A CHRISTIAN STATEMENT ON SCIENCE FOR PANDEMIC TIMES

Religion and Secularism
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I stumbled upon and found it fascinating, and I think worth sharing … It’s a Faith Based group making some down to Earth points.

https://statement.biologos.org

We, the undersigned, join together as Christians who uphold the authority of God’s Word and see science as a tool to understand God’s world. We call on all Christians to follow the advice of public health experts and support scientists doing crucial biomedical research on COVID-19.

We are deeply concerned about the polarization and politicization of science in the public square when so many lives are at stake. The word “science” has become a weapon in the culture wars. Scientists are vilified and their findings ignored, while conspiracy theories go viral. Sadly, Christians seem just as susceptible to these trends. Thoughtful Christians may disagree on public policy in response to the coronavirus, but none of us should ignore clear scientific evidence.

It is appropriate for Christians to be skeptical of claims made by scientists who speak outside their area of expertise. We firmly reject claims that science has somehow shown God does not exist or faith is mere superstition. Such claims go beyond what science is capable of investigating. We lament the times when science and medicine have been misused to perpetrate atrocities like the racist Tuskegee experiments. But Christians should listen to scientists and doctors when they speak in their area of expertise, especially when millions of lives are at stake.

The Bible teaches that our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made by God (Psalm 139:14). Thus, those doing biomedical research—whether they are Christians or not—are studying the very handiwork of God. Scientists are discovering truths about the virus, our bodies, treatments, and vaccines. As Christians, we know that all truth, including scientific truth, is ultimately from God.

God can do miracles of healing, but God also uses doctors and scientists to bring healing. Before Jonas Salk discovered his vaccine, polio killed 350,000 people a year, most of them children. Christians in the biomedical sciences, like Dr. Francis Collins, see their work as continuing the healing ministry of Jesus (Matthew 15:30). Pursuing medical treatment is not a sign of weak faith in God, but a grateful acceptance of God’s gifts.

Scientists of all faiths at many universities and research institutes have been working hard to combat COVID-19, including at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. Many scientists have dropped their own research programs to devote themselves full time to understanding exactly how this virus works, how it spreads, how the disease can be treated, and which vaccines would be both safe and effective. Experts have been communicating their knowledge in real time as the pandemic progresses, which has led to some confusion. In the early days, they advised the public against masks when supplies were needed for healthcare workers, but later they changed their message in response to more data. A change in expert advice is not a sign of weakness or unreliability, but of good scientific practice and honesty. On the biggest points, scientific predictions have been proven right: scientists said stay-home orders would reduce cases, and thankfully those measures worked. Scientists predicted that ending quarantine too soon would increase cases, and that has been the case.

Scientists are not all-knowing and have biases like the rest of us. That’s why the process of scientific research has built-in steps for testing, vetting, and validation by the whole community. While any individual scientist may be biased, the community actively critiques each other’s work to reduce bias and errors until together they develop a consensus on what the data are saying. It’s not a perfect process and one can always find dissenters, but scientists working together are far more accurate than one person’s theory on YouTube. Scientists are trained to communicate where the consensus is uncertain and to not overstate conclusions. They may speak in sound bites in an interview, but if you listen a bit longer you will hear the caveats. So when Dr. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, tells us what scientists have learned about this infectious disease, he should be listened to.

We need more than science alone to make good decisions. Invoking “science” is not a one-word rationale for public policy; many factors need to be considered. The economic losses and social hardships of the pandemic are painful, and thoughtful Christians will disagree on how to balance those needs with health needs. Even closer to our hearts is the impact of quarantine on church fellowship. As churches reopen, Christians need to balance God’s call to meet together with God’s call to protect the vulnerable among us. We need more than science to make these decisions; we need biblical faith to be wise and discerning (James 3:13-18). As Christians throughout history have shown during other pandemics, our faith is what moves us to deep compassion for the sick, the young, the old, and the vulnerable, as we follow Jesus’ command to care for the least of these (Matthew 25:31-36). Our faith calls us to sacrifice ourselves for others and accept temporary limitations on our freedoms because we have a permanent and complete freedom in Christ (Hebrews 10:34). Our faith helps us be humble and patient when discussing contentious issues (Ephesians 4:2-3). It is our faith, not science, that overcomes fear and brings hope. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).

Therefore, because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we will:

WEAR MASKS

GET VACCINATED

CORRECT MISINFORMATION
Correct misinformation and conspiracy theories when we encounter them in our social media and communities. Christians are called to love the truth; we should not be swayed by falsehoods (1 Corinthians 13:6). We will actively promote accurate scientific and public health information from trustworthy, consensus sources, and use this information when making decisions for our families, churches, schools, and workplaces.

WORK FOR JUSTICE

Work for justice for communities who have suffered the most deaths from COVID-19. Christians are called to be courageous in fighting for justice (Micah 6:8). We should be the least indifferent to the disadvantaged and vulnerable. Groups that have been hit hard include the elderly in nursing homes, the Navajo nation where many do not have access to clean water, and people of color who continue to experience discrimination in access to health care.

PRAY


Despite all the god talk, and it did raise my hackles, I allowed my Free Won’t to step in and I did a skim through it, then closer, hot dang, I was surprised. Beyond all the worship and god stuff, it seems solid. I’ll give credit where credit is due, and it might be helpful for some friends out there.

 

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Despite all the god talk, and it did raise my hackles, I allowed my Free Won’t to step in and I did a skim through it, then closer, hot dang, I was surprised. Beyond all the worship and god stuff, it seems solid. I’ll give credit where credit is due, and it might be helpful for some friends out there.
I agree. And I have always maintained that there is valuable philosophical information that can be gleaned from scriptures.

I have learned to substitute the word God with Mathematics in many passages and that works remarkably well for me.

With expressions such as “authority of God’s Word”, I substitute “authority of Mathematical Function”, and that allows me to read the rest with an objective eye.

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I was going to say it was probably a bunch of Episcopalians, but I’m very impressed to see those who signed it were not just Episcopalians, but also Baptists and more. Impressive, BUT are they really supporting science or are they supporting pseudoscience?

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The problem is, if you googled enough you’d probably find a similar group running through all the same religious stuff and coming to the exact opposite conclusion. It’s been done throughout history and this is no different, even if it does end up with a result that we like.

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I forget how I first found biologos, maybe via a Francis Collins story? Anyway, it seemed like a great thing at first, but (you knew there was going to be a “but”) the more I dug into it, the more I saw nothing but shallow dives into the usual topics. I can’t find anything horribly wrong with it, but I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to do something like that and do anything controversial, that is, anything really impactful. So, it’s another nice stepping stone out of Christianity, a way for someone to say they are still Christian, but they are biologos Christian.

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bio logos
Mother Earth

The dance of geology, biology and time, life evolving all the way to observant introspective creatures.

God is Creation, (creation is evolution)

You are a fleeting Element Of Evolution.

Since we are indeed a product of Earth’s Evolution, sure why not bio logos? ??‍♂️

 

 

But that’s just an Earth Centrist chewing on the term bio logos, not any comment on the blog, one way or another.

 

Have you hugged a tree today? ? ? ? ?

 

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It’s perhaps helpful to note that there have billions of Christians over thousands of years, and even within a single denomination there is a diversity of perspectives. It’s really not possible to define all religious people, all Christians, or even say, all Catholics. If we examine Pew Research data on Catholic opinion on leading social issues in the United States for example, perspectives are all over the map.

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perspectives are all over the map. -- tanny
This is a great point. I have seen a few improved polls, but mostly people are simply asked to self identify, which is especially dicey for religious questions.

Daniel Dennet talked about time studies, where you aren’t asked if you go to church, but just asked to fill in a calendar as you do things. Much less church attendance in those. A few studies have been done on participation in all types of community groups, not just church, showing that it is community, not religion that makes people happy and healthy. I took part in a study for the book “In Faith and In Doubt”, his affiliation question allowed you to pick several denominations and flavors of religion and rank them, so he had a few who said they were atheists who believe in god.

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Pew Research has studied, for example, American Catholic opinions on a variety of social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. At least in America (I’m less knowledgeable about the world as a whole) there are substantial divides on such issues in the American Catholic community. As one example, the vast majority of American Catholics decline the Church’s teachings on contraception. Opinion on abortion and gay marriage is roughly split.

It’s possible there are no two Catholics anywhere in the world who are ideologically identical, given the very broad range of topics to which Catholicism can be applied.

There’s a strong tendency on forums (and beyond) to think of religion in general, or particular religions, as being this or that, a single thing easily defined and described. The vast scale of religion in general and the major religions in particular makes this impossible in practice.

As example, Catholicism might be compared to the United States. Sure, the culture of the United States has it’s own personality generally speaking, and the United States is meaningfully different than many other cultures. But within the 330+ million people within the United States there is a great diversity of culture and opinion. We couldn’t really say “America is this” or “America is that”. America is a lot of things.

And so it is with religion in general, and particular religions as well.

 

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It’s possible there are no two Catholics anywhere in the world who are ideologically identical, given the very broad range of topics to which Catholicism can be applied.

There’s a strong tendency on forums (and beyond) to think of religion in general, or particular religions, as being this or that, a single thing easily defined and described. The vast scale of religion in general and the major religions in particular makes this impossible in practice.


Well you’ve never heard me saying such a thing.

I’m more likely to explain that God is the most intimate relationship any of us humans ever has, because it comes from within ourselves. That’s because in the end, our Gods are the products of our own Mindscapes (well individually and collectively, since we are influenced by what others tell us, Still that influence gets massaged by our own minds.).

There’s no nothing there that can actually be benchmarked.

 

We can legitimately make the simple all encompassing generalization about religion, that it is a product of our own mindscape(s), removed from the Physical Reality (Earth and Evolution) that created us human creatures.