Donald MacCrimmon MacKay (1922-1987):
A View From the Other Side of the Atlantic 

J. W. Haas, Jr. 
Gordon College 
Wenham, MA 01984 

 From: PSCF 44 (March 1992): 55-61.                                                                              ©1992

To a Scotsman the name MacKay brings to mind ancient battles defending a people against incursion from the south. To the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) and scientist-Christians around the world, the name reminds us of one with a razor-sharp intellect who had both a passion for science and the Christian faith.

No evangelical in the post world-war II period has influenced the discussion of science and Christianity in the English speaking world as this spare Scotsman from
Lybster, Scotland. MacKay first came to these shores in 1951 as a Rockefeller Fellow, visiting research departments in neurophysiology and related fields. He was
to return often over the next three decades both in the practice of his profession and as an apologist for Christianity.

MacKay was born August 9, 1922, the son of Dr. Henry MacKay and Janet MacKay in a small town on the North Sea in the northern edge of Scotland. He attended nearby Whych High School and gained a B. Sc. at St. Andrews University in 1943. Upon graduation he joined a radar research group under the British Admiralty serving until 1946. He then began a graduate program in physics at the University of London gaining a Ph.D. in 1951. During that period and up unto 1960 he held various academic posts at King's College. He then moved to a newly established research chair as Granada Research Professor of Communication at the University of Keele in Staffordshire, England for the purpose of building an interdisciplinary Department of Communication and Neuroscience. This visionary program sought to draw from the disciplines of physiology, experimental psychology, physics and computer science to elucidate the organization of the brain focusing on the information-processing mechanisms of vision, hearing and touch. He retired from this post in 1982, but actively continued his research as emeritus professor in conjunction with his wife Valerie until his death in 1987.

Donald married Valerie Wood (one of his physics students) July 16, 1955. She continues to reside at the family home in Keele and (at last word) is still involved in research. Their five grown children, Robert (teaching mathematics at Warwick University), Eleanor, Janet, Margaret, and David (mathematics) are scattered about
the world.

MacKay has noted that the roots of his professional direction came from his WWII radar research.

...during the war I had worked on the theory of automated and electronic computing and on the theory of information, all of which are highly relevent to such things as automatic pilots and automatic gun direction. I found
myself grappling with problems in the design of artifical sense organs for naval gun-directors and with the principles on which electronic circuits could be used to simulate situations in the external world so as to provide goal-directed guidance for ships, aircraft, missiles and the like. 

Later in the 1940's, when I was doing my Ph.D. work, there was much talk of the brain as a computer and of the early digital computers that were just making the headlines as "electronic brains." As an analogue computer man I felt strongly convinced that the brain, whatever it was, was not a digital computer. I didn't think it was an analogue computer either in the conventional sense.

But this naturally rubbed under my skin the question: well, if it is not either of these, what kind of system is it? Is there any way of following through the kind of analysis that is appropriate to there artificial automata so as to understand better the kind of system the human brain is? That was the beginning of my slippery slope into brain research.¹

MacKay's Research Programme was thus established and he would spend his life in brain research using computer methods to gain insight into the mechanism of the brain and as a metaphor in looking at larger issues such as the brain/mind problem, free-will and determinism, and the role of God in nature. Even though bound up with the details of running a first rate research program Donald felt drawn to examine the implications of his work for Christian thought and witness, writing and lecturing on a wide range of topics over the course of his career.

MacKay had the opportunity to participate in the Ratio club founded at National Hospital in London in July 1949. A group of "Young Turks" (those of Professorial rank were excluded) from various disciplines met informally once a month over dinner to discuss cybernetics. Alan Turing attended the meetings and found them "good entertainment." He became entertainer with his talk "Educating a Digital Computer" in the December 1950 Meeting. Turing would note the presence of "the philosophical physicist, D. MacKay ... also very interested in machine intelligence."² The group would die a natural death in the middle 1950's as they had less to say to each other.

Another formative influence on MacKay's thinking in this period came through an opportunity to meet Dutch historian of science Reijer Hooykaas. English evangelical Martyn Lloyd-Jones had heard Hooykaas in the Netherlands and invited him to London in 1948 to talk to the annual conference of the Research Scientists
Christian Fellowship (RSCF, now Christians in Science). That meeting was an important step forward in the thinking of many of those present, including MacKay. Although Hooykaas held views on the subject which had resulted in much controversy with the Dooyeweerd school of thought, Lloyd-Jones felt that he had much to offer. MacKay was impressed with his thinking and later visited the Hooykaas family in Zeist. The two families became close friends over the next decades as Hooykaas visited the MacKays at Keele and made the long trek to Northern Scotland to visit the MacKay family home. He would later dedicate his Religion and the Rise of Modern Science (1972) to Donald's mother Janet MacKay.³

Hooykaas made a great impression with his concern that science be "free," eschewing the notion of (say) a "Christian chemistry" which was associated with Dutch thinkers Abraham Kuyper and Herman Dooyeweerd.

MacKay credited Hooykaas as having "taught [him] to recognize the liberating implications of biblical faith [as distinct from rationalistic biblicism] for the freedom of science and for properly critical thinking"⁴ MacKay often
referred to Hooykaas' Christian Faith & the Freedom of Science (1957)⁵ as advancing what he would claim and would later author a paper "Value Free Knowledge" supporting this view.⁶ Hooykaas' trenchant statements on "Mosaic science" and analysis of the post-reformation views on science and the Bible in Christian Faith & The Freedom of Science often paralleled the points that Bernard Ramm stressed to an American audience with his Christian View of Science and Scripture (1955).⁷

MacKay became the leading thinker in the RSCF whose conference he attended every year and at which he often spoke. He was also widely used as a lecturer on apologetics questions in British universities.

On To America 

Donald (the name he preferred over Don) was often drawn to these shores through his involvement with the Neurosciences Research Program of MIT headed by Francis O. Schmidt. Schmidt pioneered a transdisciplinary approach to the study of the brain and behavior which would break down traditional disciplinary barriers existing in
the sciences. Schmidt developed novel ways to bring together leaders in the field for cross-discipline tutoring, lectures on emerging topics, and for brainstorming sessions which led to a worldwide network which would promote the field.

Schmidt recalls in his autobiography:

At Stated Meetings the air was usually charged with intellectual excitement. This was the atmosphere in which much "interthinking" occurred. There was much highly informed input from experts in different fields, which catalyzed the synthesis of new concepts. This was the very essence of the NRP concept and the reason why so may world-class scientists were willing to travel long distances and devote much of their time to attendance at Stated Meetings and at two- to four-week long Intensive Study Programs.⁸

Donald was elected as an Associate in the middle 1960's and was deeply involved over the next two decades. He was the host and organizer of what were called "Whither" meetings at Keele in the middle 1960's and in London in
1970.⁹ Schmidt recalls the many contributions of MacKay to the various meetings and conferences and the high regard in which he was held by his fellow participants.

Schmidt remarked on Donald's willingness to communicate his thoughts on religious matters in after-dinner informal talks, gaining the respect of his colleagues even though they may not have agreed with him. Schmidt would pick up Mackay at his hotel on occasion to attend his Congregational Church in Weston and then bring him home for dinner and conversation on theological and other matters.

MacKay and American Evangelicals 

Americans first became acquainted with MacKay through a Conference on Science and Christian Faith held in Oxford, England July 17-26, 1965 involving 37 scientists from 12 nations.¹⁰ Curiously, the five reports on the meeting by ASA participants in the March, 1966 JASA barely referred to MacKay. Instead, the account of the meeting by (then) Australian psychologist Malcolm Jeeves in his book, The Scientific Enterprise and Christian Faith (1969), provided the first full statement of MacKay's ideas broadly available in America.¹¹

MacKay was to receive many invitations to speak on science/religion topics to student groups in secular settings and Christian Colleges and seminaries. He participated in many ASA/CSCF functions over the years and was the plenary speaker for the 1976 ASA annual meeting at Wheaton College and the ASA/RSCF Conference at Oxford in 1985. The ASA awarded him an honorary membership in 1977 in recognition of his achievements. MacKay became an evangelical folk hero for his performance in a debate on behaviorism with B. F. Skinner on Wm. Buckley's PBS Firing Line program, 17 October, 1971. His Clockwork Image (1974), Science, Chance and Providence (1978), Brains, Machines & Persons (1980), and Science and the Quest For Meaning (1982) provided expositions of his ideas on a popular level. His Behind the Eye (1991) stems from his Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow, October 27-November 11, 1986, given under the title "Under our own microscope: What brain science has to say about human nature."

The Canadian complement of ASA also benefited from MacKay's transatlantic travels to former colonies. Dan Morrison remembers a late 1970's meeting of the Canadian Scientific and Christian Fellowship at his farm with MacKay as featured speaker.

It was a picnic and people came with their lunches, children, dogs and so on. It was a really lovely fall day and we were in the process of harvesting barley. Don began his lecture on the lawn, with people sitting in the shade of the
trees, but very suddenly clouds came over and it began to rain. Fortunately, we have a very large barn with a very extensive loft, or mow, with what is called a double driveway. We simply picked our chairs up and scurried to the barn where some sat on bales and others on the chairs that they brought, and Don continued his lecture. He remarked that it was the first time that he had given a lecture in a barn.¹²

Morrison recounts an earlier visit with his wife to the MacKay home in England.

He took us to the University to show us some of his laboratory equipment and to explain a bit more about his work. One of the areas he was studying had to do with the brain's reaction to sound and for that he had a
soundproof chamber. He asked me in the presence of my wife, if I had ever experienced a perfect quiet. I responded that had not been the case since I was married! He then invited me to step into the chamber and close the door and, for the first time before or after marriage, I experienced a feeling of absolute quiet.¹²

It would be interesting (but beyond the scope of this essay) to examine the roots of MacKay's thinking. Donald was not a lone wolf and hammered his ideas out in discussions with colleagues and friends such as J. B. Lloyd and J. M. Forrester and wife, Valerie. In Science, Chance, and Providence¹³ he remarks that he could hardly add to what his old friend Charles Coulson, (1910-1974) had said in his Christianity in an Age of Science.¹⁴ Those gracious words do not undercut the fact that MacKay made orginal contributions to apologetic thought that continue to influence this generation.

Some Personal Reflections

MacKay presented the second in the series of the Pascal Lectures on Christianity at the University of Waterloo, Canada in October, 1979. Host John S. North wrote the introduction to Science and the Quest For Meaning, the printed version of the lectures. In it he paints this picture. 

I have dined with his family in their home on the outskirts of Keele, joining him, his wife Valerie, and their five children, as they considered the scriptures and prayed for each other at the end of a busy day. I have also watched him, under the stress of travel, lecture in an unfamiliar environment to a large, unfamiliar group, and maintain an attitude both gentle and tenacious in the discussions, however ill-informed or ill-mannered the questioner. These two experiences provided the comforting reassurance that this intellectual is a person of
warmth, strength, consistency, and wholeness.¹⁵

Richard Bube recently summed up his view of MacKay.

I must confess that his assessment of the interaction between science and Christianity was so compelling for me that I cannot tell whether I ever had a truly creative idea in this area that did not have its root in the ideas expressed in one way or another by MacKay. In person [he] was polite, genteel and friendly; yet at the same time he demanded a degree of logical consistency and precision in analysis and expression that marked his comments and reactions. With deeply held convictions, MacKay was sometimes outspoken and consistently uncompromising on his perspective of the relationship between authentic science and an unyielding faith
in the truth of life in Christ. His determined challenging of the popular notion that the concept of personal responsible choice, received wide publication and equally wide challenges. His development of the idea of complementary descriptions, each valid in its own domain, and each contributing true insights into the nature of
reality, continues to be a source for guidance and inspiration for many, as well as a focus for debate and questioning. As long as he could get people to think faithfully and intelligently about these issues, I think MacKay would be happy.¹⁶

MacKay demanded much from the listener and was not unwilling to correct those who misunderstood him, or cross swords with those who would criticize his thinking. He was willing to stand with those with whom he agreed and loyally defended his friends.

In his ASA paper summing up the Oxford ASA/RSCF joint meeting in 1985 MacKay interjected a personal observation on the "camaraderie of Christian fellowship." Concerned with the ways that Christian scholars dealt with "possible cracks, chink and damage in one another's armour," he asked us to "deliberately [seek] to develop less abrasive, more constructive ways of helping one another to get our thinking clear and our arguments solid, by gently shaking them." For MacKay "scrupulous fairness is not an optional extra for the Christian, still less an apologetic liability, however dramatic and rewarding may be the short-term payoffs of unfairness on the part of Christian propagandists." He challenged us "to be good, careful thinkers in the sight of God ... who is disgraced if we are sloppy in our logical standards, whether of biblical inference and interpretation or of scientific inference and interpretation." He called us to follow this course "as the pathway to truly realistic fellowship of the kind that
I pray that RSCF (now CIS) and ASA will go on providing for generations to come."¹⁷

Perhaps the most significant measure of one's contribution is found in the extent that his ideas influence the discussion of his day and beyond. A reading of broad evangelical works on science/Christianity themes over the last 15 years reveals the many contributions that he has made to our thinking. We may disagree at particular
points, but his ideas must be carefully weighed. The more liberal wing of Christiandom is less accepting of his thinking but finds him one evangelical that they must take seriously. At this writing, MacKay's ideas are the subject of vigorous discussion in recent issues of Zygon, Science and Christian Belief, and Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith.

A Final Visit

Donald's last visit to America took place in September 1986. Aware of the gravity of the cancer that he fought so hard he came a last time to fulfill a few long term speaking commitments and meet some old friends. He was granted an honorary degree by Gordon College on September 19 of that year and gave his final talk to an American audience that evening at Harvard Medical School.

A Final Note

This sketch will seem deficient in content for many readers. A combination of Scottish reticence, suspicion of American biographical style and distance have provided severe limitations. Donald was unwilling to open his personal life to the scrutiny of a biographer, asking instead that it be his ideas that we examine. When reminded that he was a model for many in the UK and America he would smile and shake his head. A much more thorough examination of MacKay's life and thought is needed if we are to understand the discussion of science and faith in our generation.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the following for their help in developing this article: Dan Osmond, Oliver Barclay, Reiker Hooykaas, Francis O. Schmidt,and Richard Bube.

A Selective Chronological Bibliography

The Application of Electronic Principles to the Solution of Differential Equations in Physics, Ph.D. Thesis, University of London, 1951.

Mindlike Behaviour in Artifacts. British Journal of Philosophy of Science 2: 105-21 (1951).

Mentality in Machines. Proc. Aristot. Soc. Supplement XXVI (1952) 61-68.

From Mechanism to Mind. Transactions of the Victoria Institute 85 (1953) 17-32.

Operational Aspects of Some Fundamental Concepts of Communication.Synthese 9 (1954) 182-198.

Man as Observer-Predictor. In Man in his Relationships, H. Westman, ed. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1955) 15-28.

Towards an Information-Flow Model of Human Behaviour. British Journal of Psychology 47 (1956) 30-43.

The Epistemological Problem for Automata. In Automata Studies, C. E. Shannon and J. McCarthy, eds. (Princeton University Press, 1956) 235-251. 

Complementary Descriptions. In Mind 66 (1957) 390-94.

On Comparing the Brain with Machines. In The American Scientist 42 (1957) 261-268.

Complementarity II, Aristotelian Society Supplement 32 (1958) 105-122.

Perceptual stability of a stroboscopically lit visual field containing self-luminous objects. In Nature 181 (1958) 507-8. Operational aspects of intellect. In The Mechanisation of Thought Processes (NPL Symp. no 10, 1958) (London: HMSO, 1958) 37-73.

Information Theory and Human Learning Systems. In Impact of Science on Society 8 (1960) 86-101.

On the Logical Indeterminacy of a Free Choice. In Mind 69 (1960) 31-40.

Modelling of large-scale nervous activity. In Models and Analogues for Biology, J. W. Beament ed. Symposium of the Society of Experimental Biology, 14 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1960) 192-8.

Information and Learning. In Learning Automata, H. Billing ed., (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1961) 40-49.

The Use of Behavioural Language to Refer to Mechanical Processes. In British Journal of Philosophy of Science 13 (1962) 89-102.

D. M. MacKay and M. E. Fisher, Analogue Computing at Ultra-High Speed: An Experimental and Theoretical Study (London: Chapman & Hall, 1962)

Theoretical models of space perception. In Aspects of the Theory of Artifical Intelligence, C. A. Muses ed., (New York: Plenum Press, 1962).

Machines and Societies. In Man and His Future, G. Wolstenholme ed., (London: Churchill, 1963) 83-103.

Psychophysics of perceived intensity: a theoretical basis for Fechner's and Steven's laws. In Science 139 (1963) 1213-16.

Information and prediction in science. In Symp. of the Int. Acad. for Phil. of Sci., 1962, S. Dockz and P. Brtnays, eds.(New York: Academic Press, 1965)255-69.

Man as a mechanism. In Christianity in a Mechanistic Universe, D. M. Mackay, ed.,(London: InterVarsity Press, 1965).

From mechanism to mind. In Brain and Mind J. R. Smythies, ed., (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965) pp. 163-200.

A mind's eye view of the brain. In Cybernetics of the Nervous System, N. Wiener and J. P. Schade eds., Progress in Brain Research 17 (New York: Elsevier, 1965) 321-332.

Visual noise as a tool of research. In Journal of General Psychology (1965) 181-97.

Cerebral Organization and the Conscious Control of Action. In Brain and Conscious Experience, J. C. Eccles, ed., (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1966) 422-455.

Freedom of Action in a Mechanistic Universe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967)

The mechanism of normative behaviour. In Communication Theory and Research, L. Thayer ed., (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1967) 228-45.

Possible information processing functions of inhibitory mechanisms. In Structure and Functions of Neuronal Mechanisms: Proceedings of the Fourth International Meeting of Neurobiologists, Stockholm, Sept. 1966. (Oxford and New York: Pergamon, 1968).

The Sovereignty of God in the Natural World. In Scottish Journal of Theology 21 (1968) 13-26.

The importance of landmarks in visual perception. In Neural Networks E. R. Caianiello ed.,  (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1968) 59-64.

What Makes a Contradiction? In Faith and Thought, 97 (1968) 7-14.

Information Technology and the Manipulability of Man. In Encounter, 5, 1, 969) 17-25.

Information, Mechanism & Meaning. In Selected Papers, Vol. I (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969).

Digits and analogues. In Principles and Practice of Bionics, H. E. von Gierke, W. D. Keidel, and H. L. Oestreicher ed., (London: Technivision, 1970) 457-66.

Choice in a mechanistic universe. In British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 22 (1971) 275-285.

Scientific beliefs about oneself. In The Proper Study, G. N. A. Vesey, ed. (London: Macmillan, 1971) 48-63.

The human touch. In Pattern Recognition in Biological and Technical Systems, O. J. Grusser and R. Klinke, eds., (New York: Springer, 1971) 20-30.

Formal analysis of communicative processes. In Non-Verbal Communication, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1972).

The Logical Indeterminateness of Human Choices. In British Journal of Philosophy of Science, 24 (1973) 405-408.

Science and Christian Faith Today (London: Falcon Press, 2nd ed., 1973).

Neurophysiological aspects of vision. In From Theoretical Physics to Biology, (Basil: S. Karger, 1973) 322-27.

Visual stability and voluntary eye movements. In The Handbook on Sensory Physiology, Vol VII/3A. (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1973) 307-31.

The Clockwork Image (Downers Grove IL:InterVarsity Press, 1974). Complementarity in Scientific and Theological Thinking. In Zygon 9 (1974) 225-244.

The Mechanics of Tacit Knowing. In I.E.E.E. Transactions on Systems, Man and P. Hammond and D. M. MacKay, Differential responses of cat visual cortical cells to textured stimuli. In Experimental Brain Research, 22 (1975) 427-30.

D. M. MacKay and V. MacKay, What causes decay of pattern-contingent chromatic after effects? In Vision Research 15 (1975) 462-4.

Human Engineering and the Church. In J. Am. Sci. Affil. 28 (1976) 62-65.

P. Hammond and D. M. MacKay, Functional differences between cat visual cortical cells revealed by use of textured stimuli. In Experimental Brain Research, Suppl. 1, 22 (1976) 397-402.

The Clockwork Image Controversy. In J. Am. Sci. Affil. 28 (1976) 125-127.

Differential responsiveness of simple and complex cortical cells in cat striate cortex to visual texture. In Experimental Brain Research 30(1977) 275-96.

What Determines My Choice? In Celebral Correlates of Conscious Experience, P. A. Buser and A. Rougeul-Buser eds. (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1978)
335-46.

Science, Chance and Providence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).

Selves and Brains. In Neuroscience 3 (1978) 599-606.

Biblical Perspectives on Human Engineering In Modifing Man: Implications and Ethics, Craig W. Ellison ed., (University Press of America: Washington, 1978) 67-90.

Human Science and Human Dignity (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1979).

The mind-body problem, information theory and Christian dogma. Reply to M. Bunge. In Neuroscience 4 (1979) 453-4.

Brains, Machines and Persons (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980)

Value Free Knowledge. In Faith and Thought 107 (1980) 202-209.

Conscious Agency With Unsplit and Split Brains. In Consciousness and the Physical World, B. D. Josephson and V. S. Ramachandran eds., (Oxford: Pergamon, 1980)95-113.

Neural Basis of Cognitive Experience. In Handbook of Cognitive Neuroscience, G. Szekely, F. Labos, and S. Damjanovich eds.,(New York: Pergamon: Budapest, 1981) 315-32.

What kind of neural image? In Freiburger Universitatsblatter 74 (1981) 67-72.

Science and the Quest For Meaning (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 1982)

D. M MacKay and V. MacKay, Explicit Dialogue Between the Left and Right Hand Systems of Split Brains. In Nature 295 (1982) 690-91.

Ourselves and our brains: duality without Dualism. In Psychendochrinology 7
(1982) 285-94.

Anomalous perception of extra foveal motion. In Perception 11 (1982) pp.

Seeing the Woods and the Trees. In Thinking: The Expanding Frontier W. Maxwell ed.,(Philadelphia: Franklin Institute Press, 1983) 5-12.

On line source density computation with a minimum of electrodes. In Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 56 (1984) 696-8.

Mind Talk and Brain Talk. In Handbook of Cognative Neuroscience,

M. S. Grazzanga ed., (New York: Plenum, 1984) 293-317.

Source-density mapping of human visual receptive fields using scalp electrodes. In Experimental Brain Research 54 (1984) 579-581.

The Beginnings of Personal Life. Journal of the Christian Medical Fellowship 30:2, April 1984. 9-13.

D. M. MacKay, V. MacKay and M. J. Rulan, Scalp topography of EPR source-densities during visually guided target practice. In Experimental Brain Research 64 (1984) 434-50.

Objectivity in Christian Perspective. In J. Am. Sci. Affil., 36 (1984) 235-237.

The significance of feature sensitivity. In Models of the Visual Cortex, D. Rose and V. G. Dobson eds., (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1985) 47-53.

Machines, Brains and Persons. In Zygon 20 (1985) 401-12. 

Christian Priorities in Science. J. Am. Sci. Affil. 38 (1986)67-74. Summing Up of ASA/RSCF Conference. Ibid. 195-203. The Health of the Evangelical Body. Ibid. 258-265.

Seeing with moving eyes. In The Oxford Companion to the Mind, R. L. Gregory ed., (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1987.)

Behind the Eye, (Oxford: Blackwells, 1991).

NOTES 

¹D. M. MacKay,  Behind the Eye,  (Oxford: Blackwells, 1991) 40.

²Andrew Hodge, Alan Turing: The Enigma, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983)411.

³R. Hooykaas, Religion and the Rise of Modern Science, Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 1972.

⁴D. M. MacKay, The Clockwork Image, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1974)10.

⁵R. Hooykaas, Christian Faith & the Freedom of Science, (London: Tyndale Press, 1957).

⁶Donald M. MacKay, "Value free knowledge - myth or norm?" Faith and Thought 107(1980)202-209.

⁷Bernard Ramn, The Christian View of Science and Scripture, (Grand Rapids: Erdmans. 1954).

⁸Francis O. Schmidt, The Never-Ceasing Search (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1990)223-4. Schmidt's biography provides a detailed history of the NRP and of his own perspectives on science and
Christianity.

⁹ibid., p. 242.

¹⁰James O. Buswell, III, David O. Moberg, J. Frank Cassel and Walter R. Hearn, "Reports on the sessions of the international conference on science and Christian faith Oxford, England July 22, 1965," J. Am. Sci. Affil. 18(1965)19-28.

¹¹Christian Faith (London:Tyndale Press, 1969).

¹²Private communication.

¹³D. M. MacKay, Science, Chance and Providence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978)3.

¹⁴C. A. Coulson, Science and Christian Belief (Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Oress, 1955).

¹⁵John S. North in D. M. MacKay, Science and the Quest For Meaning (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1982)xi.

¹⁶Personal communication.

¹⁷D. M. MacKay, "Summing Up of the ASA/RSCF Conference," J. Am. Sci. Affil. 38(1986)195-203.