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August 23, 2005
Mixing God & Science
A very good NY Times article on how scientists can and do deal with a belief in God. A greate quote:
One panelist, Dr. Noah Efron of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, said scientists, like other people, were guided by their own human purposes, meaning and values. The idea that fact can be separated from values and meaning "jibes poorly with what we know of the history of science," Dr. Efron said.Dr. Collins, who is working on a book about his religious faith, also believes that people should not have to keep religious beliefs and scientific theories strictly separate. "I don't find it very satisfactory and I don't find it very necessary," he said in an interview. He noted that until relatively recently, most scientists were believers. "Isaac Newton wrote a lot more about the Bible than the laws of nature," he said.
But he acknowledged that as head of the American government's efforts to decipher the human genetic code, he had a leading role in work that many say definitively demonstrates the strength of evolutionary theory to explain the complexity and abundance of life.
As scientists compare human genes with those of other mammals, tiny worms, even bacteria, the similarities "are absolutely compelling," Dr. Collins said. "If Darwin had tried to imagine a way to prove his theory, he could not have come up with something better, except maybe a time machine. Asking somebody to reject all of that in order to prove that they really do love God - what a horrible choice."
Posted by Doug at August 23, 2005 01:55 PM
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If one believes truly that God created the Heavens and the Earth--and I understand that to be the entire Universe with all of the physical laws governing it--science can do nothing but point ultimately to the hand of the Creator.
A fine essay on this topic can be found here: http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/2005/08/god-and-creation.html
Posted by: eLarson at August 25, 2005 11:34 AM
Hey, I'm a Christian, and I'm a Scientist. I've never had an issue with conflicting interests. Any good scientist (as with any good journalist, or any other analyst) will recognize, admit, and where appropriate, account for his assumptions and biases.
Ironically, it is usually the Christian Scientist who best meets this standard. Not many athiests, Darwinists, etc. even recognize their assumptions and biases, much less admit or account for them.
Posted by: cb at August 27, 2005 03:53 PM