The Forum

I recently led a seminar on faith and science at a large Christian music festival (of all places) in rural Illinois. One pugilistic gentleman bulldogged me all week, insisting that geologists and biologists were misguided and mistaken. "If evolution is right," he said, "then the Bible is wrong―about everything."

In the early chapters of Genesis, we meet Adam and Eve, the original man and woman formed from the dust of the Earth, brought to life by the breath of God, and placed in a beautiful garden with a mysterious tree whose fruit gives knowledge.

As I argued in a previous contribution, the Bible presents a 3-tiered universe. One of the most important passages in the New Testament is the Kenotic Hymn, and it employs this view of the structure of the cosmos.

Some time ago, I spoke with a theologian who has accepted the findings of the physical sciences--the earth is 4.5 billion years old--but not the biological sciences. Macro-evolution, he believes, is an illusion. Instead life arose through a series of sudden creation events.

John Polkinghorne, the world-famous physicist, got to church early on a recent Sunday. It had been nearly twenty-five years since he had preached in this church and celebrated the Eucharist with its members.

"If faith has meaning, it can't be off in one part of you. It has to be integrated. I think my faith adds to the experience of being a scientist in the way that discovering something has more meaning, sort of glimpsing the mind of God."

Among the distinguishing features of the countless living creatures on our planet, size is certainly one of the most noticeable. Life on earth encompasses everything from microscopic one-celled bacteria to the gargantuan blue whale, the largest animal to have ever lived at a size of up to 30 meters and a weight of 120 tons.

The discussion surrounding evolution is often marked by the loud voices of opposing sides. To some, evolution represents a challenge to morality and religion that must be fought head on.

I love the show Frasier and watch it most nights before I go to bed. Last night's episode had Frasier whining about how nothing was up to his standards at the resort where he was trying to score points with his latest love interest.

As an historian of science, I belong to a small, somewhat esoteric club. Although there are dozens of colleges and universities within 75 miles of my own, there are no more than half a dozen faculty with similar expertise at all of those institutions combined. If we focus more narrowly on my particular specialty - the history of science and Christianity - then I am probably alone in Central and Eastern Pennsylvania.