BEING
A CHRISTIAN IN SCIENCE. By Walter R. Hearn. Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity
Press, 1997, 178 pp., Paper. Revised version taken from
the Ashland Theological Journal 34
(2002), pp. 177-80.
We live now in what might be
called the ‘Era of the Glimpse of God,’ in a new epoch ushered in by the
serendipitous discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation in July,
1963, for which the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded in 1978 (on the discovery,
cf. Hugh Ross, The Creator and the
Cosmos: How the Greatest Discoveries of the Century Reveal God [2nd
ed.; Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1995], passim).
Since at least 1965 it has been reasonably understood that this
discovery signaled humankind’s first glimpse at the beginning of the cosmos,
implying even to many agnostics that if the universe
began, the existence of a Beginner was more than just an attractive
speculation. When in 1992 the “greatest
discovery in the history of mankind” was achieved (so Stephen Hawking)
clarifying details of this radiation, a discovery which one physicist described
as “looking at the face of God” (so George Smoot), the personal concepts
implicit in the new era became even more understandable throughout the world.
It
is in this light then that the helpful thoughts of Hearn’s book should be
examined. Its goal is to assure a young
person who may consider a career in science, or a theological student who might
like to understand better how modern science works, that positive contributions
can be made to both the Christian and the scientific communities and that this
can be done with joy (21). Hearn also
writes in the light (or darkness) of another background. Hearn is well aware of the tragic assault
against science in the public arena mounted by the dangerous pseudoscience
peddled by Christian sectarians of the “Young Earthism”
movement which dogmatically touts a 4000 year old cosmos, the unobserved
short-term macroevolution of species following a worldwide flood, and humankind
walking with dinosaurs, along with the total rejection of modern science that
such claims entail. As John Polkinghorne, Belief
in God in an Age of Science (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 88,
aptly observes, “The ghost of Archbishop Ussher has
not been wholly exorcised from theology.”
Hearn alludes to the vocal devotees of this ghost on at least three
occasions (16, 22, and 97). Deeply
unbiblical in some of its tenets, especially in its insertion of the death of
plants and animals into Romans 5:12, this embarrassing anti-scientific sect
poses a tremendous national threat (so Langdon Gilkey)
to the budding interest in science and technology among our nation’s youth,
both outside and inside of formal Christian education. The political tactic employed by “Young Earthism” is deliberately divisive, pillorying the entirely
appropriate naturalistic methods of experimental science as atheistic,
disingenuously failing to distinguish in methodology between theory and fact,
surreptitiously taking scientists’ comments out of context to exaggerate, while
at the same time bombastically claiming the imprimatur of “True Science and
Education” for its devotional pamphleteering!
All of this regrettably forces sincere Christian young people to choose
between ungodly science and an “inerrant Bible.” The discouragement and distortions Christian
young people face due to this sectarian influence in many churches and in the
thinking public at large (where, alarmingly, this pseudoscientifically
based movement is often associated with the intellectual worth of Christianity
itself), when considering a career in science or when reflecting upon the
connection between their faith and science, need to be met by books like
Hearn’s Being a Christian, as well as by objective critiques of
the sect and its philosophical underpinnings (as in, for example, Ronald
Numbers, The Creationists: The Evolution
of Scientific Creationism [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992];
Robert Pennock, Tower
of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationism [Cambridge:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1999], passim; Steven Weinberg, Facing
Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries [Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 2001], passim); and, from a
liberal theological perspective, Langdon Gilkey, Blue Twilight: Nature, Creationism, and
American Religion [Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001]).
Hearn
is under no illusion about the fact that he is on the battlefield for the
Christian mind and is concerned that its potential influence for much good in
the scientific and technological world should not be lost to coming
generations. He wants to explain the
methods of science, that they are restricted to physical cause and effect (17,
38), and that in deciding if science is the right career path you should keep
in mind that “Christian behavior is rooted in biblical precepts and in loyalty
to Jesus Christ” (40). If a young person
feels called into a career in science (or, I might add, wants to investigate its
experimental results), Hearn offers assurance: “If scientific work is your calling as a Christian, you will be welcomed into a
wonderful family” (57). Hearn advocates
looking to God in the face of temporal pessimism, letting the optimism
generated from eternity help you serve here and now in the way you are
called.
The
opportunity to be a witness within the scientific community is greater in the
new era than ever before and Hearn is right both to detect and to encourage
this. As an example, he cites the work
of professed agnostic astronomer Robert Jastrow,
formerly director of NASA, whose book,
God and the Astronomers, is so widely read.
Like many scientists, Jastrow rejects
Einstein’s impersonal God of rational order but is not sure on how to
proceed. Hearn argues that Jastrow needs prayer, not condemnation (well aware that
many famous scientists have unjustly been personally attacked by “Young Earthism” sectarians) for holding naturalistic
presuppositions, “Who knows, perhaps in Robert Jastrow
the Son of God will live – before the sun dies” (97). If I may, I would like to insert a personal
testimony. I was once present in a
conversation with Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman at the University
of California at Irvine,
where Feynman had just delivered a memorial lecture. A physics colleague of mine there cordially
presented Feynman with a genuine Christian witness. Feynman demurred, saying that he could detect
nothing about the universe to suggest the existence of God. However, I suspected then that Feynman was
confused about how some Christians could be intellectually credible and seek to
reject modern scientific methods, replacing them with fantastic philosophical
speculation. A stumbling block had been
placed in his way about what Christianity was and he never recovered from
it. Feynman died shortly
thereafter. Now, in the new era, the
opportunity to be a Christian witness in the scientific community is very much
enhanced and ever increasing because the entire climate of skepticism is being
influenced in a positive way by new experimental discoveries. If Christian young people respond to God’s
calling to enter science, in careers like astronomy, biochemistry, geology,
paleontology, paleobiology (where the theory of the
macroevolution of hominids to modern man is recently challenged/contradicted by
experimental findings of DNA evidence successfully extracted from a Neanderthal
fossil), and physics, for example, they will have the opportunity to make new
discoveries that affect humankind for the better and have the further satisfaction
of being a respectable Christian witness used of God.
While
the concept of spiritual life is foreign to science itself because it deals
with only measurable physical properties, the Christian in science can develop
spiritual life via fellowship with the Holy Spirit and through learning
Scripture. A Christian in science will
not be in an isolated position. There
are good journals, like Science &
Christian Belief, to help, as well as a number of theology and science
groups (107-110, 126, and 137). Hearn
includes a little exhortation on “The Bible and Science” that is timely
(117-19). Hearn further urges that a
Christian’s life in science can be one of adventure and fulfillment; he gives
his own convincing testimony to that effect.
Hearn
cites a few examples of Christians in science (and theology) who extend their
witness to the general public, like astronomer/pastor Hugh Ross, whose “writing
and speaking have helped to demonstrate to conservative Christians that big
bang cosmology and an ancient earth are compatible with a faithful reading of
the Bible” (137), and like Robert C. Newman, whose “Progressive Creationism” in
J. P. Moreland and John Mark Reynolds (eds.), Three Views on Creation and Evolution [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999]), 105-33, is worthy of perusal, as are
responses to it by Walter L. Bradley (134-36)
and Vern S. Poythress (148-52) in Three Views.
Hearn
offers a useful set of notes to each chapter and a good working list of
references, which also might have included Nathan Aviezer,
In the Beginning: Biblical Creation and
Science (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV, 1990) and, with apologies for mentioning my own
work, “Biblical Creation and Science: A Review Article,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39/2 (1996), 289-91,
now substantially advanced by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross, Origins
of Life (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1004).
I
highly commend Being a Christian in
Science to theological students who may wish to explore the methodology of
the physical (natural) sciences. There
is no need for Christians to fear the experimental findings of modern science;
rather there is an emerging realization of harmony with a literary
interpretation of the Bible. There is a
need, however, for all Christian students to understand what science is and what
it is not. Hearn is helpful here as is
John Rennie, “Fifteen Answers to Creationist
Nonsense,” Scientific American 287/1
(2002), 78-85 (81, 84), who fairly observes, from the physical cause and effect
perspective of
science alone, that “The origin of life remains a mystery” and that “A critical
tenet of modern science is methodological naturalism – it seeks to explain the
universe purely in terms of observed or testable natural mechanisms.” Being a Christian in science, if you become a
cell biologist or a paleobiologist, for example, does
not mean that you have to agree with the arguments of a John Rennie, but you might want to present other plausible
interpretations of the available evidence.
Being a scientist or desiring to understand the experimental findings of
modern science from a sound theological perspective will not conflict with
Christian convictions and biblical faith.
In fact there are influential venues in the new era for Christians in
science to honestly and professionally present cogent arguments based on
experimental findings and scientific methods (not on religious speculation as a
replacement for the very successful scientific methodology that underpins our
technology, our military, and our industrially based economy), arguments which
suggest an active role for the biblical God.
In doing this, Christians in science will keep in mind that such
potentially persuasive arguments will fall short of formal proof, given God’s
desire to remain invisible and to let His power and divinity be inferred by
those who will thoughtfully contemplate His creation (Romans 1:20).
Christians in
science today, like Hearn, are concerned for their Christian testimony and do
not want to be lumped together with sectarian activities which are widely
regarded as against the public trust, as recently illustrated by the Iowa
Academy of Science’s Position Statement on Pseudoscience for the public good:
“Pseudoscience is a catch-all term for any mistaken or unsupported beliefs that
are cloaked in the disguise of scientific credibility. Examples include assertions of ‘scientific
creationism,’ the control of actions at a distance through meditation, and the
belief in levitation, astrology, or UFO visitors.” Every young person contemplating whether God
would like him or her to study science and every theology student who would
like to better understand how all of those programs on television (like Paleoworld and the Discovery Channel) can fit productively
into practical ministry should take time to pray and study the Bible using
sound hermeneutical methods. Hearn’s
book will be a very welcome complement to such valuable and worthwhile
endeavors.
Paul
Elbert
Church
of God Theological Seminary
