The Society of Ordained Scientists Anniversary Collection

The Society of Ordained Scientists

is now 25 years old. We are preparing a book of short articles by members which will probably be published electronically. Here is my contribution:

For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,

to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;

the beginning and end and middle of times,

the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons,

the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,

the natures of animals and the tempers of wild animals,

the powers of spirits and the thoughts of human beings,

the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;

I learned both what is secret and what is manifest,

for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.

For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;

because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.

For she is a breath of the power of God,

and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;

therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.

For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.

Wisdom 7.17-22,24-26

But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

1 Corinthians 2.7-12

There was surprise verging on incredulity when I visited the school group appearing to be a clergyman, but speaking as an experienced scientist. How, they wondered, could these things be possible in the same person? What could it be like to be in that apparently contradictory position? These two readings would have given them some answer. I’m delighted to read that the author of Wisdom seems to understand the excitement of discovery and understanding, and probably would appreciate the satisfaction of an experiment well planned and data interpreted. There is a link in this useful knowledge to the divine.

Yet here, as in many other places, Paul reminds us that our understanding has its limits, and he affirms with Wisdom where it all comes from and what it depends on. It is exciting to come upon new ways in which our world can be described and to devise uses of this knowledge to good purposes, such as I had done in pharmaceuticals. But it is important not to be carried away. Although there may always be questions for us to answer, science does have its limits and we have to give due weight to Paul’s cautionary comments. So we are caught between two extremes. It is as if we are bouncing to and fro between two poles of knowing and unknowing, to echo a later spiritual writer. As these oscillations in the life of a minister and scientist continue, I hope that the collisions are reasonably elastic and that I actually grow in a broader kind of understanding, perhaps being able to recognize more clearly where I fit. Somewhere knowing and unknowing do come together and that convergence is our destination.