Science

I like science and have learnt many wonderful things from doing it and reading about it. If I had been smarter at maths I would probably have gone further with it. When I lived in Wales I used to go with my friend Gwilym to the Cardiff scientific society for their winter lecture programme. It was always very interesting. They had a variety of topics drawing in people from a variety of disciplines; physics, chemistry, biology etc even sociology. Gwilym and I would then have an interesting discusson on the way home and would continue it over a cup of tea at his home.

The first scientific subject that interested me as a youngster was nature study, especially bird watching and that interest has stayed with me. Then soon after I started to get into astronomy and made a simple telescope and looked at the moon, the full moon which isn't the best phase but the effect was magical. I looked at better times and saw craters and then got a better telescope. It was only a 2 inch refractor but I had wonderful views of the moon and Jupiter and its moons and so on. In 1957 the first Artificial Earth Satellite was launched and I started watching satellites. For a number of years I worked in laboratories - chemistry and physics and though I left that line of work I kept up the scientific interest. When I was a school chaplain in Zambia I taught general science for a term when a teacher was on leave. I also ran an astronomy club and learnt a lot about the southern stars and the students found it interesting too.

Now I have a better telescope and can take digital photographs and that has been pleasing in good weather though I don't go into it anywhere as deeply as some. It is all very wonderful but I don't do cold mornings as I did 50 years ago!

Science is very amazing. The discoveries and advances that have been made are astonishing. Just when things have been sorted some new discovery throws everything into the melting pot again.

I once wrote an essay on what is science for? I argued for it being useful, a practical purpose, and there is a lot in that but the usefulness is wider than technology. It evokes wonder for example and also encourages patience and the search for truth and an open mindedness in expecting surprises. Apart from aiming at truth science has little ethical leverage and so its use and pursuit must be controlled by philosophical principles that are not inherent to science. It is therefore not the whole of reality and exists in a wider context of abstract realities such as principles and values that cannot be evaluated by science. Thus although reductionism and materialism are assumed by some scientists and they are free to use them it must be clear that these actually are philosophical stances brought to bear on science. Nobody is obliged to be a materialist and science can be approached from other standpoints.

Many Christians are scientists and have thought about these things. For myself, as a Christian, I think that science shows how the material universe is constructed and works and that is a cause for wonder and praise. Usefulness definitely comes into the picture and I think that Christians can be very open to new developments in science and technology but see them in the context of loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbour as ourselves. Undoubtedly, this does offer a critique of destructive, malicious uses as well as greed and the like but our attitude doesn't have to be negative all around as new discoveries are made which are potentially for the good of humankind and the world in general.

For me those early views of the moon and the stars opened the eye of faith to believe that there is a creator of all these wonders. How this developed into a Christian faith is another story.