Science and the Bible
by Bolton Davidheiser, Ph.D. Chairman, Science Division, Biola College
EDWARD L. HAYES Assistant Professor of Christian Education
LIFE IN THE LABORATORY
A YOUNG m a n asked his father, “ If scientists can create [he meant produce] life in a test tube, who needs God?” Although his father was a pastor, he did not know how to. answer. The absurdity of the ques tion might have been more obvious if the young man had asked, “ If scientists can produce life in a test tube, who needs farmers?” It is the business of farmers to raise living things, but farmers do not fear that they will be unemployed if scientists produce life in the laboratory. Whether scientists already have or can produce living matter depends upon how one defines the word liv ing. At a symposium held at the University of Chicago on the 100th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, a panel of experts was polled, and one of them expressed the opinion that life has already been produced in the lab. The others disagreed. It is prob able that if or when scientists can synthesize a molecule which has the ability to duplicate itself, it will be generally agreed that life has been artificially produced. It is, however, a very long step indeed from synthesizing a molecule which can duplicate itself to the production of a living cell. Several evolutionists have exp r e s s ed the opinion that when there was no form of life on earth more advanced than one-celled creatures, evolution had al ready progressed at least half way, and perhaps more than half way, to human beings. A theory which has not gained wide acceptance assumes that life on earth began when some space travelers stopped here to inspect our up-to-that-time-barren planet as a possible site for colonization. Not finding it to the i r liking, they dumped garbage and left. This mere ly puts back still further the prob- blem of where and how life originat ed, but for those who profess to be lieve that uni-cellular life represents an evolutionary stage half way to man, such garbage could have con
tained forms representing a very good start toward a culmination in human beings. There is, of course, the problem as to how this kind of life could have survived and multi plied on an otherwise lifeless planet. A Professor Emeritus of Old Tes tament at the University of Chicago said recently that if scientists have not actually produced life, they are so close to it that we may assume that they have. He concludes, quite erroneously, that “ this inescapably means that life on this planet began through operations of ‘natural’ forces presumably of physics and chemis try.” Concerning the production of life in the laboratory he says, “ It is a demonstration which Christian peo ple should welcome with open arms. For, taken along with the great achievement of Charles Darwin a hundred years ago, it closes the last link in the line of objective evidence for the soundness of the Christian faith.” (A request for a clarification of this seemingly inane statement was ignored.) It is reported that when the Bap tists were planning what later be came the University of Chicago and its affiliated divinity school, sufficient funds were not available. As they were gathered in a convention, word came that Rockefeller offered to give an amount which would make the schools possible, and the people spon taneously arose and sang the doxo- logy in praise. But t imes have changed rapidly, and the above-men tioned Professor Emeritus of Old Testament of that university is just one illustration of the greatness of that change. God is not mocked, and Christian believers need not fear that anything produced by man in the laboratory will have an adverse effect on Chris tian theology. If man can produce something which even by courtesy of a definition can be called living, it will merely show that a lot of in telligence and technical know-how is required to do it and that it did not happen by itself.
GORDON R. LEWIS Professor o f T heolojiy
Focus on Faculty THE HEART OF TH IS SCHOOL IS A COM PAN Y OF CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS MARKED BY Conviction: they are men who believe and teach that the Bible is G od ’s Word, authoritative, inerrant, abidingly relevant Concern: they are men burdened by the responsibility of sharing the whole Gospel with the whole world in its need and lostness C om p eten ce: they are men of endowment, education, and expe rience, who, seeing no incom patibility between learning and spirituality, insist that God be loved zvith all the mind as zuell as all the heart Commitment: they are men dedi cated to the proposition that the Lordship of Jesus Christ ought to embrace the totality of human existence C atalogue S ent on R equest ; W rite : CONSERVATIVE BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 1500 E. 10th Ave., Denver, Colo. 80218
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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