“Science through the Lens of Faith”
Southern California Christians in Science
Winter Day Conference
9 AM – 5 PM on Saturday, January 12th, 2013
Segerstrom Science Center, Perry Lecture Hall
Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA
Conference Schedule
8:00-9:00 AM
Registration & fellowship over light refreshments
9:00 AM
Opening Remarks
9:10 – 10:25 AM
“Genesis Through Ancient Eyes”, John Walton
10:30 AM – Noon
Morning parallel sessions (see the schedule on the following page)
Noon – 1 PM
Lunch
1 – 2:30 PM
Afternoon parallel sessions (see the schedule on the following page)
2:30 – 3:00 PM
Poster session (see the reverse for a list of posters)
3:00 – 4:15 PM
“The Search for Extra-Solar Planets”, Jeff Zweerink
4:15 – 4:50 PM
Panel discussion: “Science & Faith: Where do we go from here?”
4:50 – 5 PM
Concluding Remarks
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Morning parallel sessions
Time \ session
10:30 – 11:00 AM
11:00 – 11:30 AM
I- Approaching Difficult Questions in
Science-Faith Dialogue
II- Science and Faith:
Motivations, Context, and
Methods
In Genesis 1, Seven Hebrew Words
Make All the Difference
Why Should Christians
Care About Science?
Fritz Guy & Brian Bull
Caroline Crocker
Resolving the Question of the
Christian Belief in the Creation of
the Biblical Adam and Eve v. the
Scientific Belief in the Millennia-long
Evolution of Humankind
Science and Faith
on a Secular Campus
David A. Vosburg
Eloise T. Choice
11:30 AM - noon
Lessons for Thinking and Talking
about Science and Religion from
the Soviet Resonance Controversy,
a Chemical Counterpart to
Lysenkoism
Science and the Resurrection
Aron Wall
Garrett Johnson & Stephen Contakes
Afternoon parallel sessions
Time \ session
1:00 – 1:30 PM
III- Pedagogical Approaches to
Science and Faith Issues
Why do faith integration:
A pedagogical motivation
Bradley McCoy & Jared Groth-Olson
1:30 – 2:00 PM
2:00 – 2:30 PM
IV- Informing Christian Faith and
Practice through Science and
Math
Exploring the Wonders of
Creation through the
Lens of Science
Leslie A. Wickman
Fritz Haber, Chemistry, Guns,
Gas, & Butter
The Bell Curve as
a Biblical Type of Christ
Stephen M. Contakes
Jason Wilson
Faith Integration in the context of an
Undergraduate Cadaver Lab
Worship Through the Lens of the
Autocorrelation Function
Kathleen G. Tallman
Michael A. Everest
Poster session
Experimental Determination of the Smallest Particulate Heat Signature Observable with the
NEXRAD Radar. Tobin Barrett, College of Charleston
The Interaction of Winnicott’s “Good Enough Mother” on Mentoring Teenage Mothers.
Carly Lind, BIOLA University
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Oral and Poster Presentation Abstracts
Session I- Approaching Difficult Questions in Science-Faith Dialogue
In Genesis 1, Seven Hebrew Words Make All the Difference
Fritz Guy, research professor of philosophical theology, La Sierra University
Brian Bull, professor of pathology and human anatomy, Loma Linda University
Beginning with William Tyndale in 1530, English translators have significantly influenced (for better and for worse)
the way English speaking readers have understood Creation as described in Genesis 1:1-2:4a. Some of this effect has
come from changes in the meanings of English words over time; some has come from faulty translation in the first place.
A consideration of the ancient Hebrew vocabulary and a careful look at the actual text provide some useful information: (1) shemayim meant “sky,” not the astronomical universe known to us; (2) ’eretz meant “land” or “territory,” not
Planet Earth the home of humanity in the blackness of space; (3) yom meant “day” or “daytime” in the sense of
productivity, not our 24 hours of clock time; (4) raqia meant “vault” or “dome,” and is now often mistranslated as
“expanse”; (5) ‘ereb meant “evening” in the sense of gathering darkness, not a whole night; (6) boqer meant “dawning” or
“morning,” not a whole day; (7) wahayah combined the conjunction “and” with a verb meaning “there was” or “there came
to be.”
So we offer this translation of Genesis 1:1-8, describing the creation not of our planet, our solar system, our
universe, but of the world the ancient Hebrews knew:
To begin with, God brought into existence the sky and the land. Now as for the land, it was without form or
function. Darkness covered the water, and God’s Spirit hovered over the surface of the abyss.
God said, “Let there be light.” Light came to be, and God saw that the light functioned well. God separated the
light from the darkness, and named the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was gathering darkness; and
there came-to-be dawning—one [Creation] day.
God said, “Let there be a vault within the water, and let it separate the water.” God made the vault and
separated the water under the vault from the water above the vault, and thus it came to be. God named the vault
“sky.” There was gathering darkness; and there came-to-be dawning—a second [Creation] day.
Resolving the Question of the Christian Belief in the Creation of the Biblical Adam and Eve
versus the Belief in the Millennia-long Evolution of Humankind
Eloise T. Choice, M.S., Educator
Inherent in the Creation (“intelligent design”) vs. Theory of Evolution (“natural selection”) war, is the scientific
belief in the millennia-long “evolution” of humankind, versus the Christian belief in the creation of the Biblical Adam and
Eve circa 7,700 B.C. I will argue, in my 20-minute talk, that God created and re-created humankind in successive stages,
which accounts for the non-linear progression of humanoids. I will also argue that after God created Homo sapiens –
early modern man – He created the Biblical Adam and Eve circa 9,700 years ago, and that Adam and Eve were the
prototypes for present-day man, referred to in my paper as Homo sapiens sapiens. Mitochondria DNA evidence suggests
that under the skin, all humans today are 99.99% alike (Scientists 2000), which leads directly back to a single female –
the Biblical Eve. Moreover, archaeological and Biblical evidence suggests that Eve and Adam were created during the
Mesolithic Period and co-existed with Homo sapiens during the Mesolithic/Neolithic Periods. Anatomist Alan Thorne
became intrigued enough with the discovery of the Australian Mungo Lady and Mungo Man, that he ordered tests to be
conducted on these and other Mungo fossils, and published the results in January 2001. The first discovery was that the
Australian Aborigine fossils dated back to 60,000 years. Geneticist Gregory Adcock of Australian National University then
extracted the DNA from the interior of the bones in a manner so as to avoid contamination. He “compared mitochondria
DNA from an early-modern Australian” [Mungo Man] with that of the mitochondria DNA of contemporary man, and they
did not match. Furthermore, “His [Mungo Man’s] mitochondria DNA signature did not match anyone's, living or fossil, on
Earth. There was no evidence that he was genetically related to ancient Africans” (D'Agnese, 2002, 56). Anthropologist
Alan Mann of Princeton University remarked: “The people of Mungo were totally modern looking and were expected to
carry the DNA we have, but they didn't” (ibid. 56).
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Lessons for Thinking and Talking about Science and Religion
from the Soviet Resonance Controversy, a Chemical Counterpart to Lysenkoism
Garrett Johnson and Stephen M. Contakes, Department of Chemistry, Westmont College
Lysenkoism is sometimes invoked by opponents of scientific creationism and the intelligent design movement to illustrate
how ideological attacks on science might negatively impact American competitiveness in science and technology.
However, the Lysenko comparison – at least as presented in popular accounts - is flawed in many respects, not least
because it fails to take the pastoral, social, and apologetic functions of scientific antievolutionism seriously. More
importantly, the tragic history of Soviet genetics under Lysenko provides few indications of exactly how scientists ought to
respond to religiously motivated pseudoscientific movements. In contrast, the Chelintsev Affair, a chemical counterpart to
Lysenkoism in which the Soviet organic chemist G.V. Chelintsev objected to Pauling’s resonance concept on the grounds
that it was hostile to Marxism, may be a more useful model for scientists who wish to preserve scientific integrity and
competitiveness in an atmosphere of religious apprehension. Not only were the involved Soviet theoretical chemists less
threatened scientifically and politically than their geneticist colleagues under Lysenko, they quickly recognized that
Chelintsev’s objections to Pauling’s resonance theory were primarily ideological in character and that open discussion of
the ideological issues performed important social and political functions in the Soviet system. Consequently, these
chemists were not only open to dialogue with Chelintsev’s ideas, they led the way in guiding the public discussion. This in
turn allowed them to minimize Chelintsev’s political ambitions while promoting a politically-astute response that
acknowledged Chelintsev’s legitimate concerns while rejecting his theory. In this response, leading Soviet theoretical
chemists successfully decoupled the scientific components of resonance theory from any metaphysical ideas which might
be viewed as incompatible with Marxist philosophy, largely by modifying how they talked about (but not thought about)
their science. This in turn provided them with the opportunity to criticize and reject Chelintsev’s alternative structural
theory without threatening the wider social system. In this respect the Chelintsev affair indicates that scientists who wish
to promote the public’s understanding and appreciation of their work would do well to thoughtfully, respectfully, and
proactively engage the concerns of religious communities when addressing scientifically unproductive alternative theories.
Session II- Science and Faith: Motivations, Context, and Methods
Why Should Christians Care About Science?
Caroline Crocker, President, American Institute for Technology and Science Education
“Why should I care about integrity in science and medicine? I’m a businessperson, a gardener, a lawyer, a homemaker, a
studentK Science is just not relevant to my life.” Have you ever heard your fellow Christians say this? In this presentation,
we will explore how lack of scientific integrity jeopardizes our health, prosperity and even faith as a nation and how lack of
interest in science prevents Christians from being salt and light in this critical arena. Cheating is endemic in schools so
that students neither learn the facts nor are able to apply what they learn. Censorship is rife in academia so that educators
are not allowed to teach both sides of controversial science. The financial interests of the funders control research and
publication so that healthcare providers are limited in their search for accurate information and patients can end up taking
harmful or unnecessary drugs. Physicians, who may have gained their positions by means of being compliant with the
status quo, train medical students to become clones of themselves. Worse, as our fellow believers lose trust in science
and medicine, they turn to something worse: science denial, voluntary ignorance and alternative therapies—and believe
that doing so is important for true faith in Christ. A return to scientific integrity is not just necessary; it is vital. As Christians
in science, we are uniquely placed to model scientific integrity to our colleagues and to teach our fellow believers how to
evaluate scientific claims. And we must accept the responsibility to do so.
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Science and Faith on a Secular Campus
David A. Vosburg, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College
How should a Christian professor on a secular campus relate to faculty colleagues and to students who are Christian and
non-Christian? And promote constructive engagement and dialogue on issues of science and faith? And encourage
spiritual conversations and curiosity? This session will offer several ideas and resources that have been effective in the
presenter's context at an undergraduate college and will solicit additional suggestions from those in attendance. General
areas of discussion will include: connecting with existing student and faculty groups on campus and starting new ones,
giving presentations and showing films, selecting course topics and research projects, and practicing hospitality and
openness in person and online.
Science and the Resurrection
Aron Wall, Department of Physics, UC Santa Barbara, Goleta, CA
Is a scientific worldview incompatible with belief in miracles? I will describe three reasons why the scientific method has
been so successful:
1) Science is based on observations, not just deciding what seems reasonable a priori, before looking at the data.
2) Science is based on making approximations in order to construct precise models, which are only valid in a limited
patch of reality.
3) Science involves cooperating with an ethical and truth-seeking community to test ideas.
Next I will turn to the Resurrection appearances in John chapter 20, in which Jesus appears to the ten disciples and then
to Thomas. Using this narrative to frame the discussion, I will describe how Christianity measures up when examined
using each of these three principles of Science:
1) Christianity is also based on observations. Even though it may seem unreasonable for dead people to come back
to life, we believe it because many people saw it happen (some of whom were skeptical beforehand).
2) If the Resurrection happened, then our scientific theories don't give a complete picture of the world. But this is not
a devastating objection to Christianity because it is actually a quite normal situation within Science.
3) The Christian Church is also an ethical, truth-seeking community.
But the purpose of this community centers around the forgiveness of sins rather than the discovery of physical laws.
Session III- Pedagogical Approaches to Science and Faith Issues
Why do faith integration: A pedagogical motivation
Bradley "Peanut" McCoy and Jared Groth-Olson, Department of Mathematics & Physics, Azusa Pacific University
For faculty at Christian universities, several possible motivations may induce us to integrate faith into our classrooms, for
example spiritual development, vocational training, or personal interest. In this talk, we argue that faith integration can
also be used to improve students’ epistemologies, i.e. their beliefs on learning and the nature of science. Improving
students’ epistemology has great pedagogical value. Research in physics education has shown that students with more
expert-like epistemology are more likely to persist with studies of physics and show greater learning gains. We present
preliminary data on student epistemology gains from incorporating faith integration into one physics class.
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Fritz Haber, Chemistry, Guns, Gas, & Butter: Questions, Methods, and Dialogue at the
Interface between Chemical Technology & Christian Responsibility
Stephen Contakes, Department of Chemistry, Westmont College
Fritz Haber’s ammonia synthesis process, often used to illustrate Le’Chatelier’s principle in chemistry courses, may also
be used to promote Christian reflection on technology. It is ubiquitous in that Haber-Bosch plants are found in almost
every nation and operate on such a scale they consume ~2% of the world’s energy. Since Haber-derived ammonia can
be used to produce large quantities of dual use ammonium nitrate for fertilizers and explosives the Haber process extends
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mankind’s capacity to produce both guns and butter. Consequently, it has a Janus faced 20 Century legacy that
includes both contributing to human welfare by enabling world food production to keep pace with population growth and
degrading it by indirectly enabling German militarism in two World Wars. However, Haber did not necessarily consider
the potential unintended consequences of his work. Instead, he began working on ammonia synthesis for an Austrian
chemical firm and accelerated his efforts to show up his professional rival Walther Nernst. In this respect Haber is typical
of scientists who ignore ethical problems in their pursuit of professional advancement or “technically sweet” goals.
Haber’s life is similarly instructive. He spent much of his later career advancing German aims, including development of
Germany’s World War I gas warfare program, efforts to repay its war debts by extracting gold from seawater, and
oversight of further military research, including development of the dual use insecticide-war gas Zyklon B. Indeed,
Haber’s repeated attempts to use chemistry to “save” Germany are sometimes invoked to illustrate the subtle dangers of
technological idolatry.
Public and intellectual reactions to Haber’s development of poison gas also demonstrate the challenges of Christian
ethical reflection on technology. While Haber was not overtly religious, he could defend poison gas from charges that it
was a barbaric “perversion of science” using the Just war concept of proportionality. Thus, a careful examination of early
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20 Century debates over Haber’s role in chemical warfare may be used to help students develop a framework for
thinking about how the gospel, stewardship mandate, and command to love one’s neighbor might apply to chemical
weapons as well as more mundane chemical technologies.
Faith Integration in the context of an Undergraduate Cadaver Lab
Kathleen G. Tallman, Azusa Pacific University
Responding to a cadaver experience might be challenging for anyone in American culture in which there is significant
distance from death and the dying process. For undergraduates the process can be even more emotionally challenging.
This can result in emotional trauma for students or inappropriate blogging on social networking sites. Not only are these
issues related to experience of the students, but also to the privacy and confidentiality of the cadaver. At Azusa Pacific
University, the Human Anatomy course addresses these issues through faith integration assignments. In the first
assignment, students read three news clips about students in cadaver or clinical settings who post inappropriate blogs on
the internet. Each situation ended in a court case in which the academic institution took action against the student internet
posts. In the assignment, students are posed with questions related to the ethics of privacy and confidentiality from a faith
perspective of care for one’s neighbor. The second assignment uses the cardinal virtues of courage, prudence,
temperance, and justice, viewed through a lens of faith, to guide spiritual formation and character development in
responding to ethical situations. The final assignment requires students to use the cardinal virtues to analyze the proper
use of cadavers, this time in the context of the public display of cadavers. Student feedback included an increased
awareness of virtue everyday life and the use of virtue to make ethical decisions. Students also gained an ability to view
cadavers with an eye of compassion for suffering with a knowledge of technical structures.
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Session IV- Informing Christian Faith and Practice through Science and Math
Exploring the Wonders of Creation through the Lens of Science
Leslie A. Wickman, Ph.D., Azusa Pacific University
This presentation looks at the historical development of the scientific method within the Judeo-Christian tradition, as well
as its roots in Greek natural philosophy. Differences between deductive and inductive reasoning are highlighted. The
applicability of the scientific method to the pursuit of truth in both the realms of science and theology is discussed. The
contemporary dialog between science and religion is characterized, with references to the Anthropic Principle, Quantum
Physics, and the Multiverse Hypothesis. In closing, the audience is left with a list of suggestions for getting comfortable
with the tensions and unanswered questions within the “Science and Faith” dialog.
The Bell Curve as a Biblical Type of Christ
Jason Wilson, Associate Professor of Mathematics, BIOLA University
In 1993 an unfinished notebook of Jonathan Edwards called Types was published for the first time since his death in
1758. It contains a more explicit argument than any of his previous works for extending biblical typology to nature in a
biblically grounded manner. This paper is an attempt to extend that research program into mathematics/statistics. The
thesis is that the normal distribution (the graph of which is the bell curve) is a type of Christ. All relevant mathematical
concepts are defined and a description of thirteen different typological significations of Christ is given. The primary
signification is that the celebrated Central Limit Theorem, in which the normal distribution is found to be the center of
modern Statistics, typifies that Christ is the center of the plan of God.
Worship through the Lens of the Autocorrelation Function
Michael A. Everest, Professor of Chemistry, Westmont College
The autocorrelation function shows the extent to which a mathematical function is similar to itself after being shifted (for
example, in the time domain) by certain amounts. It has been applied to solve problems in several fields including
dynamic light scattering, X-ray scattering, and signal processing. We suggest that the autocorrelation function can yield
new insight when it is applied to texts used for Christian worship. We will present the computed autocorrelation function
of some texts used in worship and hypothetical autocorrelation functions of different worship traditions. The
autocorrelation function provides a new way to discuss the amount and timescale of repetition in worship texts, and
therefore provides an opportunity to consider the ways in which different worship choices may augment or detract from
the spiritual life of a worshipping community.
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Poster Presentations
Experimental Determination of the Smallest Particulate Heat Signature
Observable with the NEXRAD Radar
B. Tobin Barrett, College of Charleston
Popular early studies in Clear‐Air Meteorology have proven that bird migrations and insects can contaminate wind profiles
in clear‐air radar return data collection. The purpose of this research will be to continue along this path of Meteorology.
We will analyze clear‐air radar to find the smallest physical features viewable with radar. In order to obtain the most
nominal of returns from the Nexrad database, we will collect radar returns from greater Las Vegas, NV.
The Interaction of Winnicott’s “Good Enough Mother” on Mentoring Teenage Mothers
Carly Lind, BIOLA University
This service learning assignment examined the impact of volunteering on the enhanced understanding of personality
theory and personal spiritual insight gained through the experience. It involved participation in the non-profit organization
Generation Her, a life-skills support group for pregnant teenagers and teen moms in Orange County, CA. I spent a
minimum of ten hours mentoring these girls and discovered how serving them may enhance the academic learning of
personality theories, in particular Object Relations as understood by Donald Woods Winnicott. Embracing Winnicott’s
concept of “good enough mother”, this study explored the current interaction and potential benefits of implementing this
theory into the weekly programs and mentoring relationships at Generation Her. Specifically, it addresses how Winnicott’s
theories supplement the goals of Generation Her for each teenage mother in becoming a healthy and nurturing mother,
accomplishing educational and career goals, and becoming financially independent.
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