Pastor John Van Sloten

I read the obituary of world class physicist, Robert Jastrow, this morning. He had an interesting insight into the whole faith v. science debate. While I’ve always been able to see the ‘control freak’ factor playing out in those who espouse a radical fundamentalist faith position in these matters, I never considered that this same motivation may be at play on science’s “side” of the equation. Jastrow made a rather honest confession when he said…

“Scientists cannot bear the thought of a natural phenomenon which cannot be explained, even with unlimited time and money… There is a kind of religion in science, it is the religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the universe, and every effect must have its cause, there is no first cause. This religious faith of the scientist is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover. When that happens, the scientist has lost control.” Physicist Dr. Robert Jastrow, former head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in his obituary, Globe and Mail, Feb 13, 2008