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Chapeltalk by Mark Engebretson, Professor of Physics Text:
Exodus 35:3036:1 This week Augsburg began its convocation series for the year, with a focus on the dialog between science and religion. You have heard something of the long history of this dialog--it goes back at least 400 years, and it has become especially confusing, and has engaged many more people, in this past century. For some of you, the fact that there is any contact between science and religion at all--whether that contact is friendly or not so friendly--may be a new idea. But for many others, it's been serious business, and a matter of ongoing concern, or of strenuous or even bitter debate. For some in our society, today but also long ago, science is the enemy. Especially when some new scientific idea contradicts what one has long believed or valued--and what one thinks is consistent or even necessary for one's faith--it can be a very threatening experience. The impact of Galileo's new scientific ideas 400 years ago, for example, wasn't just a matter of politics or professional turf wars. The impact was indeed devastating to people.Historians tell us that in 1610, when word of Galileo's Starry Messenger reached the high school in France where young Rene Descartes was a student, he and other students wrote of a profound sense of loss, of betrayal. The picture of reality that had been taught in schools for centuries, and believed by people he trusted, was being assaulted. The new science--which we today take for granted--was a threat to their world. For others, today and long ago, who saw change much more positively, or who perhaps didn't have any other faith, science was and is our civilization's only hope. At the very least, a technological fix, a solution based on science, might at least buy us some time while we search for solutions to some of society's most pressing problems. Just to make sure you're even more confused than you might already be, here are some more words about science. First, from some partisans of science: George Sarton wrote that "The great intellectual division of humankind is not along geographic or racial lines, but between those who understand and practice the experimental method, and those who do not understand and do not practice it." Bertrand Russell, the great mathematician and philosopher, concluded that "whatever knowledge is attainable, must be obtained by scientific methods, and what science cannot discover, humankind cannot know." Not so, however, wrote Peter Medawar, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. He says there is no such thing as a scientific method. (Those of you who heard NASA scientist David Stern at Augsburg two weeks ago heard him say the same thing!) Both would say that if a method existed that could lead a scientist with certainty to the truth, then scientists must be a pretty incompetent bunch! They don't understand global warming. They haven't figured out a substitute for oil. Not only can't they cure cancer, they can't even cure the common cold! If an effective scientific method really existed, then scientists should be much more successful in their endeavors than they really are. And just to indicate how deeply confused and intertwined the realms of science and religion can be, here's a news item I picked up over the Internet a month ago from Professor Robert Park of the University of Maryland: "Paul LaViolette was terminated by the Patent Office on April 9, 1999. He had been recruited by patent examiner Tom Valone, who issued an e-mail appeal for 'all able-bodied free energy technologists' to 'infiltrate' the Patent Office [Science, V. 284, p. 1254, May 1999]. What's a free energy technologist? Someone who believes in cold fusion--the tabletop source of almost unlimited energy that chemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann claimed to have discovered a few years ago. Unfortunately for them, no other scientists seemed to be able to duplicate their results. LaViolette claimed that he was fired for his belief in cold fusion, and he turned to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. He argued that his belief in cold fusion amounted to a religious belief. Actually, LaViolette believes in lots of stuff, like that the B-2 bomber relies on antigravity technology. Anyway, on July 7, 2000, the EEOC ruled that cold fusion is indeed constitutionally protected religious belief. Professor Park's final comment is that "This appears to confirm what many have been saying all along." We at Augsburg hope not only that science and religion can be in dialog, but that by discussing them together we might find some clarity rather than confusion, and be better equipped to deal with the complexities of our world. It's also consistent with our Lutheran roots, a Christian tradition born in a university, that they can and should be discussed together. It's in that spirit, of helping to prepare ourselves for the important but thorny issues related to this dialog, that I have gone back to what might seem an unlikely source for a text for this chapel talk--a tiny snippet from the book of Exodus, in the Old Testament. The Old Testament bears no record of acknowledging the role of scientistit was the Greeks, not the Hebrews, who were famous for their curiosity about the world. The Hebrews seem, rather, to have borrowed their science from their neighbors. But they did acknowledge the importance of craftsmen, and of scholars. They weren't scared of nature--far from it. Mountains, trees, oceans, clouds, sun and moon, gold and silver, wood and stones--they were just that--not the deities or spirits, or even monsters, that their neighbors feared. They were under God's control, and only God was to be feared, respected, and trusted. As a result, nature was natural, and God called them to work the land, and to use its resources. Walking with God meant living and working in the world of time and matter. Our text tells the story of two craftsmen, Bezalel and Aholiab, who were filled with God's spirit so that they could design and build the tabernacle. It's significant that this is the first instance in the Bible in which God is said to have filled persons with his spirit. Not Moses, the great leader of Israel, but Bezalel and Aholiab, two craftsmen. Now later on in the OT various prophets and judges, and even wise King Solomon, were said to have received God's spirit--but it's notable that in the Bible, God's spirit isn't divided or specialized in the way our culture seems to want to divide it--into churchly things vs. secular or worldly things. Creativity and leadership--in whatever field--are gifts from God. Much later, the prophet Joel used these words to describe what would happen after the coming of the Messiah: (Joel 2:28-29) "After this I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men see visions. Even on the slaves, men and women, will I pour out my spirit in those days." In fact, the Lutheran tradition insists that the call of God--the call to serve God--is not limited to a special class of Christians who by the supposed holiness of their lives have placed themselves closer to their Creator. Instead, God calls all people to vocations, which are focused precisely in and on this world. God indeed pours out his spirit on all of us, and we serve God by serving each other in this world. Paul, writing to the Colossians (Col. 3:23-24), says much the same thing: "Whatever you do, put your whole heart into it, as if you were doing it for the Lord and not just for other people, know that from the Lord you will received your reward." Luther and others, in fact, reacted against a strictly religious view of vocation that said only monks and other professional religious folks (of both genders) had vocations. Luther said no: farmers, business people, laborers, students, parents, children, all have equally important vocations. Lutherans can agree with those who say that Christianity is really the most materialistic of all religions: it does not impel us to escape the world, but to care for it and fix it; we are not called to escape from other people and their concerns, but to work with them. We can also agree that our vocations are informed by our faith. Vocations are the principal means by which the love of Christ, and the righteousness of God, make their way into the world, to uphold it and to transform it. Vocation is our way of serving our neighbor, and taking care of our world. Everyone who is deeply involved in his or her earthly task, who is skilled in the craft and wisdom of his or her particular work, brings about something real that they offer to humanity, and to God. So, why think about science and religion? Why discuss the natural world in a chapel talk? We might as well ask why go to school at all! Because it is our calling, as persons freed and empowered by God, to use God's spirit, the gift of creativity, to serve others and glorify him. Amen. |
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