The Specifics are Persuasive

In science, it is well-articulated proposals that lead ultimately to conviction.

What is true about scientific understanding of the physical and biological world is also true of theology's quest for an understanding of God. Broad general ideas are attractive (a divine Mind behind the order of the universe), but I believe theism only becomes truly persuasive when it is elaborated in greater detail and when it is anchored in the experience and interpretation that are preserved and propagated within a religious tradition. That is why there are very many members of faith communities, but very few free-standing philosophical theists.

Core theological activity, like core scientific activity, has to make the intellectual effort to work out its understanding in terms as complete and as detailed as are possible for it to achieve. The interpretive task is obviously much more difficult when its subject is the God who transcends humanity, rather than the physical world that we transcend. Yet, when it comes to the dialogue between science and religion, the discussion has frequently been conducted in rather general terms. One result of this has been that the agenda has often been set from the science side. Topics such as the discoveries of modern astronomy, quantum theory, evolutionary biology, genetics and neuroscience have regularly provided the heads of discussion. Of course there is value and validity in this approach, but it by no means represents the only way in which the issues can be considered.

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From John Polkinghorne, Science and the Trinity: The Christian Encounter with Reality (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), xii.