Article: I am an astrophysicist. I am also a Christian.

[wellwisher]

You still need to work on your ability to read using context. By context there are Christians that deny science and those that do not. One accept astronomy and be a Christian. One can accept AGW and be a Christian. One can accept the fact of evolution and be a Christian. One does not have to deny science to be a Christian.

Another observation is Christian Schools, which are not funded by tax payer money, score higher, on average, in national high school science and math tests, compared to tax payer funded public schools. The irony is, if you wish to be a scientist and get the best foundation before college, chose a religion school instead of the underachieving atheist public schools. This is why many states are pushing for school choice with tax payer funding. However school choice, would favor the better education approach, so this is rejected by the Progressive education system and the teacher unions, both hell bent on indoctrination of children into their closet clans.

When I was younger, the contemporary split, between religion and science was not like it is today. Both could exist together, like that still does in high performing religious schools. Religion is for the needs of consciousness, while science is for the needs in physical reality. Together they give us a wider bandwidth.

The source of the split was connected to Atheism and Progressive law suits, that opened the closest to let out what was there. They also successfully over interpret the separation of church and state, to help create this division.

The State, via lawyers, overstepped, by targeting the Christian religion, but not others in the same way. Now we have this debate, since the two have been separated and are not allowed to work together, as had been done in the past.

I am a product of the old school, where both could be done at the same time, with each offering ways to find new insight into ourselves and into each other. I did not change with the downgraded education system that changed behind me. The pendulum is starting to swing back, as evident by the latest Supreme Courts decisions, as well as decisions that are still ahead.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Another observation is Christian Schools, which are not funded by tax payer money, score higher, on average, in national high school science and math tests, compared to tax payer funded public schools. ... This is why many states are pushing for school choice with tax payer funding.

Interesting post.

Nevertheless, would you mind citing a few of these many states that are "pushing for school choice with tax payer funding" because they "score higher, on average, in national high school science and math tests, compared to tax payer funded public schools"?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I was confused too.
It's like we share one brain!

No need to be rude.

 

[Audie]

I was confused too.
It's like we share one brain!

You might have made a good lawyer.
i didnt, but not because I ignore the significance of punctuation.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Another observation is Christian Schools, which are not funded by tax payer money, score higher, on average, in national high school science and math tests, compared to tax payer funded public schools. The irony is if you wish to be a scientist and the best foundation before college, chose a religion school. This is why many states are pushing for school choice with tax payer funding. However school choice, would favor the better education approach, so this is rejected by the Progressive education system and the teacher unions, both hell bent on indoctrination of children into their closet clans.

When I was younger, the contemporary split, between religion and science was not like it is today. Both could exist together, like that still does in high performing religious schools. Religion is for the needs of consciousness, while science is for the needs in physical reality. Together they give us a wider bandwidth.

The source of the split was connected to Atheism and Progressive law suits, that opened the closest to let out what was there. They also successfully over interpret the separation of church and state, to help create this division.

The State, via lawyers, overstepped, by targeting the Christian religion, but not others in the same way. Now we have this debate, since the two have been separated and are not allowed to work together, as had been done in the past.

I am a product of the old school, where both could be done at the same time, with each offering ways to find new insight into ourselves and into each other. I did not change with the downgraded education system. The pendulum is starting to swing back, as evident by the latest Supreme Courts decisions, as well as decisions that are still ahead.

I would say that your claim about "Chritian schools" may not be 100% correct. There are Christian schools, a minority I am sure, thata are based upon science denial. I doubbt if their students ever accomplish much in the way of the sciences. Some Christian schools embrace the sciences. Therre students do tend to beat the competition from public schools.

Pulblic shools ahve to be seuclar. That by the way does not mean atheistic. That was what the various lawsuits were all about. A school cannnot engage in a religious activity that only supports one particular religion. It would be nice to have classes in public schools about religion, but that cannot be done in a way that would not offfend members of some religions, so we do not have them.

How would you have religion in public schools? I do not see a way that it could be done.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Interesting post.

Nevertheless, would you mind citing a few of these many states that are "pushing for school choice with tax payer funding" because they "score higher, on average, in national high school science and math tests, compared to tax payer funded public schools"?

Historically I do believe that was true for Catholic parochial schools, but it is very likely a case of a misunderstanding of cause and effect. If one publicly funded private schools one would likely take away the one main reason for their success at educating people.

It takes a lot of money to send a kid to private school. If an education is important enough to a parent to drop a stack of cash on it they are more likely to care about it at home than the average parent that just sends off Johny to be taken off of his or hands for six to eight hours.

 

[Revoltingest]

No need to be rude.

If I weren't rude to @audi, how
else would she know I cared?

 

[Revoltingest]

You might have made a good lawyer.

Is there such a thing as a good lawyer?

 

[metis]

I know such people and find their attitude fits with my basic conception of how the world works. A key point the article notes is humility which is needed both in scientific and religious realms.

I am an astrophysicist. I am also a Christian.
...You may well be surprised to hear “science” and “Christian” together. In today’s world, people who value science are concerned about the views of Christians, and Christians are increasingly skeptical of scientists. Aren’t White evangelical Christians the group with the lowest vaccination rates? The people most opposed to climate change? The ones who built a whole museum opposed to evolutionary biology? Sadly, this is all true. Even worse, anti-science views on COVID and climate are more than a difference of opinion; opposition is leading directly to increased illness, suffering, death, and harm to the planet. Yet I believe that the historical teachings of Christianity actually support science.
...
The polarization seems much more driven by social media, as explained recently by Jonathan Haidt in The Atlantic. In our highly polarized world, “science” and “Christian” have landed on opposite sides.
...
Even in today’s America, most Christians are not anti-science. A majority of White evangelicals did get the COVID vaccine, ... Some of the top scientific leaders in the development of the vaccine are devout Christians, including Francis Collins (then Director of NIH) and Kizzmekia Corbett (developer of Moderna’s COVID vaccine). Climate change leaders also include Christians, such as Rick Lindroth and Katharine Hayhoe.
...
Humility. Science is not an armchair activity where one can simply think up ideas about the natural world and assume they are true. Instead, science requires the humility to continually correct one’s ideas through experiment and observation. This approach also fits with Christianity. God creates in ways that humans cannot predict or fully understand (Job 38), so we must continually check our ideas against what we observe in the natural world. Moreover, Christianity teaches that everyone is broken and has moral failings, and that the path to healing requires humble admission of one’s errors...

This can also be applied to other religions as well.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Historically I do believe that was true for Catholic parochial schools, but it is very likely a case of a misunderstanding of cause and effect. If one publicly funded private schools one would likely take away the one main reason for their success at educating people.

It takes a lot of money to send a kid to private school. If an education is important enough to a parent to drop a stack of cash on it they are more likely to care about it at home than the average parent that just sends off Johny to be taken off of his or hands for six to eight hours.

You did not answer my question but, then again, there is no requirement that you do so.

 

[Audie]

Is there such a thing as a good lawyer?

There must be. The New Yorker has good lawyer cartoons.

 

[Audie]

If I weren't rude to @audi, how
else would she know I cared?

Awww

 

[Subduction Zone]

You did not answer my question but, then again, there is no requirement that you do so.

You did not ask me a question. The claim was not mine so there was no need for me to supply a source, I was merely explaining the why assuming that his claim was true.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

You did not ask me a question. The claim was not mine so there was no need for me to supply a source, I was merely explaining the why assuming that his claim was true.

You're right. I apologize.

 

[Subduction Zone]

You're right. I apologize.

No problem. Of course I am never guilty of doing the same

 

[RestlessSoul]

I don't want to dis Christians acknowledging science and surely not those doing science but it takes some serious doublethink (a.k.a. compartmentalization) to believe in magic on the Christian side and the no-magic axiom on the science side.

Non overlapping magisteria is the concept widely referred to in this context. In other words, keep the two areas of enquiry - one spiritual, the other material - separate.

Philosophically, many people might consider this approach to be unsatisfactory, and I can see why; it’s very human, to wish to reconcile all aspects of one’s worldview. But is it realistic on any level, to expect our experience of the universe to be without paradox, without contradiction? Niels Bohr was one of many scientists who didn’t think so.

Whilst blending Christianity and cosmology
into a coherent universal theory may be a challenging prospect, is it any more or less challenging than reconciling general relativity with quantum mechanics? It would seem not.

 

[Heyo]

Non overlapping magisteria is the concept widely referred to in this context. In other words, keep the two areas of enquiry - one spiritual, the other material - separate.

Philosophically, many people might consider this approach to be unsatisfactory, and I can see why; it’s very human, to wish to reconcile all aspects of one’s worldview. But is it realistic on any level, to expect our experience of the universe to be without paradox, without contradiction? Niels Bohr was one of many scientists who didn’t think so.

Whilst blending Christianity and cosmology
into a coherent universal theory may be a challenging prospect, is it any more or less challenging than reconciling general relativity with quantum mechanics? It would seem not.

NOMa is a great idea and I thinks it helps a lot. And I also suspect some (many?) scientists to be deists.

 

[Audie]

What a person would find very difficult would be a yec research scientist.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Another observation is Christian Schools, which are not funded by tax payer money, score higher, on average, in national high school science and math tests, compared to tax payer funded public schools. The irony is, if you wish to be a scientist and get the best foundation before college, chose a religion school instead of the underachieving atheist public schools. This is why many states are pushing for school choice with tax payer funding. However school choice, would favor the better education approach, so this is rejected by the Progressive education system and the teacher unions, both hell bent on indoctrination of children into their closet clans.

If it's like mine you excell at rote memorization but do not learn anything about taking in, processing, and evaluating data. That is the worst possible outcome for someone wanting to be a scientists.

 

[samtonga43]

I don't want to dis Christians acknowledging science and surely not those doing science but it takes some serious doublethink (a.k.a. compartmentalization) to believe in magic on the Christian side and the no-magic axiom on the science side.

I'm a Christian. I don't believe in magic.
My husband is Christian and a geneticist. He doesn't believe in magic.