Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf9-23peterson2
James C. Peterson
Every breath counts, as does every article that has appeared in the 75 years of PSCF. Each article has convinced the author, peer reviewers, and editor that it is clear, well informed, new, and important. Reading them consistently has been like breathing. One does not necessarily remember every specific breath, but each one adds to sustaining and forming and empowering life and service. *We do sometimes remember, though, a particular breath that was bracing and exhilarating such as salt air when arriving at an ocean beach, fresh-baked bread in the winter, the first mown grass in the spring, or a waft of honeysuckle in the summer. As individuals in different disciplines, living in different contexts, different articles have meant the most to each of us. I have asked each of the ASA Fellows and editors to remember one such article that struck them at the time, and if it still speaks to them vividly now. *No doubt, different contexts over the coming years might bring to mind other articles, but the following is a snapshot of what today they remember as particularly noteworthy in their own walk. It should be noted that Fellows, who all have marked accomplishments to be named Fellows, will of course tend to be well into their years of service. Many articles they cite as most influential were often read in their most formative decades. We do not know which articles now being read by current members in their 20s, 30s, and 40s will be cited as most important to them when they reach the life achievement level of Fellows. *The articles that follow are listed in chronological order--from sixty years ago, right up to 2022. *As editor, I am partial to every piece that has been published in PSCF. But what follows is an opportunity for ASA Fellows and editors to celebrate particular essays that have piqued their interest, even changed their lives, and no doubt the lives of other readers too. *
{"title":"Twenty-Five ASA Fellows and Editors Tell of PSCF Articles That Changed Their Lives","authors":"James C. Peterson","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23peterson2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23peterson2","url":null,"abstract":"Every breath counts, as does every article that has appeared in the 75 years of PSCF. Each article has convinced the author, peer reviewers, and editor that it is clear, well informed, new, and important. Reading them consistently has been like breathing. One does not necessarily remember every specific breath, but each one adds to sustaining and forming and empowering life and service. *We do sometimes remember, though, a particular breath that was bracing and exhilarating such as salt air when arriving at an ocean beach, fresh-baked bread in the winter, the first mown grass in the spring, or a waft of honeysuckle in the summer. As individuals in different disciplines, living in different contexts, different articles have meant the most to each of us. I have asked each of the ASA Fellows and editors to remember one such article that struck them at the time, and if it still speaks to them vividly now. *No doubt, different contexts over the coming years might bring to mind other articles, but the following is a snapshot of what today they remember as particularly noteworthy in their own walk. It should be noted that Fellows, who all have marked accomplishments to be named Fellows, will of course tend to be well into their years of service. Many articles they cite as most influential were often read in their most formative decades. We do not know which articles now being read by current members in their 20s, 30s, and 40s will be cited as most important to them when they reach the life achievement level of Fellows. *The articles that follow are listed in chronological order--from sixty years ago, right up to 2022. *As editor, I am partial to every piece that has been published in PSCF. But what follows is an opportunity for ASA Fellows and editors to celebrate particular essays that have piqued their interest, even changed their lives, and no doubt the lives of other readers too. *","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On V. Elving Anderson, \"Christian Commitment and the Scientist\" (JASA 16, no. 1 [1964]: 8–9); and Richard H. Bube, \"The Philosophy and Practice of Science\" (JASA 28, no. 3 [1976]: 127–32)","authors":"Mark Strand","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23strand","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23strand","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Owen Gingerich, \"Do the Heavens Declare the Glory of God?\" (PSCF 66, no. 2 [2014]: 113–17)","authors":"Robert Kaita","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23kaita","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23kaita","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Conrad Hyers, \"Dinosaur Religion: On Interpreting and Misinterpreting the Creation Texts\" (JASA 36, no. 3 [1984]: 142–48), and Conrad Hyers, \"The Narrative Form of Genesis 1: Cosmogenic, Yes; Scientific, No\" (JASA 36, no. 4 [1984]: 208–15)","authors":"Edward B. Davis","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23davis","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23davis","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
THE GOD OF CHANCE AND PURPOSE: Divine Involvement in a Secular Evolutionary World by Bradford McCall. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2022. 156 pages. Paperback; $24.00. ISBN: 9781725283831. *Bradford McCall is a young but prolific scholar, having completed his PhD in 2022 at the Claremont School of Theology, yet having published five books and about fifty articles. In this slim volume of six chapters, McCall proposes the elements of a complementary relationship between science, particularly evolutionary biology, and Christian faith. His proposal is rooted in a panentheistic theology of God that I will consider further below. On a first reading, I confess that I often lost the thread of McCall's argument amid his dense prose and fascinating tangents. On my rereading of the book, I distilled from the concluding chapter an outline of McCall's argument, so as to maintain a sense of direction throughout chapters 1-5. *The relation between science and theology is broadly considered in chapter 1, using the typology of Mikael Stenmark. McCall then proposes that science and theology overlap in terms of both social practice and subject matter. A metaphysical monist, he does not distinguish between mental and physical processes. This connects with the assertion (via Arthur Peacocke) that there is no "causal joint" to look for, either in solving the mind-body problem or in a theory of divine action. McCall is influenced by process philosophy and proposes panexperientialism--the idea that everything, from people to fundamental particles, has experience, a "subjective interiority." This is not to say that electrons think, nor does McCall tend toward anthropomorphism, but his is not the disenchanted universe of Jacques Monod. His theology of God is "intermediate between the omnipotent God of classical theism and the absentee god of deism" (p. 9). God, in this view, is "persuasive, not coercive" toward the creation. McCall views complex phenomena as emergent, invoking John Haught's notion of "layered explanations" that operate simultaneously without conflict. *The second chapter offers a consideration of evolutionary thought and the philosophy of biology--common ancestry, selectionism, adaptationism, and units of selection. Subtle controversies are investigated, such as the falsifiability of adaptationism, pluralism as an alternative, and the concept of spandrels introduced by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. This was deep and informative reading. In some ways, it was my favorite chapter; yet it seems disconnected from the thread of McCall's overall argument. *McCall's third chapter is entitled "The God of Chance," but oddly contains no discussion of God. Rather, he investigates how scientific thought has developed the idea of chance. As a twenty-first-century scientist, I take statistical reasoning for granted. It had never occurred to me that biologists in Darwin's time would lack this category of reasoning. Let me digress for a moment to make a connecti
{"title":"The God of Chance and Purpose: Divine Involvement in a Secular Evolutionary World","authors":"Bradford McCall","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23mccall","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23mccall","url":null,"abstract":"THE GOD OF CHANCE AND PURPOSE: Divine Involvement in a Secular Evolutionary World by Bradford McCall. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2022. 156 pages. Paperback; $24.00. ISBN: 9781725283831. *Bradford McCall is a young but prolific scholar, having completed his PhD in 2022 at the Claremont School of Theology, yet having published five books and about fifty articles. In this slim volume of six chapters, McCall proposes the elements of a complementary relationship between science, particularly evolutionary biology, and Christian faith. His proposal is rooted in a panentheistic theology of God that I will consider further below. On a first reading, I confess that I often lost the thread of McCall's argument amid his dense prose and fascinating tangents. On my rereading of the book, I distilled from the concluding chapter an outline of McCall's argument, so as to maintain a sense of direction throughout chapters 1-5. *The relation between science and theology is broadly considered in chapter 1, using the typology of Mikael Stenmark. McCall then proposes that science and theology overlap in terms of both social practice and subject matter. A metaphysical monist, he does not distinguish between mental and physical processes. This connects with the assertion (via Arthur Peacocke) that there is no \"causal joint\" to look for, either in solving the mind-body problem or in a theory of divine action. McCall is influenced by process philosophy and proposes panexperientialism--the idea that everything, from people to fundamental particles, has experience, a \"subjective interiority.\" This is not to say that electrons think, nor does McCall tend toward anthropomorphism, but his is not the disenchanted universe of Jacques Monod. His theology of God is \"intermediate between the omnipotent God of classical theism and the absentee god of deism\" (p. 9). God, in this view, is \"persuasive, not coercive\" toward the creation. McCall views complex phenomena as emergent, invoking John Haught's notion of \"layered explanations\" that operate simultaneously without conflict. *The second chapter offers a consideration of evolutionary thought and the philosophy of biology--common ancestry, selectionism, adaptationism, and units of selection. Subtle controversies are investigated, such as the falsifiability of adaptationism, pluralism as an alternative, and the concept of spandrels introduced by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. This was deep and informative reading. In some ways, it was my favorite chapter; yet it seems disconnected from the thread of McCall's overall argument. *McCall's third chapter is entitled \"The God of Chance,\" but oddly contains no discussion of God. Rather, he investigates how scientific thought has developed the idea of chance. As a twenty-first-century scientist, I take statistical reasoning for granted. It had never occurred to me that biologists in Darwin's time would lack this category of reasoning. Let me digress for a moment to make a connecti","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf9-23mcleish
Tom McLeish
THE POETRY AND MUSIC OF SCIENCE: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art by Tom McLeish. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 414 pages. Paperback; $16.95. ISBN: 9780192845375. *In this tour-de-force book, British physicist Tom McLeish finally comprehensively argues, in one dense volume, what so many scientists have been claiming piecemeal for centuries: that doing science often looks and feels like doing art. That is a broad, amorphous statement, of course, and scientists have not done a very good job of fully understanding this idea or selling it to the rest of the world. This carefully crafted volume must be the most exhaustive work in this area, treating the notion that the creative work of scientists and artists is extraordinarily similar, in that they both fundamentally involve an intimate passion for describing and representing the world around us. *This is not a book about beauty or wonder in science, but rather it examines how scientific ideas and theories come to a scientist's mind and find fruition as publishable science. The entire book juxtaposes literature and art with science and mathematics to help understand the creative process. One important impetus for writing the book, according to McLeish, was recent evidence that smart, capable high schoolers in England were choosing not to go into science because they believed it would not be nearly as fulfilling, creatively, when compared to work in the arts or humanities. McLeish, a Christian, succeeds in this book in showing that not only is creative thinking and experimenting necessary and "part of the chase" in science, but that it is also a natural fulfillment of our creative mandate as human beings made in the image of God. McLeish is also careful to give examples of "more-regular" science, rather than relying solely on the popular accounts of the creativity of exceptional geniuses; he trys to show that all scientists participate in this artistic-like creativity no matter what they are studying. *The first two chapters introduce the concepts of creativity and inspiration in science. McLeish begins an interaction with several important works that he draws on throughout the book: William Beveridge's The Art of Scientific Investigation from 1950, Henry James's The Art of the Novel, and Howard Gardner's 1993 work Creating Minds (one of many surveys of particularly creative individuals). Chapter 3, "Seeing the Unseen," is about visual imagination and its role in theory creation, artistic design, and general problem solving. Visual imagination is seeing things in the mind's eye, but it is obviously linked to actual sight and seeing the world, too. Surveying the history of thought in this area, McLeish ranges from Plato to Gregory of Nyssa, to the thirteenth-century polymath Robert Grosseteste, to the Italian painter Giotto, to Einstein, who said his theory creation and problem solving started with visual images in his mind, which often led to his famous gedanken experiments. Grossetes
{"title":"The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art","authors":"Tom McLeish","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23mcleish","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23mcleish","url":null,"abstract":"THE POETRY AND MUSIC OF SCIENCE: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art by Tom McLeish. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 414 pages. Paperback; $16.95. ISBN: 9780192845375. *In this tour-de-force book, British physicist Tom McLeish finally comprehensively argues, in one dense volume, what so many scientists have been claiming piecemeal for centuries: that doing science often looks and feels like doing art. That is a broad, amorphous statement, of course, and scientists have not done a very good job of fully understanding this idea or selling it to the rest of the world. This carefully crafted volume must be the most exhaustive work in this area, treating the notion that the creative work of scientists and artists is extraordinarily similar, in that they both fundamentally involve an intimate passion for describing and representing the world around us. *This is not a book about beauty or wonder in science, but rather it examines how scientific ideas and theories come to a scientist's mind and find fruition as publishable science. The entire book juxtaposes literature and art with science and mathematics to help understand the creative process. One important impetus for writing the book, according to McLeish, was recent evidence that smart, capable high schoolers in England were choosing not to go into science because they believed it would not be nearly as fulfilling, creatively, when compared to work in the arts or humanities. McLeish, a Christian, succeeds in this book in showing that not only is creative thinking and experimenting necessary and \"part of the chase\" in science, but that it is also a natural fulfillment of our creative mandate as human beings made in the image of God. McLeish is also careful to give examples of \"more-regular\" science, rather than relying solely on the popular accounts of the creativity of exceptional geniuses; he trys to show that all scientists participate in this artistic-like creativity no matter what they are studying. *The first two chapters introduce the concepts of creativity and inspiration in science. McLeish begins an interaction with several important works that he draws on throughout the book: William Beveridge's The Art of Scientific Investigation from 1950, Henry James's The Art of the Novel, and Howard Gardner's 1993 work Creating Minds (one of many surveys of particularly creative individuals). Chapter 3, \"Seeing the Unseen,\" is about visual imagination and its role in theory creation, artistic design, and general problem solving. Visual imagination is seeing things in the mind's eye, but it is obviously linked to actual sight and seeing the world, too. Surveying the history of thought in this area, McLeish ranges from Plato to Gregory of Nyssa, to the thirteenth-century polymath Robert Grosseteste, to the Italian painter Giotto, to Einstein, who said his theory creation and problem solving started with visual images in his mind, which often led to his famous gedanken experiments. Grossetes","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135894991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Keith Miller, \"'And God Saw That It Was Good\": Death and Pain in the Created Order\" (PSCF 63, no. 2 [2011]: 85–94)","authors":"Ryan Bebej","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23bebej","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23bebej","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf9-23contakes
Stephen Contakes
{"title":"On Arie Leegwater, \"A Brief Excursion in Chemistry: \"God-Talk\" in Chemistry?\" (PSCF 63, no. 3 [2011]: 145–46)","authors":"Stephen Contakes","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23contakes","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23contakes","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Colin J. Humphreys and W. Graeme Waddington, \"The Date of the Crucifixion\" (JASA 37, no. 1 [1985]: 2–10)","authors":"Robert Mann","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23mann","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23mann","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.56315/pscf9-23hollman
Jay Hollman
{"title":"On Perry Phillips, \"The Thrice-Supported Big Bang\" (PSCF 57, no. 2 [2005]: 82–96); Fred G. Van Dyke, \"Ecology and the Christian Mind\" (PSCF 43, no. 3 [1991]: 174–84); and Alan Dickin, \"The Design of Noah\"s Ark\" (PSCF 74, no. 2 [2022]: 92–105)","authors":"Jay Hollman","doi":"10.56315/pscf9-23hollman","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56315/pscf9-23hollman","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53927,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135686709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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