When did your
interest in science begin?
From 10 years old
onwards I was taught a variety of sciences
in my school education. My interest in
science developed naturally from this.
What made you
change from having an interest in the more
traditional sciences to becoming involved in
the experimental study of psychology?
I gained entrance to Cambridge University to
study physics, mathematics and chemistry in
1945 but delayed starting my course since I
was called up into the army in 1945. During
this time I served as an infantry officer
and for part of the time my battalion served
as a garrison battalion in Hamburg. This
left free time in the evenings when I began
to read more widely including some books on
psychology. I found them fascinating and
when eventually I came out of the army in
1948 and went up to Cambridge, my advisor
strongly suggested that I should first of
all complete my degree in natural sciences
to give me a secure scientific base for any
subsequent studies on psychology. This was
extremely sound advice.
When did you become interested in the
relationship between science and faith?
During my undergraduate studies I began to
think about the implications of the science
I was learning for the Christian belief that
I already held.
You did not attend the first meeting of
/Christians
in Science/
in 1944, but you joined the group soon
afterwards. Could you tell us about it?
In 1944 I met Donald Mackay subsequently one
of the key thinkers amongst the Research
Scientists Christian Fellowship which later
became Christians in Science. After the war
I continued my links with Donald Mackay and
when in 1952 the British Broadcasting
Corporation invited the Research Scientists
Christian Fellowship to undertake a series
of five broadcasts on science and faith I
became one of the five doing these
broadcasts. They were subsequently published
by Inter Varsity Press in 1953 under the
title "Where Science and Faith Meet". The
other contributors were James Torrance,
Donald Mackay, Robert Boyd, and Oliver
Barclay.
How have you managed to have a successful
academic life with the respect and
admiration of your colleagues in a field
such as psychology which, during the 20th
century, many would have considered to be an
impenetrable field for a Christian?
The views of one's professional colleagues
are based primarily on one's achievements
within the discipline one professes and
researches in. I was heavily involved, not
only in research but also in building a
laboratory at St. Andrews, and participating
in national and international scientific
committees in my discipline. The best way to
bear faithful testimony to one's faith, in
this as in all circumstances, is first and
foremost by the quality of one's
contributions. If anyone asked for an
explanation of how I could be an active
Christian and an enthusiastic research
scientist I was delighted to be able to
explain to them the reasons why I saw no
necessary conflict between the two. The
important thing, in matters of science and
of faith, is to have an open but not an
empty mind.
What do you
believe has been your greatest professional
achievement?
I think is better for others to judge the
answer to that question although I was
greatly honoured when, in 1996, I was
elected President of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh which is Scotland's National
Academy of Science and Letters.
And in the
field of science and faith?
I think the answer to that question is the
opportunity I have had over five decades to
contribute a series of books and journal
articles sharing my thoughts about how best
to understand the relations between the
knowledge that we gain through Scripture and
the knowledge that we gain through our
science. As is often said, that question was
how to relate that which we are allowed to
learn from the study of "the book of God's
works" (our science) and "the book of God's
Word".
What would you like to do in the future?
What are the projects that you are working
on at the moment?
I admire your enthusiasm and your optimism.
You need to remember that I am already 83
years old. However, I am currently working
on a book aimed to help students undertaking
university courses in neuroscience,
psychology and evolutionary biology, to
think constructively about the problems that
arise as they seek to relate the science
they are taught with their Christian
beliefs. These are real questions which have
already been given to me by real students
and not something that I want to write about
because it interests me.
What do you believe are the greatest
challenges that science presents to the
Christian faith?
The same day that I received these questions
from you I received an invitation to
participate in an international gathering to
discuss the wider implications of the
remarkably rapid advances in brain imaging
techniques. They raise all kinds of ethical
questions and legal issues and I think that
we need to think through a proper Christian
response involving lawyers, ethicists,
theologians and scientists, who can meet
regularly together to discuss these issues
and formulate a well thought through
response.
How has this situation changed since the
50’s when you started your academic career?
In the 1950s there was relatively little
interest in issues at the interface of
science and Christian belief. Today it has
developed almost into a small industry. The
main changes have been in the topics at the
centre of discussion in any one decade. More
recently, and by that I mean over the last
30 years, it has been the extremely rapid
developments in neuroscience, where it
interfaces with psychology and evolutionary
biology, which have become the major areas
of debate, discussion and writing.
How can the simple faith of some
fishermen 2000 years ago survive in the
cybernetic world of increasing
sophistication which is bearing down upon
us?
What you call "the simple faith of some
fishermen 2000 years" ago was focused on the
life, the teaching, the death and the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
However sophisticated we may become, an
honestly open-minded person in the 21st
century faces the same challenges as faced
the first Christians. A good scientist
studies the evidence with an open and
critical mind. I believe that anyone who
will adopt the same approach to the evidence
from Scripture, from Church history and from
personal testimonies concerning Jesus of
Nazareth will find as He promised that "if
anyone is willing to know the truth then he
shall know".
What advice would you give to those in
the churches that are non scientists,
especially pastors and leaders, in order to
engage with science and faith issues?
I believe that there are many challenges to
pastors and church leaders today. It is
extremely difficult to keep up-to-date and
to fully understand, not just the advances
in science but the implications of those
advances for things like our Christian
faith. It is therefore important that in
those congregations where there are
scientists they should give great thought to
the relationship between their science and
their faith and be prepared to share it with
their fellow Christians in an accessible and
helpful way.
What advice
would you give to the newly formed
/Grupo
Bíblico de Ciencias/
(Spanish version of
/Christians
in Science/)
as it takes its first steps?
I would advise the new group to select one
of the topics at the cutting edge of the
interface between science and Christian
faith today, and to organise small groups
linked to the different members of the group
to study different sub-issues associated
with that topic and then at the end of the
year to meet together and to share the
results of their deliberations and to seek
to come up with some helpful guidelines both
for themselves and also to share with the
local churches from which they come.
Interviewer: Pablo de Felipe PhD,
researcher, writer and Professor of Science
and Faith in SEUT Seminar
http://www.cis.org.uk/
