So far in this series we have published six interviews with professional scientists from different disciplines. We’ve learned about the work that they are doing, their personal Christian faith, and how the two go together – perhaps informing and enriching one another. I have thoroughly enjoyed speaking to our guests – who are all accomplished in their different fields which range from evolutionary biology and galactic archaeology to biochemistry and sociology – and have learned a great deal. I have been encouraged both by that fact that these highly accomplished scientists are contributing to their respective fields in tangible ways, and also by the fact that they are living out their faith in their work places and are committed to the truth of the Bible. One thing that is crystal clear from these past interviews is that there is no conflict between their science and their faith, and more than that, they agree that their faith actually informs and strengthens their resolve to do good science.
We still have several interviews with scientist in different fields lined up for this series, but I thought that at this point I’d pause to share some of my experience in the sciences and my journey of faith.
I began my studies in Zoology & Physiology at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. From a young age I had a fascination with animals and spent countless hours watching the National Geographic channel and took any and every opportunity to go to the zoo. Growing up in Johannesburg we were also just a few hours drive from some beautiful game farms (safari parks) where you could see all the Big 5 in their natural habitat (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, and leopard) – and also all manner of other interesting critters, like dung beetles rolling their little balls of dung along the path, or snakes hanging from trees – sometimes a little too close for comfort. But one of my favourite things to do was to camp there (in well fenced areas of course). To me there is nothing quite so majestic as camping under the vast African sky on a warm summer’s night – sometimes just sleeping under the stars, tent abandoned. Looking back, I think that’s where my faith began in some way – looking up at the sparkling sky and being brought to an overwhelming sense of awe – even as a young boy – and being brought to wonder where it all comes from, and why is stirs the soul as it does.
This all led me to a real passion for the natural world. Be it plants, insects, reptiles, microscopic algae, or towering mammals, I wanted to learn about it all. And the more I did, the more impressed I was with how it all seemed to fit together and work in unison – the biological world just seemed so well crafted. So, I spent several years at the University of Johannesburg and left with an undergrad degree in Zoology and Physiology, an Honours degree in Aquatic Health, and a cum laude Masters degree in Zoology where I focussed on ecological risk modelling and studying organismal responses at different levels of the food chain to toxicological perturbation. It was great fun and I had the opportunity to do fieldwork in some spectacular places. From there I spent several years in environmental consulting and then started my own small consultancy focussing on specialist aquatic health assessments. Several years later I found myself managing a marine biosecurity consultancy off the coast of South Africa where we worked closely with government and the aquaculture industry.
So, that’s some of my science background. But what about my Christian faith? Well, I became a Christian just before I finished high school, but only really began to take my faith very seriously right at the start of my master’s degree a few years later. It was a real journey – a story for another post perhaps – but that was definitely a defining time when I really began to understand who Jesus really is and that Christianity is not at all what we get shown in popular media, movies, and series for the most part. It was obvious to my friends and peers that something was happening and that I was really beginning to take my beliefs seriously – and that provoked some questions. Fair enough. My life was starting to look very different from what it had in many ways. Many of my friends were very encouraging and said that they were glad I found something that I felt was so meaningful for me, and I think we had some good conversations around that. They seemed to be more relativistic – viewing truths as subjective – and so Christianity was just one of many truths or paths to follow – but it couldn’t be ‘the truth’, that’s just a bit too exclusive it seemed. There were some in the science department, however, who were less encouraging in their approach to religion. The questions and objections seemed to come thick and fast, but the general sentiment was “you can’t be a scientist and believe in God…you need to pick one or the other”. Some other objections piggy-backed along too. Things like: the Bible is corrupt, Jesus didn’t really exist, the resurrection is impossible, why would a good God allow suffering, science has disproved God, God is just a crutch, and many more. These were to me in some way a real blessing. I wanted to take these questions seriously, and so as best I could, I would try give and answer, and if I didn’t have a good answer, I made it my mission to find the answer. This was how I discovered ‘apologetics’ – the discipline of giving an answer (see 1 Peter 3:15). Over the years working in the sciences, I encountered these two main attitudes again and again, and eventually the Lord used this in preparing me to take a different direction and join the ministry of Solas.
There is much I could say, but something that I always tried to do when engaging with friends and colleagues who were more atheistic, and especially those who were more antagonistic, was to ask why they didn’t believe in God. When they made claims that science had disproved God, I asked what evidence they had to back the claims up. My personal experience was that I didn’t ever really get anything substantial apart from the assertion that this was the case. As a scientist I think I’ve been trained to look for the best explanation of the data – that’s a huge part of what science is – looking at the data that is presented and trying to see what best explains the phenomena. This is a disposition that extends to the rest of life, and on a meta level I think the same disposition can be utilised to help us navigate life in terms of shaping our worldview. When I consider things like the complexity of the world, the improbability that the planet we’re on should sustain life, the molecular machinery required for even the simplest of organisms and the staggering improbability of purely unguided natural process to reach that, I think that the best explanation is that there is indeed a guiding and sustaining hand – a hand that guides the order of the world. The competing hypotheses – like atheism – just don’t seem to be able to make sense of why the data is the way it is. And that’s on the scientific front – what about the more existential aspect in terms of our longings, passions, and desires as humans? These things just don’t make sense if there is not God. The alternative explanations of the data of human experience are insufficient in their scope and explanatory power. If that makes you wonder what I mean, grab a copy of a book we have on this titled ‘Have You Ever Wondered’. The longings we have and the things we are deeply passionate about really can’t be explained on simply materialistic terms.
Those are just some musings, and I hope that you will take the time to read through some of the past and upcoming interviews with other scientists here in our Lab Notes from the Faithful series to get further insights and thoughts from others who love science and love God.
