I recently had the great privilege to spend 9 days in London with my family on a sort of mini-sabbatical after 15 years of service at my day job. A subtle but recurring theme to the visit was how often religion and science came up together. For starters, we patronized several bookstores, and every time the science section and the religion section were in the same room. Now, in a suburban Barnes & Noble in the US, that would be unremarkable because the whole store is basically one room. But these were older buildings, … [Read more...] about Science Corner: A Priest, a Poet and a Mathematician Walk into an Abbey
Charles Darwin
Science Corner: “What Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture?”
It's Stanley Cup Finals time, and so I expect we are all asking ourselves the same question: How would you explain ice hockey to Bronze Age nomads from Canaan? Of course there will be a matter of translation. Words like "stick" and "net" presumably would map pretty directly. There'd probably be a word that shares meaning with "team" although maybe it would refer primarily to animals. "Offsides" is tricky to explain even to modern English speakers, but that's because there are a lot of details; the constituent concepts … [Read more...] about Science Corner: “What Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture?”
Science Corner: Observing Black History Month on Darwin Day
Since today is Darwin Day, some comment seems warranted--especially because I see which science & faith topics are most popular here on the blog. At the same time, I feel pretty conflicted about the idea. While I appreciate Darwin's contributions to science, I also appreciate why honoring him specifically seems like a deliberate tweak of folks who find evolution challenging. And I think it's possible to put too much focus on Darwin himself and exacerbate the impression that evolution was just an idea he had that caught … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Observing Black History Month on Darwin Day
Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 8
Evolutionary biology is a challenging topic; the history of the Christian church's reaction to it, doubly so. Continuing a theme running throughout When Science and Christianity Meet, David Livingston identifies the human element as a major complicating factor. After all, the church does not respond to evolutionary biology; individual Christians do. And some of those individuals are responding more to Darwin the man than his scientific contributions. And even Darwin the man had many reactions to his own work and its … [Read more...] about Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 8
Book Review: Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science
Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science by Edward Lurie My rating: 4 of 5 stars Louis Agassiz might well be considered the foremost naturalist of the first half of the nineteenth century. He brought a rigor to the scientific enterprise in America that inspired everyone from cabinet members to farmers. And he also reflects the human dilemma of being caught late in life in a paradigm shift as the work of Charles Darwin won over a younger generation of zoologists, some who had studied with Agassiz. This is an … [Read more...] about Book Review: Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science