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Social Statements | Education
Reflections on Creation Part of the Web companion guide to Our Calling in Education: A Lutheran Study I am academically trained as a research scientist, not as a theologian or even as an educator, in the formal sense, although I’ve had considerably more interaction with educators and the general public than most “ivory tower” scientists, by virtue of my unique position bridging academia, education, and public outreach. Many on our task force can speak much better to specific social, educational, and theological issues associated with each of the four sections of our mandate – I defer to their experience in these areas. Instead, I have chosen to raise some issues from my own experiences as an astronomer (particularly an “origins scientist”), a member of the ELCA, and one who feels that it is essential that the growing “science & theology dialogue” receive much wider public attention. In academic circles, centers for dialogue between religion & science exist in Berkeley, Chicago, and Philadelphia, among other cities. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has a division, DoSER (Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion), whose function it is to facilitate dialogue between scientists, theologians, historians, and philosophers on some of the “big questions” raised by contemporary science. Within the ELCA, the Alliance for Faith, Science, and Technology is charged with doing a better job of education about faith and science, from seminaries to Sunday schools, and setting up "faith and science centers" for colleges and universities.
Every human civilization throughout history, indeed all life of which we are presently aware, has inhabited this beautiful, fragile, and unique “mote of dust” in the Cosmos. But we are still looking at Earth from within our own Solar System, “just” a few billion miles away! Were we to proceed to the star (Proxima Centauri) nearest to our own star (the Sun), the Earth would have long faded from our view, and the Sun itself would appear as a relatively bright star in the sky of a hypothetical planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. We are now about 24 trillion miles from home, but we’ve only crossed the distance that separates two average stars. Travel to distances hundreds of times further away, and you encounter some of the environments that I’ve spent virtually every day of my adult life considering (and much of my childhood as well!) – vast, beautiful, clouds of gas and dust (nebulae) in which the ongoing birth of new stars occurs. At these distances, the Sun itself would be invisible to human eyes…
In 1990, we knew only of nine planets – those that orbit our Sun; since then, more than one hundred “new” planets have been discovered orbiting other stars, but we have not even begun to scratch the surface of what’s out there. Within the next ten years, we will be able to study the atmospheres of potential Earth-like planets that orbit other “nearby” stars for signs of life. The millennia-old abstract discussion on the question of whether life exists on a “plurality of worlds” may soon have concrete, empirical evidence to support an affirmative answer! NASA’s Office of Space Sciences is devoting considerable resources to scientifically addressing the questions, “Where do we come from, and are we alone?” All of the currently known planets orbit “nearby” stars, but the Cosmos doesn’t end with nearby stars. On much larger scales, stars are organized into beautiful groupings that we call “galaxies” - our own galaxy, the Milky Way, contains roughly one trillion stars. In 1996, the Hubble Space Telescope examined a very, very small patch of sky near the Big Dipper closely, and recorded what has been become one of the most famous images in Astronomy, the “Hubble Deep Field”.
About 3.500 galaxies – each containing millions, billions, or trillions of stars, so far away that it’s taken billions of years for their light to travel to us - have been identified in the above image of a patch of sky no larger than the angular size of a dime at a distance of about 75 ft. As I write this, NASA’s latest space observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, studies infrared light coming from galaxies so far away from us, that the galaxies themselves were still in the process of forming when their light began its journey to us. This new view of our Universe, brought to us through amazing advances in human science and technology, terrifies some, who see it as threatening to human significance. Pop culture abounds with the message that this picture of the cosmos threatens religion in general, and Christianity in particular. The message is a simple one – you must either give up your faith and embrace the “atheistic” scientific worldview, or reject rationality. With increasing frequency, school boards throughout our country attempt to eliminate our evolutionary understanding of the cosmos by distorting and re-writing science curricula according to local ideologies, thus threatening the quality of the scientific and technological education of our youth. Some might ask, why should this be a concern for us? Quite apart from the obvious general concern that a scientifically illiterate public is at a distinct disadvantage in our increasingly technological world, as Christians, we are called to be good stewards and to make responsible, informed decisions regarding our environment and ourselves. Just as it is impossible to be a good parent to a child if you know nothing about your child and his/her needs, it is impossible to be a good steward of the Earth without some basic understanding of scientific issues. Much of today’s science raises questions that have strong ethical dimensions. Science cannot (and should not) dictate ethics, but it is essential that science inform ethics. I’m constantly surprised to see how much fear and resentment of science exists even within the Lutheran community – I searched for a long time to find a congregation where my chosen profession – my calling in life – did not make me feel like “the enemy”. The congregation to which I currently belong is inclusive and welcoming; nevertheless, when recent confirmands were asked what aspects of their faith posed the biggest challenge to their lives, literal interpretations of the creation stories in Genesis were at the top of the list! Make no mistake – this view wasn’t instilled in them in their confirmation classes, but rather pervades “pop culture religion” in the media – on the web, radio, television – and, unfortunately, most Sunday School teachers are not equipped with either the scientific or theological resources to address the often complex questions which arise when young people try to relate Scripture to their own experiences. A 2002 “Faith Practices” survey that was done by many churches brought to light many disparities between clergy and lay views on Scriptural interpretation (see /re/reports/re/context5.pdf for details), perhaps the most striking statistic presented in the "Executive Summary" portion of the paper: "Only 3 percent of the clergy agreed that 'the Bible is the word of God, to be taken literally word for word.' This compares to 29 percent of the lay people." Clearly, there is as big a disconnect between professional and public understanding of theology as there is between professional and public understanding of science! We are abysmally failing the critical-thinkers among us, who yearn to understand how Scripture can be relevant to them in light of our current understanding of Creation, and in today’s culture. Similarly, we fuel the ridicule of many intellectuals when we refuse to take a stand on the “bad science” that is often pushed under the guise of religious faith. Just as most people have a limited background in science, and do not understand the process through which science works – what it is and what it is not - most people’s exposure to theology is limited to Sunday School Bible stories. Is it any wonder that so many people have difficulty reconciling their faith with their experiences in today’s world? As Lutheran Christians, should we respond to these issues with fear (which arguably is the biggest enemy of faith), or by ignoring, or attempting to change the science when it raises questions that make some people uncomfortable? Or should we respond with the conviction that if the God of our faith is also the author of Creation, and hence the author of science, we should face the challenges posed by our contemporary understanding of Creation with courage and trust in God? We need to encourage our children to keep asking the “difficult questions”, not exhort them to suppress them! The question of human significance is not a new one. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” –(Ps 8:3-4) As with many other “big questions”, the meaning that we attach to scientific results depends upon the worldview we hold in the first place. Consider the now-infamous quote (paraphrase, actually, as I can’t locate my copy of this book at present…) by cosmologist Steven Weinberg in his book, The First Three Minutes, “The more the Universe is understandable, the more it also seems pointless.” This is not a scientific conclusion, but a value judgment. Statements like this fuel public perception that science is anti-faith. There is an enormous need to equip people with tools to “sort the wheat from the chaff” - to learn how to separate the science from the underlying philosophies of individual scientists, lest people are tempted to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. One might just as easily respond to the contemporary scientific paradigm with a view similar to that expressed by the founder and executive director of the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science, Dr. William “Billy” Grassie, “… Through us the universe can appreciate its pathos and beauty, because we are not merely at home in the universe, we are part and parcel of its essential character… Rather than seeing our minds and personalities as incidental to the universe, we may begin to see them as signs of a greater mind and greater personality that animate the universe… God understood in light of this evolutionary epic can lure the universe towards the future, the good, and the beautiful, through divine inspiration…” (Excerpts from The Concealed God of Science, W. Grassie, 2/27/03, http://www.metanexus.net/index.html) Shutting out the knowledge of the Cosmos that the process of science has revealed to us because of fear is incompatible with Christian faith, and yet it is the overwhelming message the public gets from media coverage of science and religion. Our contemporary view of the Cosmos can serve as a useful reminder to us – not of how small we are, but rather of how big God is. In perusing the plethora of previous social statements, I have repeatedly come across the description of humans as “Stewards of Earth” used interchangeably with the phrase “Stewards of Creation”, but “Creation” can no longer be realistically equated to “Earth”, and we must carefully rethink our relationship to the rest of Creation, just as we carefully consider our relationship with, and responsibilities toward, other human beings in our own global, pluralistic society. If indications of life are found elsewhere in the cosmos, the hypothetical considerations become moot. With courage rather than apprehension, we must consider, and help others consider, the questions that would inevitably arise with the discovery of another “cradle of civilization” in the Cosmos. How do we think about our role in Creation in the “Cosmic Context”? A few “Notable Quotables”: Why should a Christian want to study science (as a vocation or otherwise)? The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies
proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all
the earth, their words to the ends of the world. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities---his eternal power and divine nature---have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. --- Rom 1:20 It is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an
infidel to hear a Christian, while presumably giving the meaning of
Holy Scriptures, talking nonsense. We should take all means to prevent
such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance
in a Christian and laugh it to scorn ... If they find a Christian
mistaken in a field which they themselves know well, and hear him
maintaining his foolish opinions about the Scriptures, how then are
they going to believe those Scriptures in matters concerning the
resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of
heaven? What is it that breathes fire into the equations
and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of
science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the
questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe.
Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? The Bible is like my physics text. They're both
about the same size. They both contain a way of dealing with the
universe that's withstood the test of time. They both teach by showing
worked-out examples. And they're both pretty useless, if you don't
understand how to use them. (Only, the Bible doesn't have the answers
in the back of the book.) Endnote Religious organizations “defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools”: (These statements can be accessed at the following web site of the National Center for Science Education.) I list the denominations/organizations that have formal statements below – although some of them are just brief statements expressing support for the separation of church and state, several of them (including that of the Lutheran World Federation) make quite compelling arguments for why this is such an important issue for religious organizations to address (although many of the statements need to (1) be put in more “public-friendly” language, and (2) be made widely accessible so people actually know about their existence!) American Jewish Congress
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I
invite you all on a very quick tour of Creation as we know it at the
beginning of the 21stcentury. Though this may seem like a
non sequitur, I will attempt to show how issues raised by our
contemporary understanding of Creation are extremely relevant to a
social statement on education. How many recall this wondrous view of
the Earth that was captured by Apollo 8 astronauts orbiting the Moon a
few decades ago (below, left)? Though more recent, I suspect that
fewer recall this photo of the Earth that was captured by the Voyager
2 spacecraft, as it looked back toward Earth from beyond the orbit of
the planet Neptune (below, right: Earth is the “pale blue dot” near
the center of the photo; the bright band stretching vertically through
the photo is caused by dust in the plane of our Solar System
scattering light from our Sun).
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