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Christianity Today, March (Web-only), 2009 |

Where We Stand

Science at Its Best

President Obama wants to 'restore science to its rightful place.' So do we.

A Christianity Today editorial | posted 3/09/2009 01:08PM

Science is one of God's great gifts. So, it struck a positive chord with many Americans when Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech, "We will restore science to its rightful place."

Over the past ...

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Phaedrus

Posted: March 11, 2009 9:28 AM

The author seems to miss an important aspect of science - prediction and validation. Science does more than tell a story, it makes predictions that can be verified. After many years of validation, the scientific story becomes provisionally accepted and new work can be built upon it. If/When new evidence arises, old stories are revisited and those that hold up are strengthened and those that are contradicted are modified.

Dave	Posted: March 10, 2009 11:49 PM

Independant in Florida says read our Bibles. Maybe if Christians did read their Bibles, there wouldn't be abortion, gay marriage and a Godless nation that is ripping saprt at the seams. To insinuate that you can read the Bible and conclude that the issues listed above are something God will look on kindly indicates you haven't read your own Bible. Maybe you might want to do so before you conclude others don't.

Gregory Peterson

Posted: March 10, 2009 8:27 PM

It's kind of difficult to take disbelievers of evolution seriously. Have they eyes, but cannot see? Evolution is kind of difficult to miss, once it's been pointed out to you...fun and useful as well. Yet, myself, scientist colleagues and relatives have been accused of lying, scams, deceit, hating God, communism, racism, stupidity, immorality of all kinds, the Dread Scott decision, Nazism, the Holocaust, Illuminati conspiracies...blamed for most everything that's gone wrong, real and imagined, in the world since before Darwin even published his theory of natural selection, while evangelicals are somehow as blameless and innocent as lambs, and twice as omniscient as God. Apparently, it was only evolutionists that lived in the Jim Crow Bible Belt. Just look at CT's coverage of Stem Cells..."But for a moment, imagine the morally tone-deaf researcher about to dismember a living human embryo..." How did the editor sleep at night after writing that? Shame on him or her.

dproffitt

Posted: March 10, 2009 8:09 PM


After Obama's embracing of all things liberal particularly the death culture, I do hope is he completely understood by all who causally voted for him. Voters have placed him in a position to bring further shame on this country. I do hope he fails and is replaced in the next election in 4 years, it will take decades to overcome his polices that he has done in less than 2 months.

Thomas

Posted: March 10, 2009 5:13 PM

Andrew, pro-life though we are, do you really see no difference between the murder of an adult human with all the incumbent ties of love and family, and the 'death' of a discarded embryo? You must see a difference. It should be possible to express our strong feelings about the moral hazard of destroying embryos without stretching for such extreme analogies. On the extremes, such analogies breakdown and make our case seem weak and illogical. This alienates thoughtful people who are undecided on these issues. Don't you think?

SB	Posted: March 10, 2009 5:12 PM

Did you miss the part where 60% of evangelicals do NOT oppose embryonic stem cell research? The idea that scientific research intent on curing disease and saving lives is somehow akin to Stalin's murderous slaughter is incomprehensible. This is research that will save lives using human cells destined to be disposed of (murdered?). If you believe these cells somehow have souls or something like souls, it is just as reasonable to believe those souls might wish to be used to save lives. Unfortunately they are unable to make such a choice. Those who believe stem cell research is immoral have not had their beliefs trampled on. They have been heard, and even though they are in a rather small minority (the percentage of all Americans who support stem cell research is considerably higher than 60%), their views have been turned into policy up until now. The vast majority of folk simply believe their point of view, no matter how fervently believed, should not be science policy.

Independent in FL

Posted: March 10, 2009 4:12 PM


Ok. To hyberbolically criticize Obama's abortion policy is one thing. (Have we missed the fact that Republicans have held the White House more than twice as much as the Democrats over the last 40 years, and abortion is still legal. We need to change strategies!) To blame Obama for the Bush economy is something else. Stop listening to Rush, Sean Hannity and Co., read you bible, and think!

Xinosaj

Posted: March 10, 2009 2:03 PM

Andrew, the deteriorating economy has led more people to "murder innocents," as you call abortion, then any law legalizing the practice. Christian crisis pregnancy centers are now overwhelmed with married couples who cannot afford to have children or keep the ones they already have - sometimes they're giving away children who can already talk! These are not "sinful" young women who got knocked up - these are families who can't cope. I see no evidence that your corporatist economic model - the one that's now falling apart globally before our very eyes, threatening the continued existence of many nations - somehow empowers the poor. All the evidence of the last few decades say otherwise. People like you conflate worldly ideas with Christianity just because you're ga-ga over anything that's "conservative," regardless of whether or not "conservative" ideas are Biblical. I suggest you fast from FOX News and WND for one year and spend your time in the Word of God.

Mike	Posted: March 10, 2009 11:58 AM

You are certainly right ... but far too soft. Science cannot be free from agendas, because the very things studied and conclusion drawn are by necessity full of ethical and worldview considerations. Ideology always plays a role in drawing the boundaries and making applications from science, as it should. The myth is that politicians can excise science of ethical considerations and therefore "separate" politics (the use of power) from science. It is not what we find that matters. It is what we do with what we find. And that goes to the heart of ethics, ideology, and worldview. Your piece hints at that direction, but seems far too docile in its expression. Courage, please!

Andrew

Posted: March 10, 2009 10:12 AM


Yes, we can thank our progressive evangelical brothers and sisters for helping to elect someone who will oversee the murder of more innocents than Stalin and destroying an economic system that actually helps the poor without making them beholden to government.

Steve

Posted: March 10, 2009 6:04 AM


To Romans 1: Did Obama win the election on this issue? Clearly not; it had more to do with the economy, and perhaps the fact that he's African-American, than anything else. So while his party may be flexing their muscles on this issue, it doesn't mean the debate is over. Obama's presidency and Democratic power is only for a season, and the debate will resume.

Greg	Posted: March 09, 2009 5:38 PM

...Continued from above...... this phrase can means very different things to Christians and scientists, so as a writer you must use a more accurate/descriptive word. Long standing, peep reviewed empirically supported theory is truly what they are. I'll let you put that how ever you want it, you are the writer, I obviously am not. If we are to have an even more open discussion, as you suggest, we Christians must come to the discussion armed with scientific education, and arguments grounded in fact and supported with credible research and unbiased review. These are the rules that science follows, physical evidence, testable hypotheses, and an open mind to all empirically supported possibilities. Our beliefs mean nothing to the world of science if they do not stand the same test as Isaac sir Newton's theory or gravity, which seemed like a sound theory, until Einstein came along and started asking questions. We Christians need to open to this same questioning or we will be left out.

Greg	Posted: March 09, 2009 5:14 PM

I absolutly agree. This already exists today, and is what the foundation of scientific research is built of: Scientific journals. The best thing about science is that it is anti-dotmatic in its design. I am a biologist and Christian, the best thing I could do to get ahead in my field is to prove a long standing theory incorret with research of my own. I would be blessed if I was able to acomplish this in my lifetime And I am not alone. There are thousands of other scientists all over the world experimenting, testing and retesting past findings. This is simply the elegance of human scientific research, indeed one of the lords greatest gifts. God must have wanted us to save all our faith for him, because you will never find the word faith in a scientific paper (or believe or convition or any other synonym), at least not in the way that Christians mean it. So, the only thing I would change in your article is the phrase "well- established beleifs", because this phrase

Romans1

Posted: March 09, 2009 5:10 PM


The President has made it very clear. His side won the election. There is nothing to debate or discuss. Thus, he has been very willing, even eager, to wield the power of his office. In doing so, he has removed any doubt about the notion that he is a Christian. He cannot possibly be. He may claim it all he wants. No true Christian would do the things he has done since he took office.

alanps

Posted: March 09, 2009 4:10 PM


Very well put!

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