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JVD
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This is an essay my daughter just wrote as part of her college application. I am posting it here to get some idea how it may be received by liberal arts colleges. She is looking to get into a good college for astrophysics.
Physics and Faith
When asked what I value the most, two words immediately come to mind: science and faith. If my choice of values seems paradoxical, this misconception stems from the popularized idea that science and religion are separated by a rift so wide that it can never be spanned. Throughout my life I have passionately pursued both science and my relationship with God. In my high school years I began to search for ways to unite the two purportedly irreconcilable ways of life. One of my ultimate goals is to become an expert in the field of physics and educate both the scientific community and the rest of the public about Christianity.
I have immersed myself in science since I was a young child. My favorite subjects are biology, astronomy, and physics. A true nature lover, I get excited every time I take a hike and discover a flower or shrub that I have never seen before. It amazes me how each organism in an ecosystem is dependant on every other organism for its survival! While I delight in the snowy mountains, evergreen forests, and tropical reefs of the earth, the rest of the universe holds a special place in my heart. Whenever my mom plops the latest issue of Science News in front of me, I hungrily search for astronomy articles and gobble them up immediately, as a black hole gobbles up surrounding matter. The strange, seemingly inexplicable objects of the solar system, like quasars and gama ray bursts, are what fascinate me the most. Perhaps this is why I have turned to physics in hopes of gaining an understanding of the strange world of quantum mechanics, relativity, and string theory. Just typing those three terms gets me excited! All throughout highschool I have been reading books like Einstein for Dummies in hopes of learning more about all these wonderfully mysterious theories. I am looking forward to participating in research in the field of modern physics during college. Although I value these three subjects immensely, the most important thing I have gleaned from science is the scientific method, in the sense that for whatever hypothesis I hold, I must also have data to back it up. Believe it or not, I have even used science, namely the scientific method, in my Christian walk.
When I became a Christian at the age of three, I had no idea what the future would bring, but I knew that God would be there with me for the whole of it. Although I attended church with my parents throughout my elementary school years, I was eleven years old when I discovered that God wants a loving relationship with me that is real and personal. As I became a stronger Christian, I started to realize that if someone were to ask me why I believe what I do about God and Jesus, I wouldnt be able to give them a logical answer. Because of my education in the scientific method, I felt the need to base my faith on concrete evidence. So, I hit the books, asking questions like, Is the Bible reliable? How do I know if Jesus really came back to life? Have the gospels been tested? It turned out that the stories of Jesus disciples have passed countless tests for historical accuracy, and their claims have been corroborated by a myriad of eyewitness accounts. After watching the DVD Jesus: Fact or Fiction? and reading A Case for Christ, by former atheist Lee Strobel, I have reasons for my faith. It is important to me that the scientific community realize that Christians arent unscientific because they believe in God, but that our faith is based on verifiable facts.
As my faith strengthened, I became increasingly aware of the sharp divide between the Christian worldview and that of a scientist who believes in the Big Bang or the Theory of Evolution. Having grown up in an environment which taught the literal six-day creation of the universe, my faith was pulling me one way, and my desire to be accepted in the scientific community the other way. I was so confused, until I discovered something that set my mind at peace. Galileo once said that the Bible tells men how to get to Heaven, not how the heavens were made. I realized that what I believe about the origin of universe is totally irrelevant to my Christian faith. What matters is that, whether through the Big Bang and evolution or in a six-day period, God was the ultimate causation of the universe coming into being. Now that I have gotten through that conflict, one of my goals is to promote respect and understanding between scientific circles and Christians.
Because I value both science and my faith, it is important to me that the two worldviews coexist harmoniously. The key to respect and understanding between the two camps is found in the scientific method. Because every hypothesis must have data to back it up, people need to know what they believe and why. I once heard an illustration of typical religious circular reasoning from a scientist. There were two kids talking to each and one asked, Why do you believe the Bible? The other replied, Because God wrote it. The first child asked again, How do you know that God wrote the Bible? The other exclaimed, Because it says so in the Bible! Duh! While humorous, this story exemplifies the way in which Christians are sometimes viewed by the rest of the world. If Christians everywhere knew the reasons behind their beliefs instead of just spitting back dogma, they would get much more respect from the scientific community. At the same time as Christians need to provide evidence for their faith, scientists too should operate on the same principle. Nothing is more frustrating than a professor who, instead of answering the question, spouts out, It has been proven time and time again by countless experiments, or even worse, ridicules the questioner. In college and afterward, I plan to work to dispel the myths propagated about the unscientific Christians while promoting mutual respect and understanding between the two groups. I want to teach Christians about science and teach scientists about Christianity.
Physics and Faith
When asked what I value the most, two words immediately come to mind: science and faith. If my choice of values seems paradoxical, this misconception stems from the popularized idea that science and religion are separated by a rift so wide that it can never be spanned. Throughout my life I have passionately pursued both science and my relationship with God. In my high school years I began to search for ways to unite the two purportedly irreconcilable ways of life. One of my ultimate goals is to become an expert in the field of physics and educate both the scientific community and the rest of the public about Christianity.
I have immersed myself in science since I was a young child. My favorite subjects are biology, astronomy, and physics. A true nature lover, I get excited every time I take a hike and discover a flower or shrub that I have never seen before. It amazes me how each organism in an ecosystem is dependant on every other organism for its survival! While I delight in the snowy mountains, evergreen forests, and tropical reefs of the earth, the rest of the universe holds a special place in my heart. Whenever my mom plops the latest issue of Science News in front of me, I hungrily search for astronomy articles and gobble them up immediately, as a black hole gobbles up surrounding matter. The strange, seemingly inexplicable objects of the solar system, like quasars and gama ray bursts, are what fascinate me the most. Perhaps this is why I have turned to physics in hopes of gaining an understanding of the strange world of quantum mechanics, relativity, and string theory. Just typing those three terms gets me excited! All throughout highschool I have been reading books like Einstein for Dummies in hopes of learning more about all these wonderfully mysterious theories. I am looking forward to participating in research in the field of modern physics during college. Although I value these three subjects immensely, the most important thing I have gleaned from science is the scientific method, in the sense that for whatever hypothesis I hold, I must also have data to back it up. Believe it or not, I have even used science, namely the scientific method, in my Christian walk.
When I became a Christian at the age of three, I had no idea what the future would bring, but I knew that God would be there with me for the whole of it. Although I attended church with my parents throughout my elementary school years, I was eleven years old when I discovered that God wants a loving relationship with me that is real and personal. As I became a stronger Christian, I started to realize that if someone were to ask me why I believe what I do about God and Jesus, I wouldnt be able to give them a logical answer. Because of my education in the scientific method, I felt the need to base my faith on concrete evidence. So, I hit the books, asking questions like, Is the Bible reliable? How do I know if Jesus really came back to life? Have the gospels been tested? It turned out that the stories of Jesus disciples have passed countless tests for historical accuracy, and their claims have been corroborated by a myriad of eyewitness accounts. After watching the DVD Jesus: Fact or Fiction? and reading A Case for Christ, by former atheist Lee Strobel, I have reasons for my faith. It is important to me that the scientific community realize that Christians arent unscientific because they believe in God, but that our faith is based on verifiable facts.
As my faith strengthened, I became increasingly aware of the sharp divide between the Christian worldview and that of a scientist who believes in the Big Bang or the Theory of Evolution. Having grown up in an environment which taught the literal six-day creation of the universe, my faith was pulling me one way, and my desire to be accepted in the scientific community the other way. I was so confused, until I discovered something that set my mind at peace. Galileo once said that the Bible tells men how to get to Heaven, not how the heavens were made. I realized that what I believe about the origin of universe is totally irrelevant to my Christian faith. What matters is that, whether through the Big Bang and evolution or in a six-day period, God was the ultimate causation of the universe coming into being. Now that I have gotten through that conflict, one of my goals is to promote respect and understanding between scientific circles and Christians.
Because I value both science and my faith, it is important to me that the two worldviews coexist harmoniously. The key to respect and understanding between the two camps is found in the scientific method. Because every hypothesis must have data to back it up, people need to know what they believe and why. I once heard an illustration of typical religious circular reasoning from a scientist. There were two kids talking to each and one asked, Why do you believe the Bible? The other replied, Because God wrote it. The first child asked again, How do you know that God wrote the Bible? The other exclaimed, Because it says so in the Bible! Duh! While humorous, this story exemplifies the way in which Christians are sometimes viewed by the rest of the world. If Christians everywhere knew the reasons behind their beliefs instead of just spitting back dogma, they would get much more respect from the scientific community. At the same time as Christians need to provide evidence for their faith, scientists too should operate on the same principle. Nothing is more frustrating than a professor who, instead of answering the question, spouts out, It has been proven time and time again by countless experiments, or even worse, ridicules the questioner. In college and afterward, I plan to work to dispel the myths propagated about the unscientific Christians while promoting mutual respect and understanding between the two groups. I want to teach Christians about science and teach scientists about Christianity.
