NEWSLETTER

of the

AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATION - CANADIAN SCIENTIFIC & CHRISTIAN AFFILIATION

VOLUME 30 NUMBER 4                                                         AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1988


SOME SUMMER SUMMARY

AUGUST 5-8 is the date of the 43rd ANNUAL MEETING of the AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AFFILIATION, held this year at PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY in MALIBU, CALIFORNIA. Advance registration promises a good attendance. The program, put together by ASA's Commission on Arms Control, promises plenty of excitement. Many of the contributed papers relate to the meeting's theme: SCIENCE, WEAPONS, & HOPE: CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES.

Not one but three keynote speakers have been lined up by program chair Stan Moore. Not one but dozens of viewpoints on the theme will no doubt be expressed by participants. At an ASA ANNUAL MEETING one can expect controversy without cacophony; even when ASAers can't agree, the Holy Spirit unites us in "the peace that passes understanding."

In recent years, so much has been going on within ASA that the Annual Business Meeting has become one of the most anticipated events at an Annual Meeting. Although the various reports have to be abbreviated, there's no better way to get a sense of the whole picture.

For ASA, the summer of 1988 took off with a bang early in June. (We're writing this a few days before July 4, with firecrackers going off in our Berkeley background Ed.) At Gordon College in Massachusetts the June 2-5 The Imago Dei Conference cosponsored with the Christian Medical Society drew almost as many registrants as an ASA Annual Meeting. One participant described it to us as "very sobering and challenging," bringing theologians, philosophers, medical scientists, and health-care practitioners together to consider topics ranging from the biblical meaning of the image of God to abortion, AIDS, and the crack cocaine epidemic sweeping the U.S.

On June 23-26, ASA sponsored yet another important conference, that one on the west coast. About fifty people gathered at the Sheraton Hotel in Tacoma, Washington, to discuss "Sources of Information Content in DNA." That invited conference had its origin in a 1986 gathering of a group whose advice on scientific and educational matters was sought by members of the Christian Legal Society being drawn into public policy disputes in the courts. At the 1986 "Ad Hoc" meeting, the term information content-with reference to molecules, living systems, and the whole universe-was thrown around rather loosely.

After John Wiester was asked by the "Ad Hoc Committee on Origins" to help straighten out the "information" question, John and Charles Thaxton began planning a small symposium. Eventually support was granted to ASA by the Murdock Foundation and the Stewardship Foundation, both located in Washington state, with ASA's Committee for Integrity in Science Education becoming the official sponsor.

Charlie lined up such outside speakers as the biological information theorist Hubert Yockey; molecular biologist Michael Denton (Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, 1985); and Robert Augros and George Stanciu (The New Story of Science, 1984). Each paper had a designated respondent, most of whom were ASA members. The papers were circulated in advance to speakers and respondents. Other participants interacted with the experts after they had the first crack at each other.

Thaxton opened up the conference and the topic. He confessed that his earlier distinction between "operation science" and "origin science" hadn't been much help. This time he tried out a distinction between "natural causes" and "intelligent causes," based on positive human experience in accounting for different kinds of situations. Reactions were decidedly mixed, as they were to all other such formulas suggested at the conference.

The papers made it clear that the amount of "specified complexity" (and hence "information content") in even an MS2 phage of E. coli, let alone in the bacterium itself, is awesome. So far, the origin of such a high level of biological information cannot be accounted for by any plausible chemical scenarios. Is it theoretically impossible ever to account for it on a chemical basis alone? Indeed, is everything in the universe a seamless cause-and-effect continuum or is the universe physically at least partially discontinuous? Participants disagreed-as have philosophers over the centuries.

At one point, thermodynamicist Walter Bradley of Texas A&M seemed to be leading the discontinuists, with physicist Howard Van Till of Calvin College on the side of a "functionally competent" universe with God's governance at work in all of it. Howard had just come from a meeting of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, where some thirty overtures had been introduced that were critical of Calvin's board of trustees for exonerating Howard and two other science professors of charges of heresy. At both the CRC Synod and the DNA Information conference, we're happy to report, good sense prevailed. Issues were clarified but no hasty decisions made. Further study was recommended.

Tne Newsletter editor missed the Imago Dei conference but topped off a crowded June calendar with the DNA conference. We weren't exactly short on information to think about beforehand. Now we have even more to think about-and the 1988 ANNUAL MEETING in MALIBU is still to come. This is some summer for ASA.


THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE

Before we get to Christian perspectives on "Science, Weapons, and Hope" at the ASA ANNUAL MEETING, or even ponder the future of nuclear deterrence and Star Wars, it might be wise to take a look at the scale of weapons proliferation we're already up against.

Everyone welcomes the thawing of U.S.-Soviet relations, except perhaps some die-hards (or kill-easys?) on both sides. But the nuclear arms race between the great powers is not the only arms question to be concerned about. Consider the magnitude of military supply fueling the Iran-Iraq war for the past eight years. That "dirty little war" is now consuming up to $10 billion worth of weapons each year. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in the years 1980-86 at least 27 different countries supplied arms for it.

Since 1983, when President Reagan began persuading other countries not to export arms to Iran ("Operation Staunch"), most European governments have banned official shipments. But many governments have turned their heads when private companies from which they purchase their own arms were cutting deals. Operation Staunch has been ignored by some major players, not merely by Ollie North & Co.'s undercover deal to supply American arms to Iran via Israel.

In Sweden, generally considered a peace-loving country, a private-enterprising arms dealer was charged with exporting ammunition worth $200 million to Iran in a single year. The huge Bofors Co., Sweden's largest military supplier, was accused of bribing Indian officials in a $1.2 billion deal over weapons that ended up in Iran, including powerful RBS-70 ground-to-air missiles. (So far the U.S. seems to have lost only one helicopter over the Persian Gulf.)

Lured by all this lucrative trade, non-European countries have begun to get a piece of the action. China can export Soviet-Pipe weapons to the Third World at a better price than the Soviets charge. Smaller countries like Israel and Brazil, followed by Egypt, Jordan, Libya, and both South and North Korea, are now exporters of major weapons. For the years 1982-86, SIPRI reports that the United States was the leading exporter of major weapons, with total sales of $54.6 billion. The Soviet Union was second ($48.8 billion) and France third (S19.4 billion), followed by the U.K. ($8.8 billion), West Germany ($6.9 billion), China ($4.9 billion), and Italy ($4.1 billion).

Governments that allow the arms trade to keep expanding would probably argue that for the sake of their national security they must keep their own military suppliers strong by letting them sell arms to other countries. It's a cheap way to subsidize arms manufacturers and keep them in production, But when a country like the U.S. sees such worldwide expansion pumping weapons into an unfriendly country like Iran, it should at least wonder if its national security will eventually be compromised. Can the world really afford that much armament?

Meanwhile, within the U.S., another kind of weapons proliferation is endangering almost everybody's sense of security. Gangs dealing in crack, heroin, and other illicit drugs are outgunning law enforcement agencies with Uzi machine guns and whole armories of other deadly weapons. Stopping even this level of arms trade is extremely difficult. In 1982, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York tried to ban the manufacture, importation, and sale of "cop-killer" ammunition, armor-piercing bullets that plow right through the Kevlar bulletproof vests worn by police officers.

In spite of opposition by the National Rifle Association, Senator Moynihan's bill was eventually passed in 1986. For years the NRA "gun lobby" has effectively blocked all efforts to ban or better control the sale of cheap "Saturday night special" handguns (the kind with which President Reagan was wounded by a would-be assassin). The NRA pours millions of dollars into its lobbying efforts and into political campaigns to help its candidates defeat lawmakers who vote against NRA interests.

In some tough neighborhoods today, U.S. citizens worry less about being mugged than about being caught in a crossfire. Law enforcement officials argue that with drug users pouring so much money into the pockets of drug syndicates, the gangs doing the street distribution will always have easy access to sophisticated automatic weaponry. The cops are asking for heavier fire power themselves, so they won't be "hopelessly outgunned."

With that word "hopeless" being used more and more, we need some Christian Perspectives on Science, Weapons, and Hope.


WHEREVER GOD WANTS US: 3.

An irony of our times: What Christian today is most widely loved and respected around the world, by non-Christians as well as Christians? Probably Mother Teresa of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, first recipient (in 1973) of the Templeton Prize for progress in religion. (Who established that prize? ASA member John Templeton of Nassau, Bahamas.) Back to Mother Teresa: Where was she born? In Albania, a country where essentially no Christian believers are now known to exist.

Behind the "iron curtain" lie other ironies in the spread of the gospel, many of them hopeful. In the USSR, after almost 60 years of official antireligious propaganda and even fierce repression, some 40 million of the country's 280 million people call themselves Christians. That's the official Soviet estimate. Some Western observers place the total at twice that, or over a fourth of the entire population. In this millennial year of the official adoption of Christianity by the Kievan Rus, an unprecedented meeting with the top hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church has taken place in the Kremlin. At that meeting, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev reportedly condemned past antireligious repression, promised a new law on freedom of conscience, and called for more religious tolerance in the interest of national unity. The meeting was even given prominence on Soviet television.

Cynics probably see Gorbachev as looking for support for his glaznost and perestroika policies wherever he can find it, and note that Stalin's 1929 legislation is still on the books. Soviet Christians, used to periods of unspeakable cruelty alternating with times of relative benevolence, wait to see what changes may come and whether they will last. Under the 1929 law, many Christians are still imprisoned in jails, labor camps, or psychiatric hospitals for such crimes as "the insanity of distributing religious leaflets." In 1983 the Soviet delegation withdrew from the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) when the Association announced its intention to investigate charges of Soviet psychiatric abuse, well documented for at least 20 years. Recently the Soviet news agency Tass quoted the chief psychiatrist of USSR's Ministry of Health as saying that Soviet doctors are preparing to "resume work" in WPA if it "stops serving political aims."

A newsletter to keep us in tune with our brothers and sisters in the USSR and Eastern Europe is Newswire, published by Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, P.O. Box 1122, Wheaton, IL 60189-9944). SGA broadcasts evangelistic programs reaching throughout the USSR. David Fisher, director of SGA's "Radio Academy of Sciences" (RADAS), is always looking for good stories of Christians active in science and technology to broadcast. Armed with his tape recorder, Dave can be found at sessions of ASA Annual Meetings, or you can write to him at SGA. Planning to travel to the USSR or Eastern Europe for scientific meetings? You can enrich your trip by seeking out fellow believers who need encouragement. Take along a Bible or New Testament in the appropriate language (available from the American Bible Society) to leave behind as a gift.

Another religious minority of concern to Premier Gorbachev is the USSR's large (and growing) Islamic population, particularly in the southern republics, where Soviet occupation of Afghanistan has been decidedly unpopular. Many observers doubt that real peace will follow the planned Soviet withdrawal. In a sense the Soviet occupation merely interrupted the incessant intertribal wars Afghans have been fighting for centuries. But Christians in touch with the Afghan situation are praying that "God's spirit of peace will supersede all else, and that few casualties will occur." (We took that phrase from the newsletter of a group standing by to send teachers to Kabul again as soon as the situation permits. Interested? Jack Irvine, who once taught in Kabul, could give you the scoop. Contact him at P.O. Box 5453, Walnut Creek, CA 94506.--Ed.)

Shouldn't we all stand ready to serve God anywhere in the world, for any length of time? Charles Hummel, ASA president and director of IVCF Faculty Ministries, reports a record attendance of 18,700 at the December missions conference, Urbana '87. Some 5,900 students committed their lives to overseas missionary service, with another 9,100 pledging to pray about that possibility. Several hundred planned to work in a dozen IVCF Overseas Training Camps this summer (at a cost of some $2,500 per student) to get cracking while still in college. Serving "wherever God wants us" may be catching on.

We picked up what may be the ultimate iron-curtain irony in the April issue of Mission Frontiers (Monthly bulletin of the U.S. Center for World Mission, 1605 Elizabeth St., Pasadena, CA 91104. $4/yr.). They got it from Open Doors News Service (ODNS), founded four years ago to report news of Christians "living in restricted countries around the world." In May 1988, ODNS, an offshoot of the Brother Andrew ministry, became an independent news organization, now known as News Network International (P.O. Box 28001, Santa Ana, CA 92799).

At any rate, the news service credited "a reliable source" recently returned from Afghanistan. Evidently a fairly large number of Christian believers in the Soviet army were sent to duty in Afghanistan as a kind of punishment for maintaining their faith. How have some of them spent their spare time? By holding Bible studies and handing out Christian literature-in one of the most difficult countries to penetrate with the gospel. The reliable source doubts that there are more than a thousand Christians in the whole country, but reported that small groups of believers have been meeting in Kabul, very wary of being betrayed.

"Expect surprises in God's enterprises."

WORTHY OF NOTE

1. John Y. May published a two-part article titled "Christianity and Science: A Reappraisal," in the Fall 1987 and Spring 1988 issues of the Evangelical Journal of the Evangelical School of Theology, Myerstown, Pennsylvania. John, an ASA member trained in philosophy, expressed appreciation for the work of our Affiliation and cited over a dozen ASA scholars by name. Part I outlined the alleged historical controversy between Christian thought and science.

Part Il proposed some guidelines for dealing with points of apparent disagreement between science and theology, with specific reference to the Genesis creation narrative. John's work is a good example of how to carry ASA's message into the seminaries and the evangelical church as a whole.

2. Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, professor of interdisciplinary studies at Calvin College was one of four lecturers helping Fuller Theological Seminary of Pasadena, California, celebrate its 40th anniversary on 3 Nov 1987. Her lecture, "North American Evangelicalism and the Social Sciences: A Forty-Year Appraisal," was published in the Dec 1987 issue of Fuller's Theology News and Notes. The ASA figured prominently in Mary's lecture, which reviewed treatment of the social sciences in JASA from its 1949 beginnings (also in The Christian Scholars Review from its beginnings as The Gordon Review in 1955). Mary commented on the relationship of the social sciences to the natural sciences, on the question of how "hermeneutic" or interpretive (rather than merely "scientific") the social sciences should be, and on her view that evangelicals should play a role in guiding the social sciences in a more hermeneutic direction. Her thorough analysis was backed up by an excellent bibliography.

3. One of the other lectures in the Dec 1987 issue of Theology News and Notes was that of theologian Carl F. H. Henry. In "The Uneasy Conscience Revisited: Current Theological, Ethical, and Social Concerns," he reviewed social trends since publication of his 1947 book, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. His 1987 address was a stirring call to serve God with our whole being: our "awesome imperative as Christian scholars is to address the divided mind and civilizational turmoil of modernity. The loss of biblical theism takes its steady toll as world-wisdom declines from theism to humanism and then from humanism to animalism, the ne_o-paganism of our time." Henry was the theological keynoter at the Imago Dei conference in June.

4. William A. Durbin, Jr., of Cary, North Carolina, had a thoughtfid review of Yale biophysicist Harold J. Morowitz's book, Cosmic Joy and Local Pain: Musings of a Mystic Scientist (Scribner's, 1988), in the May 13 issue of Christianity Today. The review was titled "What Kind of God Do You Get from Science?" In it Bill said that what Morowitz found is not the personal God of his Jewish heritage but the god of nature described by 17th- century philosopher Benedict Spinoza, "a god of theory, as detached from real life as a musing philosopher on idyllic sabbatical"-which is what Morowitz was while writing the book. (This review will also appear in our Sept 1988 issue of Perspectives.)

5. Daniel L. Diaz, grad student in molecular biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, spotted a reference to ASA in the April 21 issue of Nature, of all places. It occurred in a book review by V. Paul Marston, senior lecturer in the history of science at Lancashire Polytechnic in Preston, U.K., under the title "Back to Reality?" The two books reviewed were Observation and Objectivity (Oxford, 1987) and Objective Knowledge (IVP-UK, 1987), both of which evidently grapple with the philosophical situation that has existed since logical empiricism died in the 1960s. Marston identified the second book as a compendium of articles by evangelical Christians addressing the question of objectivity in their individual disciplines, adding that such a viewpoint should be of interest (if for no other reason) because of "the high religious commitment of so many scientists who built our present world-view." The reviewer's closing comment was that it "well represents the current general thinking of Anglo-American Christians who take this particular position (such as those of the American Scientific Affiliation), and as such is a useful library addition."

6. Dan Diaz also noted on the same page (Nature, v. 332, p. 750, 21 Apr 1988) that Paul Marston had two other brief reviews under the title "Biology and the Bible." Those two new books were R. J. Berry's God and Evolution (Hodder) and D. C. Spanner's Biblical Creation and the Theory of Evolution (Paternoster). "Both books usefully illustrate how a belief in a Biblical world-view can be consistent with modem empirical biology." (Paul Marston, "Sam" Berry, and Doug Spanner all participated in the 1985 ASA/RSCF conference at Oxford.-Ed.)

7. Donald E. DeGraaf, professor of physics at the U. of Michigan-Flint, called our attention to a letter in Science (v. 240, p. 375, 22 Apr 1988) from Jonathan H. Cilley, Sr., of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Commenting on a news report in Science of a "fiery blast" by David Baltimore at the opening of the 1988 AAAS meeting, Cilley took issue with Baltimore's insistence that evolution "is the basic fundament of all biological science," and especially with Baltimore's characterization of those who think otherwise as embodying "ignorance, superstition, and fear at their most nefarious." Cilley's letter suggests that the Bible's "cultural mandate" provides an alternative funda-. ment for scientific research and a counter to "animal rightists" who base their actions on "the evolutionist's position that there is no qualitative difference between man and other animal species." (We can't remember whether Jonathan Cilley, now 72, has been ' an ASA member or not, but as a professor of physiology at Temple he was on the Federation Christian Fellowship mailing list. He has a B.S. from Wheaton and Ph.D. from Northwestem.-Ed.)

8. David L . Swift of the Division of Environmental Health Engineering, Johns Hopkins, noted a full page titled "Where Science and Theology Meet" in The Scientist (Feb 22). The page was an excerpt from John Polkinghome's book, One World: The Interaction of Science and Theology (Princeton, 1987). Polkinghome was a fellow of the Royal Society and professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge before resigning to study for the Anglican priesthood in 1979. (Some of us met him at the 1965 ASA/RSCF "Oxford Conference," but he is known to many ASAers for his fine little book, The Way the World Is, published by Eerdmans in 1983.-Ed.) The excerpt from his new book argues that "it is to be anticipated that our encounter with God will not always accord with prior expectations" since even "the scientific view of the world is full of surprises."

ASA/CSCA

9. Later this spring, The Scientist ("die newspaper for the science professional") probably surprised some readers with another science/theology encounter. The Feb 8 issue ran a news story on a proposal by Abdus Salam, a native of what is now Pakistan, to create an International Center for Science to address "basic and applied science and technology problems of interest in the developing world." Salam, professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College, London since 1957, almost single-handedly founded the International Center of Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy in 1964, and in 1979 shared the Nobel prize in physics with two others for developing a satisfactory theory of the so-called weak nuclear force. In the same issue, The Scientist also featured a two-page interview with Salam, with three questions and answers about his Islamic faith set out as a sidebar. Salam, though not endorsing Islamic fundamentalism in its current political form, saw no conflict between the timeless spiritual message of the Koran and "matters on which physics is silent and will remain so." The matter-of-fact tone of that interchange was noted by a reader who wrote, "Can you imagine how it would have been treated if the interviewee had been a conservative Christian instead of a Muslim?" His letter to the editor cleverly paraphrased the sidebar to put reverence for the Bible into a hypothetical physicist's mouth. In defense, The Scientist's editor noted that the periodical had earlier published an excerpt of Christian physicist John Polkinghorne's book (see item 8 above).

10. John Wiester of ASA's Committee for Integrity in Science Education has begun writing a regular column in the semi-annual Origins Research. John's "Teaching Science" column will be devoted entirely to the many responses to the committee's booklet, Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy. In the Fall/Winter 1987 issue of OR he responded to criticisms of the booklet's first "open question" (on the origin of the universe). In the current Spring/Summer 1988 issue he responds to criticisms of the second question, "Where did the first animals come from?" The series gives John a chance to direct attention to what the booklet actually said, rather than to what some reviewers claimed to find "between the lines." The committee hopes to have revisions ready soon for a third printing of Teaching Science. The current Origins Research has a lot of other good stuff in it, including an index of all previous issues, the scoop on their computer bulletin board (CREVO/BBS), and a running dialog on the role of natural selection in macro-evolution. (Origins Research, P.O. Box 38069, Colorado Springs, CO 80937-8069; edited by ASA member Dennis Wagner.)


WAY TO GO, GUYS

 1986, while ASA's Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy was being written, John Morris of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) published an important Impact article in ICR's Acts & Facts. After meeting with Glen Kuban and hearing Glen's interpretation of alleged "man-tracks" in cretaceous limestone in the Paluxy River in Texas, Morris wrote that "it would now be improper for creationists to continue to use the Paluxy data as evidence against evolution."

That reversal occurred at just the right time to broaden a section in Teaching Science encouraging teachers to present the human side of science by showing how mistakes have been corrected by further work. To help cool the so-called creation/evolution controversy, that section suggested balancing things a bit by telling the roughly parallel stories of Piltdown Man on one side and the Paluxy River "man-tracks" on the other.

To the authors' surprise, "Correcting Past Mistakes" drew strong criticism from both sides. Some young-earthers said it was unfair to compare an honest mistake (Paluxy) with a deliberate fraud (Piltdown). More than a few defenders of evolution were irked that any credit at all had been given to creationists, claiming that in both cases it was 11 scientists, not creationists," who straightened things out. A few changes were made in that section in a second printing in 1987, but only to give a more accurate account of the work of Glen Kuban, Ronnie Hastings, and others at the Paluxy site.

Acts & Facts has since made another correction in youngearth creationist thinking. Its May 1988 Impact article (No. 179) asked "Has the Speed of Light Changed?" In that article Gerald E. Aardsma, head of astro/geophysics at the ICR Graduate School, reviewed the argument for a drastic decline presented in Trevor Norman and Barry Setterfield's The Atomic Constants, Light, and Time (1987). Several years before, Setterfield had extrapolated backward from 163 measurements of the speed of fight, going back to the l7th century. His calculations were generally welcomed by young-earthers as new evidence that the universe is much smaller and consequently much younger than is currently accepted. Setterfield's extrapolated value was heavily influenced by one of the earliest measurements, which he seemed to accept without questioning its precision.

Now an ICR professor has admitted that "even a cursory glance at the data" reveals that Setterfield's analysis is inappropriate and hence his conclusions invalid. More detailed critiques were to be published in the June 1988 Creation Research Society Quarterly, Aardsma said. But he warned: "At the present time, it appears that general support by the creationist community of the decay of the speed of light hypothesis is not warranted by the data upon which the hypothesis rests."


A PROGRAM EVOLVES-BY DESIGN

In the March issue of Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Professor Robert C. Newman of the Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, amazed readers by "creating life" with his computer. Well, that wasn't exactly what he did. Fascinated by John von Neumann's Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata (1966) and the simplifications introduced by Christopher G. Langton (in "Self-Reproduction in Cellular Automata," Physica 10D, pp. 135-144, 1984), Bob programmed his personal computer to follow Langton's "transition rules" defining a minimal self-reproducing system, in this case a geometric pattern of numbers appearing on the computer screen.

Perspectives published Bob's program as an Appendix to his paper. That way, others could try it out and perhaps carry it beyond the 153rd transition, which was enough to satisfy Bob that the system worked and to enable him to draw some conclusions about the origin of real life. Mark A. Ludwig of  Tucson, Arizona, did more than that. Newman's paper inspired him to develop "a highly optimized machine-language-based version which would run on an IBM PC or compatible computer in a reasonable amount of time." Mark's program requires 640K of memory and runs with a Color Graphics Adapter or Hercules Monochrome Adapter.

"The program is really quite nice," Mark says. "It allows the use of an array of up to 200 by 200 elements, it can advance the system by about 40 steps a minute on a PC (and faster on an AT), and it allows for modifying the initialization file and the transition rules, as well as saving the configuration at any point in time." Now he has put the program together with a little manual on disk and is making it available to other ASA members for $5 to help defray the cost of development and distribution. (Order from Mark Ludwig, American Eagle Engineering, Inc., P.O. Box 41401, Tucson, AZ 85717).

Of course, what Bob Newman wanted to explore was not an optimized ("evolved") system but the simplest possible self-replicating system, as a model for the spontaneous generation of life from nonlife, or abiogenesisCalculations based on his minimal model indicated that the probability of a strictly spontaneous abiogenesis (that is, without a "programmed" input of external information) would be something like a hundred powers of ten less than 10-20 the probability Richard Dawkins regards as a threshold for a serious model of abiogenesis anywhere in the universe (The Blind Watchmaker, 1986, pp. 143-146). Dawkins's calculations are based on evidence that it took a billion yezqr5 for life to appear on earth and the assumption that 102u earth-like planets may exist throughout the universe.

Bob Newman concluded that unless there's a flaw in his calculations, no model of abiogenesis makes mathematical sense without the concept of programmed "design." Design requirements on such a scale are to him a clear fingerprint of the Creator as Divine Designer. Is Mark Ludwig now modeling Designer input into the next step: development of the simplest form of life to something more complex?

(This computer/designer question reminded us of something else. We've occasionally thought about the "missing transitional forms" in the evolution of our make of computer. Kaypro began manufacturing a Model 1, then shifted to a Model 2. In 1984 we bought a 2X, no doubt indicating a micro-adaptation to a changing environment in which different computer designs competed with each other. But the next model we heard of was a Kaypro 10, now with a hard disk drive in addition to the older floppy drive.

An example of "punctuated equilibrium"? In a rapidly changing "climate," Models 3 through 9 were probably developed but became extinct almost immediately, certainly before any widespread distribution. A few fossil machines may exist in a back room of the Kaypro factory but are unlikely to be discovered elsewhere, in contrast to certain other models scattered around the world-including the "living fossil" on which this is being typed. Arguments might arise about whether the Kaypro 10 is a "descendant with modification" of the Kaypro 2, or was independently designed: If the gap between 2 and 10 was bridged in a series of intermediate steps, why don't we see evidence of those transitional forms?-Ed.)

MODELING THE "REAL" WORLD

Computer simulation of real-life disaster situations is a practical way to give certain people (such as airline pilots) experience in dealing with emergencies without endangering lives or destroying property. Computer simulation also has many useful theoretical applications, as illustrated in the above story. For example, some fantastically realistic synthetic mountain landscapes are being generated on computer screens by fractal geometry, a set of "transition rules" that seems capable of turning "chaos" into the kind of "order" seen in the real world.

To some observers, simulations of a high degree of order arising from chaos show what "chance alone" can accomplish. To others, like
Robert Newman, they show the absolute necessity for a "programmer outside the program" in any simulated world. What about the real world? Theists hold that God is outside the world but also functions within the world. As theists, Christians see Jesus Christ as the perfect exemplar of that situation: "God with us" (Emmanuel) in our earthly experience. Christians are not always in agreement about (1) how much we really know about the world; (2) how much we can know about it; or (3) how our personal knowledge of Christ affects our scientific understanding of the world, and vice-versa.

In his classic The Christian View of Science and Scripture (1954), theologian Bernard Ramm expressed doubt that scientific knowledge could ever make belief in God a philosophical necessity. But what about the act of scientific discovery itself? When a programmer models a complex system, doesn't that very act (or any other exercise of creativity) model God's act of creation? The situation has a remarkable ring to anyone familiar with the biblical drama of good and evil. The joyful "play" of creating, or programming something that works, can bring one into close harmony with the "real" Creator, or it can beget a prideful arrogance of supposed autonomy. Such arrogance expresses itself by turning creative play into exploitation for self-satisfaction-or "just for the Hell of it."

Traces of our basic, fundamental, or "original" sin have begun to infect the computer world like a destructive virus. Indeed, computer users are being warned about "computer viruses" that may lurk among useful programs available from electronic bulletin boards. Virus programs masquerade as legitimate by performing some desirable function for a while. Then without warning they cause havoc by erasing or corrupting other files, sometimes flashing sarcastic messages on the screen ("SUCKER!") while destroying data or permanently wrecking the operating system. Some are designed to hide themselves or replicate inside other programs, just like real viruses.

ASA managing editor Nancy Hanger has heard of a few nonvirulent strains that can nevertheless cause panic when run on a personal computer. Evidently the joke "virus" named DRAIN causes the computer to act normally until prompted correctly. The screen then blanks of all its text, proclaiming that a fatal error has occurred in "drive A." The computer then informs the operator that there is "water in drive A," which it proceeds to "drain" and "spin dry"replete with sound effects. Drive A is then "refilled" (with clean water?), and the operator is prompted to continue with his or her previous work on screen.

For that sort of thing, diabolical is hardly too strong (or too biblical) a word--even if DRAIN doesn't actually wipe out all the data in one's computer. In the biblical drama, Satan's prideful effort to "model" God twisted good into evil, injecting willful destruction into our human program like a virus. That should wam us as scientists to be humble and cautious in our modeling efforts-even when we're having fun. The real world, of which we are a part, has some "bad sectors" in it.

KURT'S LEGACY LIVES ON

The first annual A. Kurt Weiss Memorial Lecture was given at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center on 27 March 1987 to the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. The lecture, on "The Moral Basis for Medical Science," was given by D. Elton Trueblood,
professor-at-large for Earlharn College in Richmond, Indiana. After nine years as professor of philosophy and chaplain at Stanford, Trueblood served Earlham as professor of philosophy and religion from 1945 to his retirement in 1970.

An adaptation of Trueblood's lecture was published in the Winter/Spring 1988 issue of the Christian Medical Society Journal. The 87-year-old scholar spoke of the importance of ethics as a basis for all science and for the medical sciences in particular, because the ability to help people "is also the ability to harm people." Having lived every day of the 20th century so far, he said, he had never known a time when moral issues were more important for medicine than at this moment. He endorsed both Socratic moral realism and Christian theism as providing a moral basis for medicine:

Where do I begin in finding the right in any situation? I personally believe in the living God and that He is the source of truth. I believe He is like Jesus Christ. I believe that His will can in part be known by poor people like ourselves, but I do not claim that this is easy. It is very important in this modem world for us to seek out and to love the challenge of deep thinking. We cannot expect easy answers. Therefore to establish the moral basis of medical science we must begin with an ethical realism. Unless we believe that there is a real and tangible right there is no point whatever in trying to discover what is right. The denial of the real right would cut all of the nerves controlling our moral effort. Why try if you think that there is nothing to be found?

The A. Kurt Weiss Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the Christian Medical Coalition at the U. of Oklahoma. Kurt, a former president of ASA (1979-81), was a much loved professor of physiology who died on 13 Feb 1987, soon after arrangements to set up the Coalition had been completed. According to Kurt's colleague Ken Dormer, the annual lectureship immediately became a memorial to Kurt.

Another living memorial to Kurt Weiss is the ongoing Federation Christian Fellowship (FCF), which he and biochemist Walt Hearn founded almost 30 years ago. In May, the 72nd annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology drew some 20,000 scientists to Las Vegas. On May 3, at the FCF breakfast at the Flamingo Hilton, about 40 participants remembered Kurt and heard a talk by ASA executive director Bob Herrmann. A number of regular FCFers are also ASAers. One who backed up Bob's enthusiasm for ASA was John Halver of the U. of Washington, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and author of the preface to ASA's Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy.

CARING FOR GOD'S CREATION

A t our 1987 Annual Meeting on "Global Resources and the Environment" we learned that Joe Sheldon, and several other ASAers were on their way to participate in the first meeting of The North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology (NACCE) in Indiana. They must have done good work. In 1988 NACCE is moving ahead with a number of significant programs to awaken churches to the ecological crisis and draw on Christian resources to take better care of the earth.

This summer and fall, six regional NACCE workshops on "Implementing Christian Ecology" are being held around the country. On Oct 11-15, a forum on "Reclaiming the Covenant: Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation" will take place in Madison, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, materials from the 1987 National Conference are available in print, including the Proceedings, Christian Ecology: Building an Environmental Ethic for the Twenty-First Century ($12); a Participant List, with specific interests and expertise of the 400 participants ($5); selected papers ($3 each) and tapes ($6).

Also available are a 1988 NACCE Prospectus on Conference history and goals; an Implementation Document for use by churches; and the NACCE Newsletter, Firmament: A Quarterly of Christian Ecology ($12/yr). The NACCE Publication Dept. also sells such books as the Calvin Center's 1980 volume, Earthkeeping (Eerdmans), edited by ASA's 1983 keynoter, Loren Wilkinson, and recommended by our 1987 keynoter, Vernon Ehlers. To get a copy of their booklist or other information, write to NACCE, P.O. Box 14305, San Francisco, CA 94114.

NACCE was asked by the United Nations Environmental Program to promote the 1988 "Environmental Sabbath" on June 3-5, urging people of all religious traditions to exarnine the ecological implications of their faiths. In its own programs, NACCE has a broad ecumenical base but is distinctly and explicitly Christian. Evangelicals have a leadership role in the person of Calvin DeWitt of the U. of Wisconsin. The names of others who have participated in programs of the AuSable Institute in Michigan, such as Wesley Granberg-Michaelson (author of Tending the Garden) appear frequently in NACCE literature. ASA member Wil Lepkowski, a senior editor of Chemical & Engineering News, co-authored with his wife Helene one of the 1987 Conference papers available from NACCE ("Behold, I Make All Things New: Opportunities and Obstacles in Relating Christian Salvation Belief to Ecological Renewal").

PERSONALS

Michael R. Johnson works for the South African Geological Survey, headquartered in Pretoria. He has been reading galley proofs for his Genesis, Geology, and Catastrophism: A Critique of Creationist Science and Biblical Literalism, to be published by Paternoster Press in England. Mike says his overall approach is similar to that taken by Richard Bube and Howard Van Till in their writings. His book majors on the geological implications of
11 six-day creationism," with some reference to problems raised by Genesis 1-11 for the "strict inerrancy" position. It includes a short discussion of evolution. Mike says Florida geologist William Tanner was a great help in reading early drafts of the geology chapters, providing "the necessary encouragement and friendly criticism."

David L. Newquist of Kearney, Nebraska, is currently head of a university physics department in Taichung, People's Republic of China. On loan from the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, David is valued for his ability to teach physics in Mandarin Chinese. How do we know that? From his mother's postcard to Charles Crown of Denver. Reading the Apr/May ASA Newsletter before sending it on to David, Mrs. Newquist saw our note on the broken ankle Chuck suffered on the ASA China tour last summer. As a former longtime resident of Denver, she suggested some Colorado contacts to help translate the Chinese medical report. She sent her postcard to the Newsletter office for us to add Chuck's street address.

PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS: Experienced professional looking for full-tme teaching position in biblical studies & anthropology at college or secondary level. Willing to relocate. Excellent refs. Contact: Michael Markiewicz, 111 Ronald Ave., Birdsboro, PA 19508.