Philosopher of Science Michael Polanyi once stated that, "The distinctive qualities of man are developed by education." Just over the past few months, my mind has been so transformed by not only my academic training and exposure to new materials as a teacher, but also to the profound experience of tutoring one little girl in her reading. I have been spending time studying the specific interaction between science and theology, or natural science and true religion, if you will. I have noticed that there are a plethora of interactions that can take place between science and religion ranging from outright conflict to total syncretization. Somewhere between these two lies a truer connection that corresponds with the way we really think. Having said that, it’s not a compromise or a mediating position that I seek, but rather an honest appreciation of the power of natural knowledge and its limits, as well as the core nature of theological thinking. What has happened to me involves intense personal reflection, emotion and confusion as I struggle to come to grips with my own limitations and intuitions. It is hard to trust one’s own discernment since it seems to be the case that as soon as you do, you find out you were either wrong or self-deceived. Maybe that’s the lesson in maintaining the tension in the mind…with tension, we get a tight string, and without it, a limp noodle. For example, the idea of contingent order as taught by T.F. Torrance, a theologian, helps me come to grips with my own flawed perspective and erroneous language describing God’s activity in this world. Is every moment a miracle since he sustains everything by his will? The psalmist declares that if he were to “withdraw his breath, every living creature would perish.” This seems to misuse the true definition of a miracle. Or is it that when he acts in a profound way as described in the death of the firstborn in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea or the resurrection of Jesus, is it an intervention, a suspension of natural law? Does he normally stay out of the world and then choose to invade it, as it were? But see, once that is articulated in that way, I recoil from it because I know he is understood as the Creator of everything, so nothing is foreign about him acting in the world on any level. So what is it when he is described as acting in a specified way versus how he normally sustains all things? It is something different, unusual and extraordinary. But it is not merely wondrous or awe inspiring…it communicates something. I have learned that rather than holding to an extreme separation of spiritual and natural realms, that the two concepts are not so distinct, at least in the way typically understood. I am also reminded that a miracle is a revelation in the Christian tradition of the person of God. By revealing something of himself, it is as though the curtain is pulled back and a “full on” view is apprehended, though not comprehended, of the power of God, or mercy, etc. In other words, a miracle, a revelation is a more explicit historical action of God (resulting in an event/story) versus a more hidden activity of God that is constant in each an every second from the sub-atomic level to the movement of the heavens. Ergo, rather than intervention, I use interaction.
How does this accord with science in the classroom? Well, it was Einstein that said that God does not play dice with the universe; God does not wear his heart on his sleeve; And subtle is the Lord, but malicious he is not. What this means is that to tell kids that things are the way they are by chance is actually a negative way of thinking, a way not to think. It explains nothing and is a type of atheistic version of a “God of the gaps” answer. Wherever there is a gap in our knowledge, in our ability to explain, depending on what type of person you are, you say, “Well, God did it!” or, “It’s just by accident!” Perhaps God is not so obvious or rather we are insensitive. And if he is there, just unseen by our eyes, then perhaps we apprehend him as indeed subtle, but not deceptive, not a joker. Again, Einstein himself declares, “Behind the efforts of the investigator there lurks a stronger, more mysterious drive: it is existence and reality that one wishes to comprehend. This wonder and awe are sustained by religion.” All that said, allowing kids and adults, students and teachers to be driven by devotion, faith and truth is honest. It is not these things that there is a law against, but rather aspects of our own human nature that are corrupted, divisive and full of hatred. Science and religion are not in conflict in and of themselves, for both seek to know according to their own natures. Rather, it is people who express themselves as alienated and polarizing, angry and divided. Darkened mad people, be they religiously inclined or otherwise, must come to grips with their own issues that typically have nothing directly to do with aspects of knowing.
Between the probable and proved there yawns a gap.
Afraid to jump, we stand absurd,
Then see behind us sink the ground and, worse,
Our very standpoint crumbling.
Desperate dawns our only hope:
To leap in the Word that
Opens up the shuttered universe.
- S. Vanauken, A Severe Mercy
Through all of this internal struggle with how and what I thought I knew, I have been spending two hours a week with one of the sweetest little 4th graders I have ever met. Her name is Taylor and she is involved in an afterschool program in a local elementary school. She is below average in her reading ability and thus I volunteered to spend time with her each session to encourage her, play with her and challenge her to read and find a love of learning for herself. Just this past week, she took her state exams and received high marks indeed. I thought I couldn’t be any happier until just recently, she interrupted her own portion of our shared reading time to write down a quote from The Little Prince which stated, “Sometimes the eyes are blind, therefore you must look with the heart.” I about passed out as this small elementary kid who struggled with reading just 3 months prior now is arrested in her exercise to inscribe a powerful concept in her own mind. Wow! I have gained much from tutoring and the maxim holds true that "Genius seems to consist in the power of applying the originality of youth to the experience of maturity.” I have witnessed the power of education in the context of a safe relationship. It is true that we learn best from those we like. Not too long ago, she helped me copy a poem written about science of which she now wants a copy. She even pointed out that there were other books with poems about science in her library…we shall have to explore this! You see, education has content of course. But it is the student and their mind that is undergoing development that is the central focus. Taylor is learning what it means to be human and to love learning, to love others and to be in relationship with someone else who desires her benefit. The analogy is well spoken this way: "The skillful use of a tennis racket can be paralyzed by watching our racket instead of attending to the ball and court in front of us." Taking your eye off the ball is the worst thing you can do in any sport, especially when it is coming directly at you! Teaching, tutoring and education are disciplines that require full-on engagement. The focus has not been on my style or performance, but on service to a kid and consistent care for her growth. Without this effect in her life and in any of our lives, we would be nothing inside. Sartre once wrote in his work Being and Nothingness: "Nothingness haunts being. It supposes all being in order to rise up in the heart of being as a hole." It is indeed because nothingness arises in the heart of man that the human reality is forced to make itself something, instead of merely being itself. But as such, man is the only being within the world through whom the threat of nothingness emerges, and by implication disorder also. Ergo, science is no danger in education to morals, and religion is no threat to a real quest for discovery. It is nothingness, emptiness, void and darkness in the human heart that plagues our lives each and every day.
"The premises of science are taught today roughly in three stages. School science imparts a facility in using scientific terms to indicate the established doctrine, the dead letter of science. The university tries to bring this knowledge to life by making the student realize its uncertainties and its eternally provisional nature, and giving him perhaps a glimpse of the dormant implications which may yet emerge from the established doctrine. It also imparts the beginnings of scientific judgment by teaching the practice of experimental proof and giving a first experience in routine research. But a full initiation into the premises of science can be gained only by the few who possess the gift for becoming independent scientists, and they usually achieve it only through close personal association with the intimate views and practice of a distinguished master."
"What then is our answer to those who would doubt that man made of matter, man driven by appetites and subject to social commands, can sustain purely mental purposes? The answer is that he can. He can do this under his own responsibility, precisely by submitting to restrictive and stultifying circumstances which lie beyond his responsibility. These circumstances offer us opportunities for pure thought - limited opportunities and full of pitfalls - but all the same, they are opportunities, and they are ours: we are responsible for using or neglecting them. Viewed in the cosmic perspective of space and time, the opportunity for engaging on works of the mind may have special appeal to us. For so far as we know, we on this earth are the only bearers of thought in the universe. Nor has this gift been a feature of terrestrial life from the start. This task, therefore, appears to be the particular calling of literate man in this universe. I believe that no one who thankfully acknowledges man's calling in this universe, be he religious or agnostic, can avoid this ultimate peremptory conclusion."
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