God and Nature Fall 2021
No one told me: Thoughts on the relationship of science and faith |
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By Tony Mitchell
No one told me in 1965, when I chose to walk with Jesus Christ as my Savior, that I could not study mathematics and science.
No one told me a year later, when I declared chemistry as my major area of study, that I would have to give up my faith.
Over the years, as I grew in my understanding of my faith and my vocation, no one told me that they were mutually exclusive.
I do remember someone telling me that the earth was only 6000 years old because of the work Bishop Ussher had done in 1650 to pinpoint the beginning of creation at nightfall on 23 October 4004 BC. But I remember that Jesus told the people to look around to see if he was the Messiah, so when I looked at the evidence for the beginning of Creation, I knew there was something wrong with that date (among other things, it is far too precise for the data available). And all I could think was that God would not lie about the evidence before us, and I should not accept false evidence as a matter of faith.
No one told me in 1965, when I chose to walk with Jesus Christ as my Savior, that I could not study mathematics and science.
No one told me a year later, when I declared chemistry as my major area of study, that I would have to give up my faith.
Over the years, as I grew in my understanding of my faith and my vocation, no one told me that they were mutually exclusive.
I do remember someone telling me that the earth was only 6000 years old because of the work Bishop Ussher had done in 1650 to pinpoint the beginning of creation at nightfall on 23 October 4004 BC. But I remember that Jesus told the people to look around to see if he was the Messiah, so when I looked at the evidence for the beginning of Creation, I knew there was something wrong with that date (among other things, it is far too precise for the data available). And all I could think was that God would not lie about the evidence before us, and I should not accept false evidence as a matter of faith.
In 1980, the Missouri state legislature was preparing to pass a bill that would have told biology teachers how to teach biology by mandating that creationism must be included in the discussion of evolution. I suppose I could have ignored this because I only taught chemistry, but one must be careful when individuals who do not have any knowledge of the processes of science ("The Processes of Science") try to tell science teachers what to teach and how to teach it. I was prepared to resign if the law passed and was surprised to find that my department chairman, a devout Southern Baptist layman and biologist, was also going to resign.
Galileo was tried and convicted by the Catholic church for refusing to accept that the earth was the center of the universe, which was the prevailing idea of the time and the teaching of the church. He was told not to push the issue, but he did, and the church, with the support of the academic establishment whose reputation was based on the geocentric universe, took their revenge.
I was not told, in part because it was not part of the curriculum, that Newton was an alchemist and that, had people known some of what he wrote, he would have been called a heretic. Newton, along with Robert Boyle (considered the father of modern chemistry), wrote extensively on the topic of religion. Newton went so far as to predict the end of times to begin in 2060.
I was not told that Joseph Priestley, one of the discoverers of oxygen, was a founder of Unitarianism and that he fled England for America after rioters egged on by members of the Anglican establishment burned down his home and church.
And yet their work in science was directed towards better understanding God.
There are others who have shared a life of faith and science. John Polkinghorne, a noted nuclear physicist, became a minister in the Church of England in 1982. Georges Lemaître, a Roman Catholic priest and mathematician, looked at the theory of relativity equations prepared by Albert Einstein and developed the mathematical idea for the Big Bang. I knew of the Big Bang but only recently discovered that a noted theoretical physicist and an atheist, Fred Hoyle, coined the term to mock the theory because he feared the discovery would support the idea of creation expressed in Genesis 1.
We are told that there is a conflict between science and faith, but those who suggest this either do not understand at least one of the two, or their power lies in telling others what to do.
We are reminded that Adam was tasked with the care of the Garden of Eden and, as his descendants, we are tasked with caring for this world. And yet there are those, especially secular and sectarian fundamentalists, who say that climate change is false.
Faith and science both share the same characteristics—we see things and ask why; we ask why and seek answers.
Despite the claims of some, science cannot answer all the questions we might have about this world. Science has no way to answer questions on the matter of good and evil or why we are here. In an ultimate sense, science cannot tell us why, only how. The Bible does tell us why and who we are, but it cannot be a science textbook, nor should it ever be taken as one.
Over the years, there have been many who have tried to tell me how to believe and what to believe, but the ones who speak the truth are those who do not tell you what to believe but show you the path so you can find answers to the questions that vex and bewilder you.
I think about Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. Raised as a non-believer, he was faced with a series of questions about faith. It was a United Methodist minister who offered the guidance that allowed Dr. Collins to come to Christ.
I will never, I hope, tell you what to believe or say that your belief system does not work. I am still learning about my faith, so I am not able to tell you how to find yours. But I will help you find the way to the answers.
Dr. Tony Mitchell earned a doctorate in Science Education with an emphasis on chemical education from the University of Iowa in 1990. He also earned a B. S. in chemistry from Truman State University (1971) and a M. Ed. from the University of Missouri – Columbia (1975). He served as a lay speaker and lay minister in the United Methodist Church for some twenty years. He continues to look at the how science and faith intersect and interact. His thoughts on both areas can be found on his blog, “Thoughts from The Heart On The Left.”
Galileo was tried and convicted by the Catholic church for refusing to accept that the earth was the center of the universe, which was the prevailing idea of the time and the teaching of the church. He was told not to push the issue, but he did, and the church, with the support of the academic establishment whose reputation was based on the geocentric universe, took their revenge.
I was not told, in part because it was not part of the curriculum, that Newton was an alchemist and that, had people known some of what he wrote, he would have been called a heretic. Newton, along with Robert Boyle (considered the father of modern chemistry), wrote extensively on the topic of religion. Newton went so far as to predict the end of times to begin in 2060.
I was not told that Joseph Priestley, one of the discoverers of oxygen, was a founder of Unitarianism and that he fled England for America after rioters egged on by members of the Anglican establishment burned down his home and church.
And yet their work in science was directed towards better understanding God.
There are others who have shared a life of faith and science. John Polkinghorne, a noted nuclear physicist, became a minister in the Church of England in 1982. Georges Lemaître, a Roman Catholic priest and mathematician, looked at the theory of relativity equations prepared by Albert Einstein and developed the mathematical idea for the Big Bang. I knew of the Big Bang but only recently discovered that a noted theoretical physicist and an atheist, Fred Hoyle, coined the term to mock the theory because he feared the discovery would support the idea of creation expressed in Genesis 1.
We are told that there is a conflict between science and faith, but those who suggest this either do not understand at least one of the two, or their power lies in telling others what to do.
We are reminded that Adam was tasked with the care of the Garden of Eden and, as his descendants, we are tasked with caring for this world. And yet there are those, especially secular and sectarian fundamentalists, who say that climate change is false.
Faith and science both share the same characteristics—we see things and ask why; we ask why and seek answers.
Despite the claims of some, science cannot answer all the questions we might have about this world. Science has no way to answer questions on the matter of good and evil or why we are here. In an ultimate sense, science cannot tell us why, only how. The Bible does tell us why and who we are, but it cannot be a science textbook, nor should it ever be taken as one.
Over the years, there have been many who have tried to tell me how to believe and what to believe, but the ones who speak the truth are those who do not tell you what to believe but show you the path so you can find answers to the questions that vex and bewilder you.
I think about Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. Raised as a non-believer, he was faced with a series of questions about faith. It was a United Methodist minister who offered the guidance that allowed Dr. Collins to come to Christ.
I will never, I hope, tell you what to believe or say that your belief system does not work. I am still learning about my faith, so I am not able to tell you how to find yours. But I will help you find the way to the answers.
Dr. Tony Mitchell earned a doctorate in Science Education with an emphasis on chemical education from the University of Iowa in 1990. He also earned a B. S. in chemistry from Truman State University (1971) and a M. Ed. from the University of Missouri – Columbia (1975). He served as a lay speaker and lay minister in the United Methodist Church for some twenty years. He continues to look at the how science and faith intersect and interact. His thoughts on both areas can be found on his blog, “Thoughts from The Heart On The Left.”