From the faith perspective there are many differing views concerning the relation between faith and science. One end of the spectrum would say that only the Bible is to be used to determine what is true. The other end will accept what science calls truth without question, even if it contradicts what the Bible teaches. Most people fall somewhere along the continuum between the two extremes. Johnson opens his book with a statement that sums up the argument quite well: "Christians have taken different positions regarding the extent to which they should have anything to do with modern psychology, some embracing it wholeheartedly, others rejecting it just as vigorously, and many others falling somewhere in between" (Johnson, p. 9).
From a scientific point-of-view, many areas of psychology cannot be proven through scientific experimentation. However, it would be a mistake to conclude psychology is not scientific. But a closer look at science reveals that it is basically a combination of naturalism and materialism. These two ideas rely dogmatically in beliefs that cannot be proven. For example when psychology addresses emotion, morality, or the mind in general, naturalism might be assumed, but it cannot be proven. Similarly faith teaches in Psalm 139:19, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb" (NIV). So faith says there could be a natural cause implanted by a creator. Science has no creator, only random selection and mutation. The integrated faith basis for understanding how the mind works is central to what the Bible teaches and will help us within the world of psychology,
"these core realities and tenets of the faith not only inform psychology of its origins and goals, which observation and reflection on creation alone cannot grasp; they also shape the entire process, product, and person doing psychology (Johnson, p. 205).
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