Continual Pursuit of Truth: STEF 2019 Conference Invites Reflection

Published: April 13, 2021

Former Greenville University President H. J. Long declared in 1936, It is inconceivable that in a really Christian college anyone should keep a closed mind.This necessarily means there will continually be a seeking after truth.

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Darrell Iler 77 shared this quote with approximately 200 attendees at the November 8-10 Science Through the Eyes of Faith (STEF) conference. It rang true to the spirit of the gathering; scientists, researchers, professors, educators, students, and community members were gathered to dialogue about questions that often spark deep reflection, and even uncertainty, in believers. Conference presenters approached science and faith from a posture of continual seeking rather than settled answers.

In his opening remarks, President Filby noted that GU faculty teach students to be unafraid of tackling complex issues, and presentation topics reflected this sensibility. Topics ranged from intriguing and informative, such as the quest for ever-more-accurate atomic clocks, to thought-provoking and difficult, like discussions of evolution, biotechnologies and ethics, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Some topics caused presenters to admit their own puzzlement and lack of firm answers, such as a panel on the meaning of suffering.

Biola University Associate Professor of Philosophy and former GU Professor of Philosophy Kent Dunnington commended this posture of intellectual humility in his Nov. 9 presentation. He asserted that an intellectually humble individual is able to categorize their beliefs into which ones amount to knowledge, which ones are well-established beliefs, and so on, all the way down to which ones are mere assumptions or working hypotheses.

This expectation of continual seeking, rather than settled answers, infused a sense of curiosity and excitement into the conference.

Uncertainties aside, all conference presenters held one common conviction about the relationship between science and faith: the two disciplines need not be at odds.

Despite much opinion to the contrary, said physicist and Nobel Laureate Dr. Bill Phillips, a scientist with religious faith is nothing unusual.

Phillips encourages scientists and people of faith to let go of common stereotypes about one another. Scientists, he said, are not gleefully waiting to tear faith apart, nor are the discoveries of science evil or dangerous. People of faith are not incurious, simplistic, or automatically fearful of science. In Phillips experience, most scientists and people of faith think deeply and pursue truth to the best of their abilities.

Phillips reminded the audience that stereotypes of the godless scientist and the moronic churchgoer locked in combat get a lot of press because they make a much more interesting story, not because they represent the norm of how people actually live and navigate their beliefs.

Another common conference theme asserted that science and religion answer different kinds of questions. Science relies on observation and repeatable experimentation to deliver facts and information. Religion utilizes revelation, faith, and personal experience with the Creator to answer questions about the meaning of life and the nature of God. Thus, these two means of seeing the world can exist in harmony, and might be seen as two lenses or two languages for approaching the same truth.

Rori Picker Neiss, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, siezed on the language metaphor on the last day of the conference as she prepared the audience to hear the first chapter of Genesis read in English and in Hebrew.

If God is infinite, Neiss said, then He exceeds the limitations of our finite language.

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