Will the work of science proceed without us?

The less we are filled with pride the more we advance in virtue, for this more than anything else is virtue, to hold ourselves in check. Just as the sharper our sight is, the more fully do we realize how far we are from the sky, so the more we advance in virtue, so much more do we learn the difference between God and ourselves. This is no small part of true wisdom, to be able to know our own worth; for he knows himself best who accounts himself to be nothing…

  - John Chrysostom, Comment on Isaiah 14:13

“And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not…”

  - Jeremiah 45:5

I get the feeling that certain Christians working in the scientific arena are pursuing a kind of ongoing “gotcha” game – always looking for reports and other evidence to support their favored view of origins and to put down those with whom they disagree.

Should science be a tool for vaunting ourselves and our cherished views? Do we seek pride of place or priority of position within the Christian community, or beyond? We should seek these not at all, but rather work together with all our brethren to discover the best ways of using our scientific acumen to glorify God and love our neighbors.

During a conference last week I chatted with a representative of a major Christian foundation, who lamented the unwillingness of brothers and sisters to collaborate for a broader Christian front in the sciences. He expressed concern that the level of self-interest, orbiting around particular views of origins and the age of the earth, is keeping Christians from a more meaningful presence in this arena.

The more we learn about the cosmos, the more we should grow in humility and the virtues of forbearance and love. Instead, every new insight which supports our preferred view becomes another club in the arsenal for hammering away at brethren who yet cling to their peculiar – as we see them – benighted views.

“The less we are filled with pride the more we advance in virtue, for this more than anything else is virtue, to hold ourselves in check.” It’s not good science to believe that we have arrived at the final and unalterable view in matters where good people with sound minds continue to disagree. Humility and true virtue should draw us together for conversation, prayer, and collaborative discovery, not divide us into camps, each one of which is determined to vaunt itself over the others.

While Christians jockey for pride of place in their opinions on cosmogony and evolution, the world of science presses ahead into some fairly scary areas: Neuroscience seems bent on redefining free will, which has implications, for example, for courtroom procedures; transhumanists fantasize about $6 million people; and environmentalists look to the UN to sanction their geo-engineering schemes, regardless of how sovereign states might object.

We cannot engage such subjects if all our creativity, energy, and time are devoted to vaunting and defending our unique views of this, that, or the other. We must “learn the difference between God and ourselves” – God can know such matters perfectly, we cannot. Let us account ourselves as nothing but servants of the living God and His redeemed people, and seekers after His truth through the various disciplines of science.

We’ll not be able to contribute to resolving the big questions of science as long as we insist on keeping our peculiar views – Ichyrus-like – the highest one in the Christians-in-the-sciences sky.