Faraday Institute Advocates A Middle Ground Between Science and Religion

Two weeks ago today, CCF and LCF hosted a group from the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in the University of Cambridge. They had wanted to show a segment of a video they had produced, essentially about how science and religion do not actually conflict. This particular video dealt with the interactions between neuroscience and spirituality. After showing the video, they gathered a panel of a pastor (Ken Fong of Evergreen), a chemistry professor (David Vosburg of Harvey Mudd), a Faraday Insitute representative (Ruth Bancewicz), and an Old Testament scholar (Tremper Longman III) to answer questions. The crowd, filling Noyes 153 (see the pictures below!) was a mix between Caltech undergrads and Evergreen members. Keep reading for some reactions to the event.

CCF and LCF publicized by putting up posters, but the majority of the legwork was done by Dai Wei, a senior in Avery and a part of LCF's leadership. Here's what he had to say in an e-mail after the event:

Hey everyone,
Thanks so much for your prayers and, for quite many people, participation! Overall the event was quite a success. The room was filled (~100 people), and the video seemed to be intriguing to the audience. Also, the discussions were surprisingly dynamic (funny at times) and informative, with both good questions and solid panelists. Furthermore, at least one person has expressed interest in Christianity at the end of the talk. On a tangent point: It was a bit unexpected to me that a single post on today.caltech.edu drew such a large crowd from the community around Caltech, and that half or more attendees tonight were not from Caltech. But in any case, I'm very glad that God has gathered an receptive audience to the event.

I have uploaded a few pictures I took during the event here just to give everyone an idea what the event looked like. If you missed out on this one, there's going to be another talk similar to this calledThe Veritas Forum, coming up in January (winter term). Stay tuned and hold on tight to our faith!

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:23)

Blessings,

Dai Wei

I also asked a freshman, Grace Tang, to write about her experience:

Hullo CCF!

I’m not a very good writer, so please bear with me.

When Sam asked if I could write something about the Test of Faith event last Tuesday (Oct. 18^th), what I first actually thought of wasn’t the movie or the panelists, but what happened a couple hours earlier.

During frosh prayer that day, Peter Ngo expressed his concern about the attendance to the event: What if no non-Christians come? And even if they did come, would they come with an open mind? Then Peter Yes (aka Peter Buhler) showed up and said that even if just one person out of the hundred people at Noyes 153 was a non-Christian and was able to come to Christ through this, then it would all be worth it and it’s something to celebrate over. Then we prayed about it afterwards. And guess what? At 8:10pm that day, the place was packed! And there wasn’t just one non-Christian, there was a decent number (I recognized at least three, but that doesn’t say much ‘cause I’m just a frosh; and I did hear from others that they had non-Christian friends who went). God is sooooo faithful!

I don’t remember the whole event (I should start taking notes like Sam), but there was an analogy in the 30 minute movie that stuck out to me. When you describe a camera, you can’t just say it’s some glass, plastic, and metal. Sure, that’s what it’s made of, but there’s much more beyond that. What makes it a camera isn’t simply the materials it’s made of, but itself as a whole. In a similar manner, a human is more than just proteins and lipids and chunks of flesh stuck together. There’s something more (soul and spirit!) which makes us human. Of course, the movie never gave us a clear-cut answer because they really weren’t trying to tell us how to think, they were giving us something to think about. And I think that worked out really well in the panel discussion.

In the panel discussion there was a pastor (who majored in Chemistry?), a Harvey Mudd professor, a Faraday Institute professor, and an Old Testament dude (sorry for my limited vocabulary and faulty memory). At first people were hesitant about asking questions, then after the first couple, we passed over the activation energy and hands started shooting up like popcorn in slow-motion. There were questions about the bible, about the panelists’ personal opinions, about lots of things! I can recall three things off the top of my head:

The people writing the Old Testament were not 21^st century scientists. So when you read it, you cannot interpret it like a 21^st century scientist. Some were written as poetry, some were written as stories, etc. To get a super-literal understanding of the passage you’re reading, it needs to be interpreted based on the context of the time it was written and the purpose it was written for. (Of course, if God speaks to you through the word, He can do it totally out of context!)

There are many things you can try to explain with logic, and then there are others which you just have to have faith (the context was that there was a non-Christian who was going out with a sister from the pastor’s church, and the guy said he was unable to believe in a virgin birth (Jesus’ birth)). After all, we have faith that Christ redeemed us :)

Their movie never actually mentions a specific belief, so why Christianity and not some other religion? Why do the panelists choose to believe in Christ? The thing I remembered best was that it’s just so amazing how we are not required to do anything to be saved, that we have a God, a Father, who loves us so much that his son came down in the form of man to die for us and save us from our sin. We are not rewarded for what we do. Instead, we just need to believe.

And there’s much, much more that happened, so next time if you have the chance, do come to one of these events! (I think there’s the Veritas-forum coming up later?) Also, after the panel ended, there were some non-Christians who were asking about Christianity, and that was a real pleasure because it shows that some seeds were planted, and so let’s all pray that God will make them grow on good soil :)

God bless!

Your little sister in Christ,

Grace Tang