Let Your Voice
Be Heard:
SCIENCE & FAITH: Not Mutually Exclusive
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by Christina Villa
Ever since Martin Luther called Copernicus “a fool who went against Holy Writ” for proposing that the earth orbited the sun and not the other way around, science and religion have been, in one way or another, seemingly at odds. Once the Scientific Revolution really got rolling in the 17th century, the churches — Catholic and Protestant alike — had their hands full trying to reconcile, denounce, deny, and at times accommodate these new ways of explaining the world.
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Justice and Witness Ministries
StillSpeaking
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GOD SPEAKS in many ways through many voices.
Today, one of God’s most provocative voices is
SCIENCE.
Four hundred years later, there are still churches and scientists at odds
The letter acknowledges that science and faith each address questions
“Many today are hungering for an authentic spirituality that is
over such issues as the causes of global warming and the teaching of
“that are as old as Scripture and as new as the latest discoveries of
intellectually honest and at home in a scientific era. They are
evolution in public schools. These debates, with those who interpret
physics and biology.” Does the universe have a purpose? What does it
searching for a new kind of wisdom to live by, one that is scientifically
the Bible literally on one side and incredulous secular-minded
mean to be human?
sophisticated, technologically advanced, morally just, ecologically
people on the other, are frequently, in Marilynne Robinson’s words,
Echoing John Calvin’s metaphor that nature is a “shining garment” in
“tedious and fruitless.” Robinson, a novelist who writes frequently about science and religion, is also a member of the Congregational United Church of Christ in Iowa City, Iowa. She wonders at some religious people and biblical literalists who feel such a fierce need to deny science its claim. “O ye of little faith,” she has written. “Let them subscribe to Scientific American for a year and then tell me if their sense of the grandeur of God is not greatly enlarged by what they have learned from it.” Robinson also rejects the privileging of science over religion, “the notion that science and religion are struggling for possession of a single piece of turf, and science holds the high ground and gets to
This point of view — one that embraces both science and religion and does not see them at odds with each other — is reflected in the
If that sounds like a tall order, the United Church of Christ is at work
that God yearns for us to understand nature more fully and to love it
to make it a reality. For decades, the UCC has affirmed that faith and
more deeply. God speaks in many ways and through many voices.
science are not mutually exclusive, both denominationally, with General
Today, one of God’s most provocative voices is science.”
Synod reflections beginning in the 1980s, and ecumenically in our work with Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist and Disciples of
The letter also seeks to stake out a religious stance that speaks to a
Arising: Pastoral Letter on Faith Engaging Science and Technology,”
“searching and restless culture” that often lacks guidance on the
by then-General Minister and President John H. Thomas, with the
moral issues raised by technological advances. “The word that we
Our ecumenical efforts have included a longstanding justice advocacy
UCC Science and Technology Network.
speak…must be informed by science but grounded deeply in faith.
for the teaching of evolution in public schools, staffed by Jan Resseger,
Lee C. Barrett, theologian and professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary, comments on the letter: “We must not pretend that advances in scientific theories can answer the deepest spiritual
“In fact,” she continues, “there is no moment in which, no perspective
church must recognize that the language of new scientific models can
from which science as science can regard human life and say that there
be used to articulate our central values and beliefs about God’s
is a beautiful, terrible mystery in it all, a great pathos.”
creativity and love.”
SPRING/SUMMER 2013
which God is revealed and concealed, the letter asserts, “We believe
United Church of Christ’s 2008 theological statement, “A New Voice
choose the weapon.”
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sustainable, and spiritually alive.”
questions of the human heart and make faith obsolete. Rather, the
Christ partners.
“The church must recognize that the language of new scientific models can be used to articulate our central values and beliefs about God’s creativity and love.” StillSpeaking
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the UCC’s Minister for Public Education and Witness. “Often today, we hear about the teaching of evolution in public schools framed as though it were a debate between people of faith and people of no faith. [We seek] to assist people of faith who experience no conflict between science and their faith and who embrace science as one way of appreciating the beauty and complexity of God’s creation.” At General Synod in 2007 we recognized Nobel laureate and 2005 Templeton Prize winner Charles Townes, a member of First Congregational Church of Berkeley, CA. The Templeton Prize honors those who advance knowledge in spiritual matters and is the world’s best known religion prize. Townes, a physicist, is a co-inventor of the laser and a leading advocate for the convergence of science and religion. “I think it’s a big mistake when people try to separate science and religion,” Townes said in a 2007 interview. “I’m very pleased that the UCC is open-minded and recognizes the importance of science. [Science and religion] tell each other something. Science is an attempt to understand how the universe and human life work. Religion asks what is the meaning and purpose of this human life? If there’s a meaning, it must have something to do with how it works. If we learn well how it works, that is going to shed some light on the meaning.” Christina Villa is the Editor of StillSpeaking magazine.
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