Science and Christian Faith

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 772, 7 May 1954, Page 6

Science and Christian Faith

"THE relation between natural. science "and Christian life is ‘not simply the Telation between the man of science and the man of faith, declared Dr. John Baillie when -he spoke to the British Association at Edinburgh about three years ago. It reached its most poignant form, he said, when the man of science and the man of faith were one and the same. Dr. Baillie’s thesis wes later taken up in a series of BBC talks by a group of young scientists, who were also Christians — they discussed the way in which they had been able to reconcile their personal religious faith with the Science that claimed their attention day by day.. But this didn’t satisfy some listeners, who wrote complaining that while the speakers had described their faith and their science they had not properly related the two. "When I showed these letters to the speakers," said the Rev. E. H. Robertson, BBC Assistant Head of Religious Broadcasting, "one of them pointed out that the wrong. kind of relation was bei:.g asked for. In comparing science With faith, we were not balancing two things of the same quality; we were comparing things, or rather relating things, which had quite different quali-

ties. He suggested that a better picture of the relation between science and faith might be the plan and elevation of a building. The only relation between these two is a single line, but they are both required if we are to see the building as a whole." As the discussion continued, it Became obvious that there was need for clear thinking about the way in which science could be-expected to be related to faith, and with that in mind the

young scientists enlarged their team and prepared a series of talks on the sub-. ject Wkere Science and Faith Meet. These. talks, transcribed for broad- | casting in other countries, are now being heard from 2YC, which_ started the series last week with one by James_ Torrance, philosopher and theologian, | on "The Nature of the Problem." On Monday, May 10, at 8.15 p.m., a physi- | cist, Dr. Donald MacKay, will discuss | "Looking for Connections." Dr. MacKay | takes an analogy from the relation. be- | tween the two different theories of light, | saying that physicists today. must hold together both the wave theory and the corpuscular theory of light. A psychologist, Malcolm Jeeves, next examines the thinking on the problem, giving his talk the provocative title "Wishful Unthinking." Another physicist, Dr. Robert Boyd. takes his material from the study of the hydrogen bomb, and calls his talk "The Universe Around Us"; and the series ends with a summing up by Doctor Oliver Barclay, a zoologist, who has taken part in.the discussions on science and faith from the beginning. _ In introducing the series Mr. Robertson said they made a very serious attempt, not to answer al! the questions, but to show which are the right questions. to ask in the relation between science and faith, —