Science
in Christian PerspectiveScience
in Christian Perspective
Looking back into history, one cannot help being amazed at the phenomenon of acceleration. Whether one believes in evolution or creation, there was one human being at some past instant of time. Then there were two, three, four and so on until at the present time we have billions of human beings. It is said that the rate of increase is geometrical or approximately that. At any rate, we have a population problem more deadly than any other immediate one. It is not our purpose to deal with this problem here but rather to use it as an example of rapid acceleration. The spreading out of human populations over the earth from their center of origin also speeded up as better methods of transportation were invented. Undoubtedly there are areas where little if any speed-up can be discerned but these are becoming the exception rather than the rule.
In regard to science, studies of this speed-up have been made and it is apparent to most people that the day of the all-around naturalist is over, sad though this may be. Even within a specific discipline, such as genetics, no one person can be conversant with all of the literature in that field. This is an indication of rapid acceleration. We cannot attempt to document this phenomenon in science from its early beginnings but it might be instructive to Est some of the more spectacular developments that have occurred in science in only the last 60-65 years. There have been many spectacular breakthroughs and we are probably on the near verge of solving some of the problems that have plagued us for centuries. Some of these problems lie in the field of medicine, or in genetics, or in evolution or in population control.
Biology textbooks of the 1900's did not mention many of these advances because they were not even dreamed of. Even modern textbooks are several years behind the times and the instructor must supplement the textbooks from his reading. It will be instructive to list some of these exciting advances.
The sciences of genetics, enzymology and plant virology were unknown to many mature scientists in their student days. This is likewise true of hormones and vitamins. About 1927, Muller and Stadler made the first use of x-rays to produce mutations, and this work has stimulated an untold number of researches. In the same year, Karpechencho made an artificial plant cross of the radish and cabbage thus confirming what some had suspected for a long time, namely, that hybridization was important in speciation. Since then many thousands of crosses have been made. Omitting dates, we shall simply list some of the great advances made in fairly recent years; Hans Spernann's work on animal embryo organizers, Arthur Komberg's work on the duplication of DNA molecules by bacteria, Fritz Lipmann's discovery of the functions of ATP in metabolism, Wendell Stanley and his work on the life history of the tobacco mosaic virus (an epoch-making discovery), the discovery of antibodies and plant hormones, the work of Fraenkel-Conrat in showing that the hereditary part of the tobacco mosaic virus was in its nucleic acid core and not in the coat of the virus particle, the development by many people of the miraculous antibiotics, the discovery of chromosomes and sex in bacteria, the connection between genes, mutation and metabolism in the bread mold (largely the work of Beadle and Tatum), the discovery of insulin and so forth.
It must be admitted that these are important discoveries and there has been no such rapid growth of knowledg in any previous period of history. One reason is that as the population increased, so did the proportion of scientists. We have a lot more of them working and in almost every conceivable area. There are more working in applied science than there are in pure science. A quick glance at the above list, plus a slight amount of deduction, should convince most that the important researches that have shaken the foundations of the biological world and that have greatly affected man's welfare, were at the beginning and in some cases still are, splendid examples of pure research Greatly aiding in the acceleration of science has been the development of all sorts of machines for analysis all designed to augment the human senses, rule out the subjective element and save time.
Some church groups are outspoken enemies of science and reject many of its findings. Many individual Christians are antagonistic toward science. Both science and the Christian religion are dedicated toward the truth. The scientist searches for it by reproducible experiment. If we define a verifiable fact as the truth, then science has discovered many truths such as that gymnosperm sieve tubes do not have companion cells. Science also erects theories on the basis of its facts. These, it must be admitted, are in a lower realm of probability than facts, but they are useful. Christians do not need to fear the facts of science. Both they and the scientists need only to hold the theories as tentative. It must not be forgotten that science has verified the Bible on many occasions (especially in archeological research). It must be remembered that science has not disproven the existence of God, the possibility of the creation of life or the theory of salvation. Finally, let us not worry too much about acceleration in science. It is inevitable and inexorable. Our attitude, it seems to me, should be one of cooperation and patience.