Isn’t
science wonderful? – Part 2By the Revd David Burgess
You’ll remember, of course, that six years ago the arrival of broadband at the Vicarage prompted me to write on scientific and technical progress and its impact on the Christian faith. You do remember that article, don’t you…?
We tend to think of technology in our society as relatively stable, but I think in the intervening years we’ve seen quite a change – putting it rather simplistically, everything is smaller, faster and cheaper than it was six years ago.
Our lives have changed alongside that progress. Things that were in their infancy or just taking off then are established features of the way we do things now. Amazon is my bookshop of choice (about which I still feel slightly guilty – did I indirectly play a part in closing down, for example, Chapter One in Chesham?). All my banking is now done online. I generally make a pig’s ear of handling my mobile phone and my MP3 player, much to the amusement of my children, though I’m comfortable with computers; a strange combination. I know what social networking sites are, but don’t touch them. Neither do I blog, though I know several clergy and at least two bishops who do.
Another parallel feature on the rise in recent years is an intellectual one; an atheist standpoint (mainly but not exclusively driven by science) that seeks not only to promote its own cause but also actively to denigrate statements or opinions offered from religion. Richard Dawkins is the scientist mainly in the public eye for espousing this view (sometimes called ‘militant atheism’); Philip Pullman is a principal literary figure; and a very contemporary discussion point is whether or not Stephen Hawking is now in the same camp.
Christianity needs to get up to speed. We need to separate the traditional from the habitual, for example – do we do things a certain way because they form a core part of our faith, or because that’s the way we’ve always done it? We need to work out whose side we’re on – I’ve been part of too many discussions where people seem intent on arguing their way out of their declared position of faith because they’d thought it was clever to do so. And we need to take note of the here and now. Scientific ignorance is by no means limited to the Christian community, but we’ve got to get to grips at least with the basics of what’s going on in the world.
Christianity or science? Actually, you don’t have to choose; you can have, enjoy and benefit from both. In spite of what you might read or hear, there are men and women of faith in every part of the scientific community. It’s just that most of them know (as should we) which comes first, and which serves the other. Priority is everything.