Top Chemistry Professor Believes a Nexus Exists Between Christianity and Science
"When you read or hear anything about the birth of the universe, someone is making it up—we are in the realm of philosophy. Only God knows what happened at the very beginning. My passion is to share Jesus with university students and professors. The main issue is Jesus, and what He accomplished."
In addition to being a professor at the University of Georgia and a "pioneer" in theoretical chemistry, Henry Schaefer is in the top 10 of all researchers cited in recent years in chemistry publications, which is why organizers of Techfest 2008 asked him to speak at their major technology conference recently in Mumbai, India.
According to a report in World Magazine, "People in every land want to hear about God, and Schaefer is willing to speak: He mentions that he has presented over 500 nontechnical talks on the compatibility of Christianity and science at over 300 universities around the world, in the process communicating with 'perhaps 100,000 students who would not have been interested in a conventional presentation of the Gospel.' From teaching Molecular Quantum Mechanics to studying the Bible during mid-week church fellowships, Schaefer sees cohesion between 'secular' science and his Christian faith." (Photo: WorldMag.com)
After becoming a Christian in 1973 while a professor at University of California, Berkeley, he was reportedly surprised to find that many others found science and faith in conflict: "It was a problem for so many people that finally I decided to do a little research on whether it was true that scientists were not Christians. I discovered pretty quickly that essentially all the pioneers of the modern physical sciences were Christians. It was encouraging to me, and I think even more encouraging to others."
"In many respects [Christians] are not different than anybody else in science, but we do have a deep-seated trust that God is a God of order and that by following rational methods we will find truth in the scientific sense." Those scientists who speak definitively about how the universe began, though, are going beyond science, he adds. "When you read or hear anything about the birth of the universe, someone is making it up—we are in the realm of philosophy. Only God knows what happened at the very beginning."
