RE: Today's blogs 2

> The separation model is not my favorite; it can justly be criticized as a
> form of intellectual schizophrenia, if pushed too far. But surely, Galileo
> was right: The Bible tells how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.
> Geocentrists we are not; the Bible and science do have very different
> purposes, and religious ways of knowing must not be equated with or reduced
> to "rational" ways of knowing.

If we accept the premise that there should be some integration of faith and science, we then need to look at the question of what we should expect Christian science to look like. This is part of the much larger problem of being in the world but not of it. Many attempts to produce a "Christian" version of things do so in a superficial manner. A trip to the average Christian bookstore will find many examples, e.g. poorly written novels featuring moral behavior and references to Christianity or pictures of Victorian "angels" that, as C.S. Lewis pointed out, look more likely to say "There, there dear" than "Fear not".

However, examination of Biblical directions on doing things reveals not so much emphasis on what to do or what approach to use, but instead an emphasis on ethical, diligent work of good quality. Thus, truly Christian work might not be all that different from non-Christian work in its content, but should be commendable in its quality and in its ethical standards (not that non-Christian work is necessarily deficient in these). Dorothy Sayers argued that trying to make a play primarily an apologetic work, rather than aiming first at making a good play, causes the play to degenerate into propaganda and thus both a bad play and a bad witness.

The effort to set new standards for what science should do thus seems to me misguided. Rather, it would be more productive and convincing to do good work, whether or not it is labeled "science". The habitual use of claims that are deficient in quality and accuracy, and the use of unethical methods, are definitely not Christian approaches to anything.

    Dr. David Campbell
    Old Seashells
    University of Alabama
    Biodiversity & Systematics
    Dept. Biological Sciences
    Box 870345
    Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
    bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com

That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
Received on Tue May 24 18:26:45 2005