{"id":14027,"date":"2019-05-17T17:41:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T17:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=14027"},"modified":"2019-07-30T17:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T17:43:00","slug":"looking-at-life-through-the-lenses-of-faith-and-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2019\/looking-at-life-through-the-lenses-of-faith-and-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking at life through the lenses of faith and science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
A small group discussion led by Nate Inglis. Photo courtesy of Bethany Seminary<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Frank Ramirez<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at Life: A Conference Where Faith Meets Science\u201d started with a big bang. No, not the Big Bang, although that came up in discussion over the course of the three-day event April 25-27 at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind. Isaac Wilhelm, a graduate student at Rutgers University, spoke on \u201cThe Big Bang, Fine-Tuning, and the Existence of God,\u201d with an overwhelming energy and enthusiasm that helped dissipate all the travel weariness of the more than 100 participants.<\/p>\n

Wilhelm\u2019s topic concerned \u201ca prominent contemporary argument for the existence of God.\u201d If Theism is a belief that someone designed the fundamental features of the universe, and atheism is an understanding that no one designed the fundamental features of the universe, and given that the universe has life, physicists have discussed what numerical value can be assigned to the fact that the universe is \u201cfine-tuned for life.\u201d One question is whether that proves or disproves the existence of God.<\/p>\n

Nate Inglis, Bethany\u2019s assistant professor of theological studies and one of the planners of the event, noted that \u201cwe\u2019ve lost our ability to talk to each other\u201d with regard to faith and science. But that had not always been the case. Ingles pointed to three great Christians who had no trouble integrating science and faith: Anselm of Canterbury, who believed that faith sought understanding; Ignatius of Loyola, who \u201cfound God in all things, he read God\u2019s book of nature and book of scripture\u201d; and Francis of Assisi, who \u201csaw God\u2019s footprints in all of creation, which he considered the self-revealed word of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wes Tobin, a scientist and professor at Indiana University-East, was enthusiastic about the possibility of life not only elsewhere in the cosmos but even possibly in our own solar system. He cautioned against finding patterns and interpreting data according to what we want to believe, however, instead of what actually exists.<\/p>\n

Russell Haitch, professor of theology and human science at Bethany who oversaw coordination of the conference, spoke on \u201cPutting Faith and Science Back Together Again.\u201d He said that while 59 percent of American adults say there is a conflict between faith and science, for most people this causes no personal distress. But there is \u201ca long history of science and faith working together in Western Christianity. How did they get pulled apart and how might we put them back together?\u201d Haitch asked.<\/p>\n

Haitch said that part of the blame for the conflict between science and faith goes to what he called \u201cthe Protestant experiment,\u201d which took the mystery out of the service of communion, separating the physical and spiritual worlds. Blame also goes to the scientific community\u2019s success, leading many to think that \u201cthe physical world is the most real, and maybe the only reality.\u201d The conflict finds its clearest expression in the Declaration of Independence, according to Haitch, saying \u201cGod has given all people inalienable rights, but we hold these truths to be self-evident.\u201d As a solution, he said, \u201cI have proposed that the pattern of Jesus…provides a model for uniting faith and science. Union without confusion.\u201d In both realms of science and faith, he said there is space for both to operate.<\/p>\n

Katherine Miller-Wolf, professor of anthropology at Indiana University-East, with a specialty in Mayan history, gave a detailed look at various methods used to date historical and geological events in \u201cFrom Tree Rings to Microwaves: How Scientists Date Stuff.\u201d It is possible through a variety of methods, from counting tree rings to examining the decorations on tombstones, to obtain a fairly accurate idea of just when certain events occurred, she asserted.<\/p>\n

Craig Story, professor of biology at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., sprinkled scriptures throughout his presentation on \u201cLife, Biologically Speaking: A Brief History with Updates.\u201d \u201cDNA is a form of time machine,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of us have about 800 people out there who are third cousins or closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story emphasized that much of the earliest work on genetics was tainted by the virulent racism of its proponents, who tended to put humanity on the top of creation, especially those branches of humanity that looked like them. Bad science made for in bad results, including unethical and immoral experiments on human beings under the guise of \u201ceugenics.\u201d Modern genetics notes that humanity is part of a complicated spectrum of life that is interrelated and dependent on those relationships. \u201cThe Bible is not very specific about the scientific origins of things,\u201d Story said, adding that \u201cGod is working on all this at a very deep level. Science has truths. Scripture has truths. Both are true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of another presenter\u2019s family crisis, Story also was called on to examine some of the exciting–and possibly frightening–implications of gene splicing in a presentation titled \u201cThe Perfect Human? The Promises and Perils of Human Genome Editing.\u201d Is it possible for genome editing to alleviate, cure, or even eliminate several debilitating illnesses, such as cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, or Sickle Cell Anemia? The answer is yes, but there are real ethical questions that have to be resolved.<\/p>\n

A recent international conference insisted that in order to retain accountability and ethical behavior, \u201crogue\u201d germline therapies in humans have to be discouraged, transparency in research must be encouraged, interdisciplinary forums for discussion should be created before proceeding with experiments, and policy should be formulated upon the recommendations of a globally representative group. This is necessary because, in the words of one scientist, \u201cThe unthinkable has become conceivable.\u201d Yet, Story said, one scientist in China already has violated the conventions against rogue therapies and transparency in research by splicing genes in infants to inhibit the HIV virus–with no accountability, no publication, and no advance notification. While most would agree that it is important to alleviate human suffering, the long-term consequences of some of these actions is unknown.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most anticipated presentation came from John H Walton, professor at Wheaton (Ill.)\u00a0 College and a prolific author whose lecture, \u201cLost Worlds: Genesis 1-2,\u201d focused on the cultural assumptions behind the interpretation of the creation story in the Bible. He admitted, \u201cThere are lots of people who think there is a serious war going on between the Bible and science. You hear that you\u2019ve got to make a choice. You can have one or the other. I\u2019d like to propose that\u2019s not the only way to look at these things.\u201d Walton continued by noting that faithful interpretation of scripture calls for accountability. \u201cThe Bible has authority that I have to submit to. That means that I\u2019m accountable.\u201d Approaching the Bible, readers are accountable to \u201cthe truth claims of scripture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walton reminded his audience that the Ancient Near East and contemporary 21st century Americans make very different assumptions about the world. He used the analogy of the difference between a house and a home to establish the cultural assumptions of Genesis. Some people are very concerned about how to put building materials together to build a house, while others are more concerned about how to make a building home-like. The Hebrew word \u201cbara,\u201d translated as \u201ccreate,\u201d is more about making a home than constructing a house, he said. It is used more than 50 times in the Hebrew Bible and it is always about bringing order to things. Walton said the word \u201crefers to a divine activity. In scripture God creates, or brings order, to material objects like Jerusalem, but also to grammatical objects like purity.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this understanding, when the Bible says the earth was formless and empty the assumption is that the world was \u201cnot lacking matter, but order.\u201d The creation story was about making a home, not building a house, he asserted, noting that the seven days of creation conform to the seven days necessary to dedicate the temple as holy space. The creation narrative in the first chapter of Genesis was about consecrating the whole earth as God\u2019s home, meaning all of creation is God\u2019s holy space.<\/p>\n

Throughout the conference, participants met in small groups to process what they had learned and discuss issues they wished to explore further. Despite the controversial nature of the subject, and the wide variety of religious backgrounds and beliefs, respectful listening was the norm throughout.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Frank Ramirez pastors Union Center Church of the Brethren in Nappanee, Ind.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLook at Life: A Conference Where Faith Meets Science\u201d started with a big bang. No, not the Big Bang, although that came up in discussion over the course of the three-day event April 25-27 at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind. Isaac Wilhelm, a graduate student at Rutgers University, spoke on \u201cThe Big Bang, Fine-Tuning, and the Existence of God,\u201d with an overwhelming energy and enthusiasm that helped dissipate all the travel weariness of the more than 100 participants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":14005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1268],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-14027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bethany-seminary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14028,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14027\/revisions\/14028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14027"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=14027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}