Tag Archives: science

Faith – Stop Picking on Science!

16 Friday Jan 2015

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In sync with my current series as I trawl through a bundle of New Scientist articles thoughtfully loaned to me by a parishioner is this offering from today’s Facebook feed: Is your church still picking a fight with science?

My current congregation never has, but one sometimes gets the impression it’s one of a group of rogue ships in the ecclesiastical flotilla when the chips are down.

Today’s article makes the point that nostalgia for the past rather than preparedness to meet the challenge of the present drives the wedge between faith and science, thus perpetuating a false dichotomy. Many people of faith are also scientists at the peak of their disciplines, and it is the Church’s responsibility to nurture and encourage the inquiry they inspire. Instead, the public face of the Church highlighted across the media is of reactionary conflict rather than constructive dialogue.

Sometimes the conflict is legitimate. Scientific inquiry will, on occasion, be asked the Church’s valid question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and it will be seen by some as unwarranted intrusion. Equally, scientists nurtured and respected by the non-reactionary faith community will be sympathetic to the ramifications of holistic perspectives in their fields of endeavour.

Today’s article finishes with four questions that any church community might thoughtfully consider.

  1. What does your church do to proactively let people know that science, and scientists, aren’t the enemy?
  2. How do you help to raise up young people who don’t see a conflict between the pursuit of an education and the faithful following of Jesus?
  3. Does your church work to help members to recognize, and appreciate, different ways of reading the Bible?
  4. Maybe we need a special Sunday to recognize and honor our scientists and their achievements; a hug a scientist for Jesus day, if you will. Is this something your church could do?

I don’t know if the scientists in my church want to be hugged – but they do know their work is respected!

Gluten intolerance – fad, fact… and faith?

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Wheat_harvestI continue to leaf through the science magazines stacked on my desk and selecting lead articles to pass a parson’s comment on.

New Scientist (12 July 2014)  treads bravely into a minefield with the tagline “Wheat intolerance is more about psychology than physiology.”

“Is it plausible that something that has been a staple food for centuries can be so bad for so many?” it pushes, while acknowledging it is indeed so for a small number of people with allergies or coeliac disease. It seems the large number of those who self-diagnose are in the firing line of this writer.

As one who has presided over communion services where gluten free wafers are sometimes an optional extra, the question mildly interests me.

Wheat is a significant metaphor in Christian symbology, and I have not had too much cause to ponder whether its banishment from gluten-free diets affects the metaphorical attachment we Christians place on it.

Jesus refers to wheat frequently in his parables. It is necessary for the grain to fall into the soil and die before sprouting and bringing forth prolific new life. The seed that falls on good soil brings forth multiple yields. The wheat and the tares grow together but will be separated at the harvest. The farmer sows but it is the rain and sun that brings forth growth. Jesus and his Galilee companions were surrounded by an agrarian economy .

Jesus used common staple fare to make his point.  It is why, in some contexts, coconuts or rice are acceptable substitutes when celebrating communion. For coeliac sufferers, gluten-free fare is an appropriate substitute; it is their staple.

New Scientist points out that faddish endorsements of a gluten-free diet may obscure some important considerations. People with coeliac disease are warned of the risk that their diet could be deficient in key nutrients. Gluten-free foods are often short on fibre and high on sugar. Effective redress is complicated, inconvenient and often expensive.

In a substantially well-off economy over-supplied with an abundance of foodstuffs, the unafflicted can debate over a range of diets, try them out, and then move on to something else that becomes an obsession. I have a suspicion, however, that “gluten free” is not a phrase heard much in subsistence economies.

Multiverses and God

12 Monday Jan 2015

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330px-Grosseteste_bishopThe lead story in New Scientist (22 March 2014) explains the physics behind the concept of multiverses and how such an understanding might be enhanced by the discovery that week of a method of peering even closer into the slivers of a second after the big bang . My poor head spun as I tried to get my mind around unfamiliar patterns of seeing, but I gather that observable distortions of wave patterns are now known not to be caused by gravity of other galaxies or telescope errors.

Accordingly, the pattern of these gravitational waves strengthen the idea that the universe is constantly giving birth to smaller “pocket universes”within an ever-expanding multiverse.

So where does one begin to think theologically about this?  I looked no further than the same issue to discover that a 13th Century theologian, Robert Grosseteste, had written a treatise, De Luce, about the properties of light. “The work built on Aristotle’s idea that the motions of the stars can be explained by embedding Earth in a series of nine concentric spheres that make up the universe.” He proposed that the universe began with a flash of light, pushing everything out from a tiny point to a big sphere. He assumed a coupling of matter and light, with the density of the matter affecting waves of “inwardly propagating matter” thus resulting the form of the nine spheres.

Applying modern mathematics, a team from Durham University modeled Grosseteste’s process and found the multi-nested universe he postulated – thus also supporting the possibility of a multiverse.

Science and theology in apparent collusion in ways undreamed of in our post-Enlightenment era. Exciting!

A Million Year Mind

09 Friday Jan 2015

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brain1Let’s kick off the Physicists & a Parson Parley series with a look at the lead article in New Scientist (1 March 2014) – “Your Million Year Mind.” (I keep catching myself reading it as “your million dollar mind” – how conditioned am I by the prevailing culture of economic rationalism?)

In summary, the piece explores how the measurable development of stone tools enables us to “look inside the heads” of those who made them. Drawing on research from Bruce Bradley’s Learning to be Human Project, the article tracks the progression of neural pathways that control basic dexterity and motor control through to advanced language, visual imagination, hierarchical thinking and improved memory. In short, it is a fascinating story exploring our cognitive evolution.

As a poetic parson, my mind naturally wanders to other tangents, looking for points of connection (apparently I’ve been able to do this since the days of Homo heidelbergensis or 600,000 years). The emergence of a capacity for visualisation and symbolism must have given rise to the first apprehensions of gods and the forces, visible and invisible, behind the universe. In western traditions, these emerge in a sophisticated form in creation stories like the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh Epic, refined  by the Hebrew post-exilic reflective correction that we know as the first chapter of Genesis. It is the difference between experiencing existence as chaotic and meaningless or ordered and purposeful – an ongoing discussion for our own times.

The documented order of the evolution of the neural pathways of the human brain in this project are not inconsistent with the ordered purpose of the Genesis creation story, which remains open-ended, with humanity, male and female, climaxing the narrative as co-creators and stewards with God.

One wonders what the next 600,000 years will bring.

Physicists and a Parson Parley

08 Thursday Jan 2015

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New ScientistThere’s a heap of New Scientist magazines on my desk. Scientists of various disciplines, some at the peak of their field, have always been present in the various faith communities I have served. To varying degrees, conversations between faith and science have been mutually rewarding. All have eschewed the alleged dichotomy advanced by fundamentalists of either religious or atheistic persuasion.

Back to those magazines which, I confess, attract and, at the same time, daunt me. As an arty type, I never did well in maths or any of the sciences at school. One of my congregants faithfully passes these magazines on to me, so I feel I should engage them. My intention now is to feature some conversations from topics raised in these magazines. Perhaps, following some decades of dialogue with my physicist parishioners, I can bring some insights that I would not have been capable of earlier.

A neighbouring colleague is a scientist who came to faith and ministry mid-career. She has sometimes mentioned the trepidation of that journey. So here’s me, having reached the notional age of retirement, attempting to do something similar in reverse!