Science and faith in the news
Charles Townes, the man who didn’t quite invent the laser legally even if he did technically, was awarded the Templeton Prize recently. Just one example of what I keep on saying to people: being a Christian doesn’t mean you can’t be a scientist. The evolution debate has often encouraged people in this belief. I’d just ask them to look back previous to that debate, where the Christian faith of scientists including Isaac Newton drove their investigative endeavours. They believed God was amazing, and had made an amazing world. They studied his creation. Science grew out of faith. They’re not incompatible, in fact they’re complementary and self-referential. (Just look at quantum physics for an example of the latter…)
Matthew @ 07:52, March 10, 2005 to News | Comments (8)
Comments:
Rory
One of the principles of the Baha’i faith is that science and religion should be in harmony. Awards like this really please me. Yeah. It’s cool. I don’t really have much else to say. It’s almost 1am here in Ontario.
Comment added at 05:51, March 12, 2005
Matthew
Of course it’s cool – so many people have misconceptions about science and faith. Them being in harmony isn’t a principle of Christianity, it’s a natural consequence of studying the Bible.
Comment added at 10:41, March 12, 2005
Mr E
Could you please explain your reference to quantum physics?
Comment added at 16:21, March 18, 2005
Matthew
Only if you use a real email address on your comments (and stop linking to a website that obviously isn’t yours…) :)
Comment added at 15:29, March 19, 2005
Mr E
But you already know my email address.
Comment added at 23:17, March 19, 2005
Matthew
That doesn’t mean that you’re free from the ruuules.
Quantum physics is the level of physics which starts getting into philosophy (hence the possibility of doing a joint Physics/Philosophy degree). Science and faith are self-referential because (firstly) you need faith to believe in quantum physics (because it seemingly goes against many other pieces of science) and (secondly) because of the whole philosophy link leading to theology etc.
I’m not the person to ask about this really – my friend Chris knows a lot more (seeing as he did Physics A level and I didn’t) and I got most of what I know from him.
Comment added at 08:55, March 20, 2005
Mr E
It doesn’t say your own email address is required.
Quantum physics can certainly bring up lots of philosophical questions but it is by no means the only area of physics that does. Cosmology and astronomy talk about origins of the universe and stuff. Then there are more abstract philosophical questions about the whole basis of mathematics and science: Can the universe be explained purely in terms of maths? Is mathematics simply a tool created by humans to help us describe the universe or does it actually exist in some Platonic reality? Personally I like to think that maths does have a more fundamental importance, and the use of it in physics and engineering are more along the lines of a human tool to explain things. Metaphysics, metamathematics, philosophy of science… All interesting subjects. Perhaps I could do a module or two at university.
Comment added at 14:33, March 20, 2005
Matthew
So whose email address do you put down? ;) It’s your name, your website and your comment. So why should it be any email address but your own?
And did I say quantum physics was the only place? (Hang on a sec… yeah, I kind of implied it. Never mind.)
Comment added at 15:43, March 20, 2005
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