Submitted by Jennifer Needham
On January 9, The Tech ran a letter by Professor Joe Haldeman entitled, “MIT Does Not Need a Chaplain.” In his letter, Prof Haldeman questions the decision to appoint a Chaplain of the Institute; however, his main arguments are not actually about the chaplaincy but are directed toward supposed incompatibilities between religious belief and the MIT culture of “science and engineering and mathematics.”
I strongly believe that religious belief and scientific pursuit are compatible. As evidence, I would like to expand on the observation made by Miguel Valenca Pires in his letter entitled, “Chaplain Position Is Affront to MIT Tradition.” Pires notes that “when you walk past Killian Court along Memorial Drive and look up at the McLaurin buildings, the names you see inscribed are those of Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Pasteur, D’Alembert, etc….” What Pires certainly does not realize is that of these five accomplished scientists, four of them were also Christians.
In addition to his many interests, Issac Newton studied theology, and among his studies was an investigation of the form and dimensions, as described in the Bible, of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. Galileo Galilei wrote, “I think in the first place that it is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the Holy Bible can never speak untruth – whenever its true meaning is understood.” Galileo’s conflict with the Roman Catholic Church was actually a conflict between Aristotelian science, which was a church tradition, and Copernican science (Copernicus himself being a monk).
Johannes Kepler’s Christian faith led him to a pattern of thinking that eventually enabled him to solve the riddle of planetary motion, his greatest contribution to science, where so many other scientists had given up. Kepler also spent time investigating the dates of historical events in the Bible, including the birth of Jesus. He saw no conflict between his scientific and theological work, saying “We see how God, like a human architect, approached the founding of the world according to order and rule and measured everything in such a manner.” And as Prof Haldeman may know, Kepler is also credited with the first modern science fiction story, The Dream.
Louis Pasteur saw no conflict between science and Christianity, and in fact, he believed that “science brings men nearer to God.” In his work as a scientist, he saw evidence of wisdom and design, not randomness and chaos. Pasteur said, “The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.”
Collectively these men represent some of the greatest minds the world has known. But they were not men of science first and men of religion second; rather, they were men who worked faithfully and who attributed their greatest achievements, scientific and otherwise, to God. May we researchers never be too prideful to follow in the footsteps of these great men - to recognize God’s good gifts in every discovery, every observation, every breakthrough, and every moment of insight. “I was dismayed to read that MIT researchers have discovered, after a hundred years without, that there is a cure for cancer.” While the Institute has not always had a Chaplain, perhaps it is far more fitting and appropriate in light of our cerebral ancestors.
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