wfn.org | Church ill-equipped on science issues, task force says

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April 6, 2004 News media contact: Linda Green 7 (615)742-5470 7 Nashville,
Tenn. 7 E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL{157}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photo of Dan Dick is available at
http://umns.umc.org.

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)-A task force exploring the relationship between
science and theology has discovered that a majority of United Methodist
congregations are ill-equipped to form theological perspectives on the
matter.

More than 125 people with expertise in that area contributed ideas and
provided input for the report coming to the April 27-May 7 legislative
meeting of the United Methodist General Conference.

In its report, the nine-member task force, mandated by the 2000 General
Conference, examines how people of faith and a culture of scientific
exploration and advancement can co-exist in healthy and productive ways.

Church leaders were concerned "that science and religion are becoming
culturally estranged, and, in fact, are competing with each other," said the
Rev. Dan Dick, chairperson and primary researcher of the task force and a
staff member of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.   

"Science and theology are impacting our culture significantly," he said,
noting that the frontiers of genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics and
cloning raise new questions regarding the meaning of human life.   

According to Dick, the two primary issues for the task force were defining
the parameters for discourse on the relationship between science and theology
and integrating sound theological reasoning with the disciplines of good
scientific methods.

"The United Methodist Church has not done a good job of equipping people to
think theologically and to apply the best methods of critical thinking to
their faith," he said. Because truth and opinion are often confused, he
added, dialogue with members of the scientific community is "extremely"
difficult.

The difficulty stems from the position of belief in a creator God. "The major
dispute from this base is whether science is a gift from God or is a human
construct allowing us to 'play God,'" Dick explained.

The opinion formed by the task force is that humans reflect the image of God,
he said, and that it is not imperative to arrive at a single belief about
whether God initiated all things and then stepped back to allow natural laws
to drive creation or whether God is continuously interacting with the natural
order as it exists today.

"At this point in our human development, neither science nor theology offers
much to prove or disapprove God," he added.

United Methodists must develop a theological sophistication about science if
their mission to the world is to be effective, according to the task force
report. The church has the responsibility to think theologically and
ethically about the implications of cloning, genetic engineering, biological
weaponry, space exploration and the extension of human life. These issues
will impact pastoral care and counseling in the future as well as challenge
the realm of social justice.

"We can do almost anything conceivable, but does it mean we should?" Dick
asked.

In the report to General Conference, the task force findings include the
discovery that false barriers between science and theology are being erected.
Science and theology also are treated as abstract concepts instead of being
part of daily life.

During the past four years, Dick said he has been asked to state the official
position of the United Methodist Church on variety of scientific issues. 
Other than the Social Principles and related passages in the United Methodist
Book of Discipline, the denomination has no official position, "leaving the
people called Methodists to wrestle with monumental questions," he said.  

The task force is recommending that an appropriate body be formed or
appointed to create a theological statement for the denomination about the
relationship between science and theology.   

The task force also is sponsoring resolutions asking General Conference to
delegate responsibility to several churchwide agencies to create some
specific resources for congregations. "Our hope is that we might draw from
the best expertise within our denomination to assist churches in the
exploration of the relationship between science and theology," Dick said.

The entire report may be read online at www.gbod.org/legislation/s&t.doc.

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* Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer in Nashville, Tenn.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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