Science vs. religion : what scientists really think - File PDF

CHAPTER 7God on the QuadMaking Room for Faith on CampusI would like to introduce the reader to Ian Hutchinson, professor and head ofthe Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology. The intricacies of his work on the magnetic confinement ofplasmas would not be understandable to someone without specialized training,but his research might eventually lead to new forms of energy production.Hutchinson also specifically tries to reach out to a larger community of scientistsbeyond his discipline. He often gives talks about the relationship betweenreligious faith and science. I attended one such lecture for graduate studentsand faculty at Cornell University titled “Science: Christian or Atheistic?”Hutchinson started his talk by relating how Nobel Prize-winning physicist StevenWeinberg, in a commencement address to students at Bates College in2002, set out to “welcome students to the Enlightenment, explicitly disparageall religions as superstition and medievalism . . . while praising science.” 1 I ncontrast, Hutchinson set out to help his audience move beyond the popularview that science is inherently atheistic. He argued that the image of science atwar with religion, though often fed by high-profile scientists, is not supportedby history. Hutchinson urged the 50 or so graduate students and faculty gatheredthat evening from a variety of disciplines and faith traditions to look atthe evidence. He argued that a remarkable fraction of history’s great scientistshave been convinced that science and Christian faith are compatible—such asScottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who did foundational work in electromagnetismand the kinetic theory of gases. 2 Hutchinson also discussed theimportance of understanding that science is a particular kind of knowledge,with the characteristics of reproducibility (other scientists will get the sameresults if an experiment is done again) and clarity (any rational scientist willagree on the results of an experiment). 3 Hutchinson then compared science toother kinds of knowledge, such as history (which deals with unique events), thearts, and law. He rejected the philosophical belief known as scientism (which107