Some religious people are scientists and some scientists have a religious faith. Other scientists are agnostic and some are atheist. There are some questions that cannot be fully answered using scientific methods. Some may decide to rely on faith to find the answer to a question if the answer cannot be proved scientifically. From Galileo to textbook battles, the hasty conclusion is that science and Christianity are engaged in an endless debate, fundamentally opposed to each other.
Personalities, politics, and culture wars all come into play when drawing the battle lines. In many instances, science and scientists are not themselves in conflict with Christian belief. Most things studied via the natural sciences—such as the migration patterns of birds or the interior of atoms—do not raise any theological or biblical concerns.
A few particular areas of scientific study—like the big bang and evolution— do raise concerns for Christians, but much of the BioLogos website is devoted to showing that evolution and Christianity are not truly at war.
One way to erase the conflicts between science and Christianity is to view them as entirely separate endeavors, with different purposes, methods, and bodies of knowledge. This view emphasizes that science is a system of knowledge about the world and its behavior, whereas religion is about morality, God, and the afterlife. Thus, Christianity and science cannot conflict, because they are addressing different sorts of questions.
This model has some weaknesses see below , but it does help us understand some important aspects of the relationship. Many apparent conflicts between science and religion occur because of a lack of understanding of the fundamental differences between the two.
When someone claims that the Bible answers a scientific question, and another claims that science answers a question about God, the conflict immediately flares up. Many conflicts become enflamed because participants forget that Christianity and science do generally address very different questions.
This model also reminds us that science is not the only source of knowledge. There are many sorts of questions that simply do not fall under the domain of science. Borrowing an example from the Rev. The scientific answer does not tell the whole story. But science studies the natural world, not the supernatural. No amount of scientific testing or theorizing could prove or disprove the existence of a supernatural creator.
This model also reminds us that the Bible is not the only source of knowledge. The Bible is silent on most of the topics that concern scientists, like protons, photosynthesis, penguins, and Pluto. The Bible is not a science textbook, in the same way that it is not a textbook of plumbing, agriculture, or economics. Today drones, first developed as target practice for the military in the s and now heavily used for surveillance and bombing missions, are gaining ground in the commercial world.
Civilian air space is expected to be opened up to all kinds of drones in the US by and in Europe by And The Federal Aviation Administration in the US estimates that 30, civil and commercial unmanned aircraft could be in the skies by He is now chief pilot at Cyberhawk, which uses remotely-operated aerial vehicles to inspect everything from live flare tips at INEOS and Petroineos sites, to wind turbines and off-shore oil and gas installations.
Mark said a lot of commercial technology was now being leveraged by the military because of shrinking military budgets. It is years of additional work. But it will work. It will happen. Successful innovation starts when someone finds a gap in the market. Malcolm Connolly, a chemical engineering graduate, found his — dangling off the end of a rope. There was. While the public debate rages on over the ethics of using drones for bombing missions, Cyberhawk is proud of the pioneering work it is doing to lift people out of danger.
No one had attempted to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle within a few metres of a flare tip. And in it became the first company to inspect an off-shore wind turbine off the UK coast. Each aerial vehicle is battery-powered, has eight propellers, and may be fitted with a still camera, HD video recorder, gas sensor and a thermal imaging camera. But even with all that kit on board, it still weighs less 2kg. Accidents have been known to happen. But to others. In April this year a UK shop owner became the first person successfully prosecuted by the Civil Aviation Authority for dangerously flying a small unmanned surveillance aircraft within 50 metres of the Jubilee Bridge on the Walney Channel in Cumbria.
To qualify as an off-shore pilot, Cyberhawk staff must first pass four levels of internal training and certification over-and-above the basic qualification supported by the Civil Aviation Authority. And its services are proving invaluable. It has also used its remotely-piloted aerial vehicles to record the construction progress of a whisky bottling plant, survey a restored opencast mine, inspect meteorological masts at sea and monitor a herd of seals without disturbing their natural environment.
Without scientists pushing boundaries, the world would be a very different place. Many of the things we take for granted just would not exist. So how do you convince young people to pursue a career in science and chemistry?
But planet earth needs scientists if it is to tackle global poverty and global climate change. The German-born American physicist may not have learned to swim, but he turned the world upside down with his theory of relativity.
Even Einstein did all his world-changing work when he was a young, good-looking man who drank and misbehaved a bit. Last year he presented five BBC programmes, entitled Wonders of Life, in which he revealed how a few fundamental laws of science gave birth to life. But she felt the negative views of school science and scientists were not the problem. The issue, she said, was a lack of awareness of where science could lead. Many governments and organisations throughout the world are concerned that not enough young people are opting to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics STEM after the age of Professor Bell was speaking at a global conference of science academies.
In all plus delegates from 58 countries came to hear what could be done to improve science education. That was in One of its recommendations was to radically change the way science was taught in primary and secondary schools to a more inquiry-based style. Since then more and more countries have adopted inquiry-based science education, a method of teaching which encourages pupils to pose the questions. These partnerships help us as a company, as an industry and also as a developed industrial country to attract young people — especially girls — who are curious, enthusiastic and motivated to make the world a better place through science.
Teachers attend a one-day seminar during which they are taught the natural science and technical experiments first. INEOS employees act as ambassadors, and have so far reached more than 6, children.
At a global academies conference in Finland in , Anne-Gret was invited to speak about how science education and industry could successfully work together. Inquiry-based science education owes its existence to America, where it originated, but the US is also facing an uphill battle in selling science to the masses.
In June this year Lisa Coico, President of the City College of New York, said that she was concerned about the dearth of American high school students wanting to major in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The goal is to enrol 25, engineering students by — twice the current number of students signing up. It all helps. As a company which needs a continuous supply of highly-skilled, highly disciplined employees, INEOS cannot afford to ignore the problem.
Nor is it. Others are also driving home the message that science is cool. Elise Andrew launched website www. In science every question answered leads to two more.
What crisis? In China became the largest Patent office in the world with , applications being filed, compared to the USA which in the same year filed some , applications. And the gap continues to widen. Electric cars are nothing new. Thomas Parker, an Englishman, actually came up with one that ran on rechargeable batteries in But dwindling resources of fossil fuels and concerns about CO2 emissions are now forcing us as a society to consider them as a serious alternative.
Unsurprisingly INEOS has been quick to explore whether to switch to electric cars at its sites around the world. No one disputes that. A move in the right direction, at least, towards lowering carbon emissions and creating a more sustainable world for future generations.
The difficulty, though, is how do you convince people to change their way of life today without paying more? Despite the limited mileage before the battery needs recharging, staff said the van felt safe and was a pleasure to drive. If the price — and conditions — are right, INEOS could also become one of the first chemical companies to use energy generated by its own Combined Heat and Power processes to move people and goods around on site.
The cost, though, is one of the main reasons given by the public for not making the switch to electricity. The short distances that can be travelled before the battery needs recharging is another perceived problem.
After about 60 miles km , it will need charging again. But Renault says that by , a subcompact electric car will be cheaper to buy, it will go much further — possibly miles km before it needs recharging — and be quicker to recharge. More recently both companies have sought additional cooperation for using the electricity produced by the cogen unit onsite, to extend the environmental benefits beyond production units on site. Discussions with Essent led to a partnership with 4iS a consulting firm that focuses on electromobility and a trial of electric cars agreed.
For two months they were encouraged to use the car to transport equipment and pipes on short journeys around the site. The trial was a major team effort, involving INEOS, Essent, 4iS, which supports businesses that may want to switch to electric cars, Renault, which offered use of a test car, and Blue Corner, which provided the charging station.
And the feedback was largely positive. Staff said the car was safe, quiet and comfortable, and perfect for the short journeys around the site. Some, though, were concerned that the car posed a potential safety hazard because it was so quiet. They feared people might not hear it approaching or reversing. Overall, though, the staff liked it. Cost is the main issue restricting public demand for this new technology.
But things are changing rapidly Renault says that by , the range of a compact electric vehicle could be as much as km miles , the charging time will be significantly shorter and the overall cost to produce will be lower.
They would be parked on site out of hours, when they can be recharged, so they are a very helpful addition to the sites operation. To make these cars more popular and easier to handle the market has to develop. Future challenges will include reliability and durability of batteries and cost reduction.
Antwerp now plans to review their internal car fleet to investigate the possibility of switching to e-cars. But people are queuing up to fork out at least 2, Euros to take part. Running in the sand dunes can cause your feet to swell. After three days your feet can feel like concrete slabs.
The organisers kindly provide that. All 14 gallons a day of it for each competitor. Mauro, though, is unlikely to ever want to do it again. Twenty years ago the Italian policeman got lost during a sandstorm, ran out of food and water after 36 hours and spent nine days alone in the desert before he was found miles km off course by a nomadic family. He had survived by drinking his own urine and eating bats and snakes.
There are no winners or losers; just a sea of red faces once the battle ends. In the past up to 50, people have thronged the streets of Bunol, near Valencia, to pelt each other with tons of overripe, squashed tomatoes.
Today organisers sell tickets to just 20, Shopkeepers use huge plastic covers to protect their shop fronts throughout the hour-long street battle. A cannon signals the start of the fight and another marks the end.
The annual festival is believed to have been inspired by a group of teenagers who grabbed tomatoes from a vegetable stall and began to throw them at one another during a parade through Bunol in August This year armed guards patrolled the marathon route as the 48 athletes from 16 countries braved the threat of hungry polar bears, temperatures of C and drifting ice floes to complete the Competitor Robert Plijnaar from Holland wore three pairs of socks and three layers of clothing to keep warm. Instead of a heavy ball, contestants whirl a frozen tuna around their heads with a rope and then fling it as far as they can.
Whoever throws the 17lb blue fin tuna the furthest during the Tunarama Festival at Port Lincoln, in South Australia, is crowned world champion.
Organisers say only the brave register for this event, which is deemed to be one of the toughest, wettest and hottest ultra-marathons in the world. And you can see why. Even with the launch of Earth-orbiting spacecraft, scientists could not directly see the Earth going around the Sun. But they inferred from a wealth of independent measurements that the Sun is at the center of the solar system.
Until the recent development of extremely powerful microscopes, scientists could not observe atoms, but the behavior of physical objects left no doubt about the atomic nature of matter.
Scientists hypothesized the existence of viruses for many years before microscopes became powerful enough to see them. Thus, for many areas of science, scientists have not directly observed the objects such as genes and atoms or the phenomena such as the Earth going around the Sun that are now well-established facts. Instead, they have confirmed them indirectly by observational and experimental evidence.
Evolution is no different. Indeed, for the reasons described in this booklet, evolutionary science provides one of the best examples of a deep understanding based on scientific reasoning. This contention that nobody has seen evolution occurring further ignores the overwhelming evidence that evolution has taken place and is continuing to occur.
The annual changes in influenza viruses and the emergence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics are both products of evolutionary forces.
Another example of ongoing evolution is the appearance of mosquitoes resistant to various insecticides, which has contributed to a resurgence of malaria in Africa and elsewhere.
The transitional fossils that have been found in abundance since Darwin's time reveal how species continually give rise to successor species that, over time, produce radically changed body forms and functions. It also is possible to directly observe many of the specific processes by which evolution occurs. Scientists regularly do experiments using microbes and other model systems that directly test evolutionary hypotheses.
Creationists reject such scientific facts in part because they do not accept evidence drawn from natural processes that they consider to be at odds with the Bible. But science cannot test supernatural possibilities. To young Earth creationists, no amount of empirical evidence that the Earth is billions of years old is likely to refute their claim that the world is actually young but that God simply made it appear to be old.
Because such appeals to the supernatural are not testable using the rules and processes of scientific inquiry, they cannot be a part of science. Some members of a newer school of creationists have temporarily set aside the question of whether the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe are billions or just thousands of years old.
But these creationists unite in contending that the physical universe and living things show evidence of "intelligent design. If one component is missing or changed, the device will fail to operate properly. Because even such "simple" biological structures as the flagellum of a bacterium are so complex, proponents of intelligent design creationism argue that the probability of all of their components being produced and simultaneously available through random processes of mutation are infinitesimally small.
The appearance of more complex biological structures such as the vertebrate eye or functions such as the immune system is impossible through natural processes, according to this view, and so must be attributed to a transcendent intelligent designer. However, the claims of intelligent design creationists are disproven by the findings of modern biology. Biologists have examined each of the molecular systems claimed to be the products of design and have shown how they could have arisen through natural processes.
For example, in the case of the bacterial flagellum, there is no single, uniform structure that is found in all flagellar bacteria. There are many types of flagella, some simpler than others, and many species of bacteria do not have flagella to aid in their movement.
Thus, other components of bacterial cell membranes are likely the precursors of the proteins found in various flagella. In addition, some bacteria inject toxins into other cells through proteins that are secreted from the bacterium and that are very similar in their molecular structure to the proteins in parts of flagella.
This similarity indicates a common evolutionary origin, where small changes in the structure and organization of secretory proteins could serve as the basis for flagellar proteins. Thus, flagellar proteins are not irreducibly complex. Evolutionary biologists also have demonstrated how complex biochemical mechanisms, such as the clotting of blood or the mammalian immune system, could have evolved from simpler precursor systems.
With the clotting of blood, some of the components of the mammalian system were present in earlier organisms, as demonstrated by the organisms living today such as fish, reptiles, and birds that are descended from these mammalian precursors. Mammalian clotting systems have built on these earlier components. Existing systems also can acquire new functions. For example, a particular system might have one task in a cell and then become adapted through evolutionary processes for different use.
The Hox genes described in the box on page 30 are a prime example of evolution finding new uses for existing systems. Molecular biologists have discovered that a particularly important mechanism through which biological systems acquire additional functions is gene duplication. Segments of DNA are frequently duplicated when cells divide, so that a cell has multiple copies of one or more genes. If these multiple copies are passed on to offspring, one copy of a gene can serve the original function in a cell while the other copy is able to accumulate changes that ultimately result in a new function.
The biochemical mechanisms responsible for many cellular processes show clear evidence for historical duplications of DNA regions. In addition to its scientific failings, this and other standard creationist arguments are fallacious in that they are based on a false dichotomy. Even if their negative arguments against evolution were correct, that would not establish the creationists' claims.
There may be alternative explanations. For example, it would be incorrect to conclude that because there is no evidence that it is raining outside, it must be sunny. Other explanations also might be possible.
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