Science?

Science!

For most people, that word brings back bad memories of stinky high school chemistry labs, impossibly difficult physics tests, and nerd-boys with taped horn-rimmed glasses. (For some people, like me, it actually reminds me more of a 1980's Thomas Dolby tune..."she blinded me....with science!" But I digress.)

I have a lot of respect for science, scientists, and the scientific process. Scientific breakthroughs are responsible for a great deal of the modern comforts we enjoy. Science helps us understand the huge world around us, and make sense of our physical world.

However, science has its limitations. Science, like anything else, is good at what its good at, and not very useful when used outside its limits. Wikipedia describes the scientific method this way:

Scientific method refers to the body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.^[1] A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.^[2]

The key words there are observable and measurable. Science is your tool if you are wanting to measure the temperature at which Dr. Pepper boils, for example. Or the stress-strain curve for Silly Putty. Or the chemical composition of the plastic keys on my laptop. If it is measurable and repeatable, science can help you understand it.

However, science is NOT an appropriate tool for all areas of knowledge. For example, I love my wife, Cathy. I am 100% sure of this, and there is evidence to prove it (I hope!). However, there is no scientific method for measuring how much I love her. It is a real, emotional quantity, but science measures the physical not the emotional. In the same way, science cannot measure the spiritual (faith, hope, love) or the historical (origin of mankind, the world, etc).

This last point, using science to tell us about our historical distant past, is a great problem among scientists today. I believe that a lot of the work going on today that is passed off as "science" involves scientists attempting to use science to "prove" things it can never prove.

Take the evolution-creation debate. Believers in evolution claim that science is on their side, since a majority of scientists today believe the (ever-changing) theory of evolution to be "scientific fact". In fact, all we can do today is measure and study physical clues and phenomena (rock strata, levels of chemicals in the atmosphere, etc) and then make guesses (hypotheses) about what happened in the past to cause what we see today. Evolution and creation are two hypotheses about what happened long ago to cause the evidence we see and measure today.

For example, an evolutionist and a creationist look at the same data, say rock layers in the Grand Canyon, and each comes to a different conclusion. The evolutionist would say that these layers were deposited over many millions of years, very gradually. The creationist might argue that these layers were deposited suddenly, in a massive global weather event (flood, perhaps?). Same observations, different conclusions.

The reason two people can look at the same thing and come to radically different conclusions is based on their worldview. A worldview is like a lens through which you see the world; it colors everything you see, based on the lens. The evolutionist has a secular worldview: there is no God, there is no supernatural (only the natural), and so science can be used to explain everything. The creationist has a Biblical worldview: there is a God, He operates in both the natural and supernatural realms, science can be used to measure the natural world, but only God can open our eyes to see the supernatural world.

I read a news article the other day that really floored me. It was one of the best examples of sloppy, non-scientific "science" that I've seen in a long time. As in, "I believe X, and I'd like to prove X, so I'll set out to find evidence of X, I really think I'll find some...whoah, look, here's evidence of X!" But since this post is so long, I'll give you the details another day...

Peace out.

"George"

Have you every met someone filled with joy? Someone who brightens your day every time you see them? The kind of person where you always feel better after being with them than before? I think we all know people like this.

On the other hand, have you ever me someone exactly opposite this? Someone who is perpetually negative, who can find fault with the most beautiful song, the prettiest flower, the best situation? A person who never fails to sap all the joy and energy out of you?

Well, I met one of those negative people yesterday. In fact, I meet him once a month.

For the sake of this blog post, we'll call him "George." George is my barber.

As a barber, he is great. Excellent attention to detail, very thorough, never knicks my ear with the scissors, etc. But, George is one of the most negative people I have ever met. He has "no use" for most things that normal people enjoy. As you can imagine, this makes for an extremely awkward half hour in the barber chair!

Our conversation yesterday went something like this:

Brian: Hey, George, how have you been!
George: All right.

[Brian sits in barber chair, followed by three minutes of awkward silence.]

Brian: So, did you have a good Christmas, George?
George: Survived it. Glad its over.
Brian: Did you have your kids and grandkids over?
George: No. They've got their own families. We've got ours.

[Five minutes of awkward silence.]

Brian: Say, George, do you ever go to downtown Greenville? They've really got it looking nice...
George: No reason to. Nothing they have down there I can't get here at home. Except crowds & traffic.

[More awkward silence...]

Brian: So, um, has business been pretty good?
George: Same as always. Work six days a week, standing up all day. Prices go up, but my pay never goes up. ...


Well, you get the idea.

I've given some thought to my encounters with George, and here's what I've come up with:

1. When I get older, I do not want to be a negative, grumpy person. Life is too short! I want to be the positive, joyful, edifying person, the one who makes peoples lives better. Negativity breed more and more negativity, and the result is...well, George.

2. Despite his demeanor, Jesus died for George. Even thought it is very difficult for me to LIKE George, much less LOVE him, scriptures command me to love him. I need to show Christ's love to him. Even if he never changes, I need to be a positive Christian example to him, once a month. Maybe God will even use me to change him...

3. I don't know what George has gone through. Maybe George has suffered a variety of things that, through God's grace, I've never had to endure. It's easy for me to judge, to say "look at what a great person I am compared to this negative man." But maybe God just wants me to offer friendship and encouragement, and not judge his character.

So, if you are the praying type, pray that God will give me the ability to be consistently positive, joyful, and Christlike every month when I go see George. Pray that George will come to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior, that God would change him from the inside out. Pray that Christ will plant a seed of joy in George's heart, and that it will grow wildly and uncontrollably, covering every dry and dusty clump of negativity in his soul.

God is good - let's live that way!

Widgets

Today I was in an all-day meeting at work. And it got a little ugly.

I work for a global company. That is, a company which has plants and facilities in many countries across the world. In order to be more efficient and avoid duplication, my company wants departments who do the same thing, but in different countries, to use the same software. Makes sense, right? If I'm building widgets in the USA, and someone else in my company is building widgets in Japan, why not use the same widget-building software?

Well, this is easier said than done. Though we are both building widgets, my buddy in Japan has a slightly different process for building his widgets, so he claims his software needs are slightly different from mine. The challenge is, can the software be made to accommodate the slight differences in the widget-building process, or must we design and build two sets of widget-building software? My job is to help find ways to allow the use of one software tool which accommodates the needs of "widget-builders" in all countries.

So anyhow, in today's meeting, things got a bit heated when one group of widget-builders became convinced that their method of widget-building was fundamentally different from another group's, and thus required different software. They were convinced that the other country's widget-building process was crazy, and the folks from that country didn't understand why on earth we would use such a crazy method for building widgets here in the US of A.

So where am I going with all this?

It occurred to me that this gulf of understanding I witnessed today, regarding "widget-building", was very much like the talk-radio arguments you hear between liberals and conservatives. Both groups are convinced they are morally "in the right", and are doing the best thing for our country. Neither group of well-intentioned individuals can understand AT ALL how on earth the other side can possibly hold the positions they do.

I believe these positional differences (on abortion, the war in Iraq, taxes, etc) come from a fundamental difference in worldview. Wikipedia has a good definition of worldview: it is the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts in it. In order to have a rational discussion of issues, it is necessary to first understand everyone's basic assumptions (worldview), and to work from there.

One of my goals as I blog is to lay out for you my worldview, and how I came to have it. Then, I can hopefully show that my opinions/thoughts/positions are internally consistent with my worldview. All this will hopefully lead to meaningful dialog with folks who may not share my opinions. You may not agree with my worldview, but hopefully you will be able to see how someone with my worldview would think, feel, and act the way I do...

Anyhoo, gotta get to bed, more widget arguments tomorrow!