A Scientist Like Me
Written by Paul Jefferson
When I was growing up in the 1960’s, my classmates and I were fans of Star Trek. We would discuss the previous episode on the schoolyard and enjoyed the science fiction and science fantasy presented in show. My interest in science was encouraged by the premise that science and technology could provide a hopeful future for mankind.
I went to University to study agricultural science and genetics with a naïve goal of contributing to the food security of mankind. I became a Christian at University (which I talked about in a previous episode of Anchor of Hope) and almost immediately was challenged by my friends and classmates. They expressed two sides of my new dilemma: “How could you be a good scientist and believe in Jesus Christ” or “If you believe in Jesus Christ, you must give up your belief in science.”
We were studying the structure of DNA in my genetics class and I marvelled at the complexity of the molecule that carries our genes that make each person unique and distinct. Think about that for a moment. There are 8 billion people in this world and each person is unique at the molecular DNA level.
I asked my professor where in nature would we find a simpler version of DNA. After all, natural selection works on simple systems that gradually become more complex. He said that there isn’t one. All living things from viruses to humans share the same DNA structure and complexity. Then it hit me. God had to have created that. It couldn’t possibly have occurred by random chance.
In Psalm 139:13-14 it says “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God knows my DNA even before I began to grow in my mother’s womb. The more I understood about science, the more I saw a creator God in control and behind everything.
Another example is the position of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. We are close enough to have liquid water but not so close that the sun’s heat boils all the water away. Astronomers call this the Goldilocks zone for liquid water and therefore life on this planet. In Job 26:7 it says “He suspends the earth over nothing.” It reminds of the pictures of the Earth taken from the moon by the Apollo astronauts. The blue and white ball of the earth was contrasted with the inky black nothingness of space. God put the earth in exactly the right orbit or it happened by random chance. Either way it is a miracle.
A third example is nuclear fission. I recently saw Oppenheimer the movie on the IMAX screen in Regina. The power of the nuclear bomb’s chain reaction atomic fission was impressively recreated in the movie. It also reminded me that tremendous energy was needed to create those uranium atoms and contain all that power within them. In Hebrews 11:3 it says “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” God made the atom out of nothing that we could see or it was made by gravity just before the Big Bang. You can decide what you believe.
For me, when I see the hand of a Creator God in the complexity, the uniqueness and the power of nature. To believe that the conditions required for life have happened by chance is just too hard for a scientist like me to believe. Psalm 8:3-4 says “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him?”.