Science in Christian Perspective

JASA BOOK REVIEWS For June 1963
Table of Contents

Exploring Christianity: A Guided Tour, by David F. Siemens, Jr. Moody Pocket Books (No. 78), Moody Press, Chicago, 1962. 156 pp., paper, $ .59.
Teaching Machines and Programmed Instruction, by Edward Fry. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1963. 244 pp., $5.95.
Religion and the Scientific Outlook, by T. R. Miles. Geo. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London, 1959. 224 pp. $2.95.
Proceedings of the Colloquium. on Medical Ethics, Foreword by John W. Klotz. The Lutheran Academy for Scholarship, 801 De Mun Ave., St. Louis 5, Mo., 1961. 89 pp. plus appendices, paper (offset typescript), $2.00.
Science and Society, by Thomas D. Clareson. Harper & Bros., New York, 1961. 331 pp., $4.00.
Careers in Research Science, by Theodore Wachs, Jr. Henry Z. Walck, Inc., New York, 1961. 96 pp., $3.50.

Teaching Machines and Programmed Instruction, by Edward Fry. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1963. 244 pp., $5.95.

Exploring Christianity looks like an ordinary paperback book from the outside, but it is not. It is actually an "intrinsic program" or "scrambled" book. This new approach to evangelism will interest ASA members for several reasons: For one thing, the author, an ASA member associated with Moody Institute of Science, asked a number of other ASA members to read the initial manuscript and criticize it. Furthermore, this evangelistic approach is directed toward intelligent and philosophically inclined people like our own scientific colleagues and students. Finally, most of us are empiricists at heart and will want to see if this experiment works-if it does succeed in drawing thoughtful nonChristians deeper and deeper into serious consideration of the claims of Jesus Christ upon their lives. The author's purpose, as indicated by the subtitle, is to take the reader on "A Guided Tour" into Christianity.

The major difference between an ordinary book and a learning program is that the latter forces the student to respond to the material being presented, and immediately "reinforces" his responses in such a way as to "teach" what the programmer has in mind for him to learn. In an intrinsic or "branched" program such as this, different readers work their way through the book by different routes.

For example, to introduce the importance of miracles and fulfilled prophecy as validations of Christ's claims, the author borrows from Peter Stoner's Science Speaks (another Moody Press paperback by an ASA author), listing eight Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and asking on page 42, "What is the probability that, on the basis of chance alone, any one man, living from the time the first prophecy was given down to the present day, would meet all the qualifications presented in the eight verses noted? You may guess, or you may calculate." Six possible answers are presented. If the reader chooses (a) "about one in eight" he is told to turn to page 30, where he finds: "This is a rather poor guess. A quick course in the calculation of probabilities is really in order. You can get this by following out (f) on page 42. Or you can simply choose one of the other answers there. So turn to page 42 again." Choice (f) is "I'd like to know something about the calculation of probabilities before I decide." When the reader then turns to page 71, he is reinforced in a different way. "You have commendable curiosity and interest in understanding . . . " Three or four pages of instruction then teach him how to calculate the right answer and he is told to turn back to page 42 to choose correctly. When he finally hits the right answer he is patted on the back and then confronted about his attitude toward all this: does he think this sort of evidence is convincing (turn to page 43), does he worry about nonBiblical prophecies in comparison (page 49), does he think Jesus deliberately pulled a swindle by setting out to fulfill the prophecies (page 54), or does he possibly think the prophecies were written after the events (page 57) ? And so on through the book, the author-guide turns the reader back to the right path whenever he strays. At the end of his journey, the reader is directed to the New Testament itself for further study, aided by several pages of helpful notes, compilations of Scripture passages on certain subjects, and an annotated bibliography.

Programmed instruction is a relatively new phenomenon, originally designed to teach rote material which is easily broken down into small learning steps. Enthusiasts apparently feel that anything can be programmed effectively, but some of us may have reservations about this. Programs are effective in many cases because the forced response and immediate reinforcement get the student personally involved in material which he might otherwise pass over with only superficial contact.

It seems to this reviewer that in the presentation of the Gospel the programming technique may not be at all appropriate. For one thing, the analytical process of breaking such a subject up into small bits may have the deleterious effect of raising many questions before the inquirer himself raises them, distracting him at what may be a very critical time in his spiritual groping. The programmer also must take the risk that, in forcing the inquirer to respond in some way, he may be forcing him against his will and bringing on a negative reaction. it is easy for an imaginative person to resent a program "frame" which seems to him illogical or incomplete and to stop right there without going any further; in an ordinary book one can skip any passages which seem pointless, boring, redundant, or annoying for some other reason, but an intrinsic program has an all-or-none character. Of course, since the goal of evangelism is personal involvement, it may be that the risk is well worth taking and that for the proper audience Exploring Christianity will prove to be tremendously effective.

No matter how this experiment succeeds, we have here one of those rare cases in which newly discovered scientific principles have been "converted" rapidly to the service of God by an imaginative Christian with the technical know-how. We can be grateful to David F. Siemens, Jr., for setting the rest of us a good example as well as for presenting us with what may become a potent adjunct in our attempts to communicate the Good News. It is possible that the very novelty of Exploring Christianity will open many doors, since one may legitimately present it to almost anyone, saying, "Here is a strange new kind of book. I'd like to know what you think of it." At least that's what I intend to do with it, before "teaching machines" become commonplace.

Attention is called here to Fry's book because readers of Exploring Christianity may wish to find out what is going on in the rapidly developing field of teaching machines and programmed instruction. Unfortunately, little of Fry's book can be heartily recommended. Pages 181-182 on "Sources of Information About Programs" describe the half-dozen books on programmed instruction (all published since 1959), and about 150 journal articles are cited in the Bibliography. Portions of two linear programs and one branched program are given as examples in Appendices B, C, and D. The only interesting parts of the book are those not written by the author. Appendix A, "Classification of Variables in a Programmed Learning Situation," is typical of the rest of the book-padded and puerile. We are given not only the classification itself, with 26 major headings (From A to Z-you guessed it!) and many, many subheadings (Under W. 5. "Type of scoring": a. Number right, b. Number wrong. c. Rights minus wrongs, etc.); but we also have an "Outline of the Classification," a half-page discussion of "Organization of the Classification," suggestions for using the classification, and even acknowledgments for assistance in preparing it!

The perpetrator of this pedestrian pedantry is an Associate Professor of Education and Director of the Reading Clinic at Loyola University of Los Angeles. His book should have been edited drastically by the director of a writing clinic-if, that is, it was written for people. On the other hand, it may have been "constructed" instead of being written at all, and for some such thing as a "reading machine" with no provision in its circuits for irritation over triviality or redundancy.

If this book falls into the hands of college professors who are already prejudiced against "educationists," their prejudices are likely to be "reinforced." Teaching machines and programmed instruction are probably here to stay, but this dull and repetitious book gives the impression that they are likely to be inherently dull and repetitious themselves. The sample program on number theory by Norman Crowder (Appendix D) and the lively evangelistic program by Siemens reviewed above give us hope for better things from these new developments in teaching methods.-W. R. H.

Religion and the Scientific Outlook, by T. R. Miles. Geo. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London, 1959. 224 pp. $2.95.

The author, a philosopher by training, sets out to answer three questions. The first is whether science has disproved the existence of God. His answer is that no important assertion containing the word "God" is discredited by science. He then asks whether there is any conflict between science and religion. To this he replies that there is no need for any permanent conflict in the two areas.

The third question deals with the possibility of an intelligent persons's accepting some form of Christian orthodoxy. The author states that some versions ascribing literal truth to the story of Adam and Eve and total infallibility of the historical Jesus must be ruled out, but other versions can be defended.

Some fault can be found with his third answer. He has stressed the point of view that there are such things as religious truths which are not amenable to scientific scrutiny and which must be believed or rejected on faith alone. The story of Adam and Eve does offend the scientific mind, but it is a religious truth and an omnipotent God could have initiated the human species in this way. I believe the author shows a bias here. Regarding the fallibility of Jesus, he is right, of course, if one accepts the King James Version as identical with the original scripture. I prefer to believe in a perfect God; I therefore ascribe any unclarities or mistakes in the various versions of the Bible to the shortcomings of copyists.-Reviewed by Irving W. Knobloch, Professor of Botany, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

Proceedings of the Colloquium. on Medical Ethics, Foreword by John W. Klotz. The Lutheran Academy for Scholarship, 801 De Mun Ave., St. Louis 5, Mo., 1961. 89 pp. plus appendices, paper (offset typescript), $2.00.

Dr. John W. Klotz, an ASA member well known for such writings as Genes, Genesis, and Evolution, is also Director of Research of the (Missouri Synod) Lutheran Academy for Scholarship. Concordia Senior College was host on May 20-21, 1961, to a Colloquium. on Medical Ethics. The purpose was to come to grips with the ethical problems raised by modern medicine and to lay down some general guidelines to assist the Christian physician in making the moral judgments forced upon him every day. Bound in a spiral binding are five papers dealing with various aspects of these problems-legal, medical, ethical, theological, etc.-plus a complete transcript of all discussions, "The Hundred Questions," and a tabulation of about 380 responses received before the conference from Lutheran physicians, lawyers, pastors, and professors.

The idea behind "The Hundred Questions" was to learn the actual beliefs of Missouri Synod scholars; without signing their names, respondents answered Yes, No, or No Comment to such questions as "Is cremation wrong?" and "Is the use of contraceptive pills wrong?" The data tabulated by categories (M.D.'s, city pastors, rural pastors, hospital chaplains, lawyers, etc.) are of interest in their own right. This questionnaire method of stirring up more active participation might be considered for some of our ASA conferences. However, another lesson from this publication is the value of editing, not a jot or tittle's worth of which was done; preachers' jokes lose much in the translation from spoken to written form, and off-the-cuff answers to deep and complex questions gain very little. Perhaps there were simply too many questions for a two-day conference. Baptists and others may be surprised to learn that Missouri Synod Lutherans as well as Roman Catholics are concerned about such questions as whether or not an anencephalic fetus should be baptized. The Colloquium may have been stimulating but to read these Proceedings is to feel somewhat frustrated over a piece of unfinished scholarship.-W. R. H.

Science and Society, by Thomas D. Clareson. Harper & Bros., New York, 1961. 331 pp., $4.00.

Subtitled Midcentury Readings, this is a textbook for freshman English courses. It is an anthology of essays for the general reader on such topics as the nature of science, the scientist and modem society, and science in relation to philosophy and religion. If English department colleagues can be persuaded to use this as a source book for themes and discussions, their students will be the richer for it. Science majors and we ourselves will profit by reading or re-reading these excellent papers by Margaret Mead, James Conant, P. W. Bridgman, J. Bronowski, J. R. Oppenheimer, and other famous scientists and will be glad to have some of them in a more accessible place than the journals in which they originally appeared. For example, Warren Weaver's fine article, "A Scientist Ponders Faith," from Saturday Re 14ew, Jan. 3, 1959, is in the section on philosophy and religion-juxtaposed between the pantheism of Fred Hoyle ("Ibe Religious Impulse in Man") and the humanism of Julian Huxley ("The Future of Man")! By direct comparison of the magnificent writing in the essays with the three or four pages of textbookish material entitled "Exercises and Theme Topics" following each section, I was reminded of what college students have to go through and resolved to be more kind to them. Students, who generally read nothing else, fortunately do not realize how dull textbooks can be; professors, who seldom read textbooks but often write them, sometimes forget. If we expose our students to excellence, will they demand excellence from us?-W. R. H.

Careers in Research Science, by Theodore Wachs, Jr. Henry Z. Walck, Inc., New York, 1961. 96 pp., $3.50.

The title of this little book is somewhat misleading because it deals exclusively with chemistry, physics, mathematics, and astronomy; other titles in the Careers for Tomorrow series are devoted to social sciences, biological sciences, and engineering, respectively. This book gives serious high school students helpful and accurate information on what a research scientist does and how to become one. It is garnished with good photographs and references to familiar companies, products, and government projects, and it has a bibliography of guidance materials. A shortcoming of the reading list is the failure to indicate clearly which of the titles are free and which are for sale. To a university professor the content may seem heavily slanted toward industry, but industry does provide the greatest number of opportunities for chemists and physicists.

Differences in the quality of personal satisfaction experienced when a scientist works in industry, in a university, or in a government agency are presented clearly and the personal advantages and disadvantages of each type of job are discussed. To a Christian the lack of emphasis of genuinely altruistic motivation will be apparent. Perhaps the ASA should prepare some career guidance materials combining the accuracy and style of a book like this with a motivational foundation of Christian stewardship and altruism. Such a book could provide the same quality of information but a more stirring challenge to a young person endowed with both intellect and dedication.-W.R.H.