The poetry of science

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My inspiration for a special War Cry edition on God and science came from an unlikely place. I was listening to an interview with James Corden, the celebrity host of the Late Late Show in the US. James was brought up in The Salvation Army (in true Army style he is even related to one of our local officers—but being the classy publication we are, we shan’t name names).

In the interview, he was asked whether he believes in God, and responded something like: ‘I do believe there must be something out there, but you can’t deny science.’ I was saddened by how commonly people—even within faith—receive the false view that God and science are incompatible.

So this edition celebrates the poetry of science and how it sings of the beauty of creation. Physicist Richard Feynman describes what he sees when he looks at a flower: ‘I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimetre; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure … The fact that the colours in the flower … attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the colour … Science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower.’

As Carol Brieseman says on p.10, we are ‘only dipping our toes in the ocean that is God’. The more we get to know the infinite world around us, the more we stand in awesome wonder at the God of science.

Ingrid Barratt
Editor

Bible verse

Romans 11:36
For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Roman 11:36
Ko ngā mea katoa nei hoki, nāna, ā kei runga anō i a ia, ā e ahu ana hoki ki a ia. Mōna te korōria ake tonu atu! Amine.