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Commentary: The faith-science collision on campus

Sept. 28, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{436}

NOTE:  A head-and-shoulders photograph is available.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Kenneth H. Carter Jr.*

It happens every fall. A young woman goes off to college. Call her Susan.
Susan can be characterized in at least two ways: she is bright, intelligent
and motivated to learn; and she is spiritual, religiously active and devoted
to God. As classes begin on campus these two important dimensions of Susan's
life come into conflict. 

The conflict is most unavoidable as Susan wades into the sciences: biology,
physics, earth sciences, astronomy, chemistry. The intellectual exercise is
stimulating, but Susan is encountering a worldview that is at odds with her
faith. In its extreme form, the scientific worldview is reductionistic,
mechanistic and atomistic. In other words, there is no reality apart from
the material, the measurable, the empirical. We are not spiritual beings,
she is taught, but collections of molecules.

This can be quite traumatic for Susan, for it calls into question all of her
faith experience to this point, which may have been no deeper than that of
an older elementary level. The foundations upon which she is constructing a
life can begin to crumble. Susan begins to question everything that she has
been taught to this point in her journey. The collision can be seen in
competing claims:

·	We are created in the image of God (Genesis 1. 26). 
·	We share 98% of our DNA with the chimpanzee. 
·	In six days God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 2.1). 
·	There is granite on the floor of the Grand Canyon that is two
billion years old, limestone that is 500 million years old, and sandstone
that is 300 million years old. 
·	We believe in God, maker of all that is, seen and unseen (Nicene
Creed). 
·	The creation of life, as seen in the recent discussions of stem cell
research, is happening across the world in academic, corporate and hospital
settings.

Susan may seek resolution of this conflict, through a campus religious group
that has walked with students like her year after year. Some of these campus
groups are deeply suspicious of the sciences, of the worldviews of
scientists who are agnostics and atheists, and so their response is also
firm and steadfast. While well-intentioned, this can begin to set up a
division in Susan's mind between the spiritual life and the intellectual
life, between her identity as a Christian and her vocational life. 

The Christian faith has a stake in the dialogue, experienced internally by
Susan and being carried out externally in all sorts of places. Christians
are interested in discovering the truth, as are scientists. Christians also
believe that Jesus is the incarnation (word made flesh, John 1) of God, and
so we value the material world as do our scientist friends. 

Two simple concepts can help someone like Susan in the collision between the
teachings of both faith and science. One is mystery. Both Christians and
scientists confess that there is much that we do not know about this world.
By faith we believe that God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis
1-2), but anyone who has peered into the Grand Canyon must admit that the
creation is something of a mystery. And of course, mystery can lead us to
awe, wonder and praise, in the presence of God who gives and sustains life.

A second concept is humility. Christians can be more honest about how little
we know about the sciences. And scientists can admit that their critique of
faith is often based on a stereotype that would not be credible to any
thinking person. Both Christians and scientists can be less judgmental and
more humble before the truth that we seek, even if in different ways.

Our churches and campus ministries can help Susan to make her way through
the issues that arise when faith and science collide. We can help her remain
grounded in the Scriptures, which speak of a God who creates and yet whose
creation will always be beyond our comprehension (Job 38-39). The Scriptures
can help her avoid the pain and confusion that occurs when faith is
destroyed, when intellectual arrogance dismisses God, and when there is no
openness to discovery of the truth. 

A larger place for mystery and humility can help college students wrestle
with these matters as they enter into adulthood as faithful Christians.

# # #

*Carter is senior pastor of Mount Tabor United Methodist Church in
Winston-Salem, N.C.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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