the subject but afraid of what science might reveal. But every discovery is God providentially pulling back the veil to give us a glimpse of what He has made. It should be no surprise that the universe is so vast and complex given that an atemporal and simple God has expressed Himself in space-time by creating finite things. But these findings also reveal the kindness of God as application leads to ways that help humanity such as the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that would have been fatal even 100 years ago. And any good scientist will admit that for every new revelation, even more questions are raised. So rather than assuming mastery over creation, science can be humbling because there is still so much to learn.

So I don't see a conflict between faith and science. Rather I think the former can only enrich the latter when you know Who's behind it all. For that reason, I envy (in a good way) my daughter who will embark, Lord willing, on a lifetime of trying to understand how Christ upholds all things by the word of His power at the subatomic level. Given that God is infinite, I don't think she will run out of things to discover.

Richard Feynman's quote is from the prologue in The New Quantum Universe, Tony Hey and Patrick Walters, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pg. xiii.