Faith and the Scientist - a talk given by Peg Lewis on April 25, 2010

Years ago we were on a long trip with some church members we didn’t know very well. As the miles went by, the brother described a new business venture he and some friends had undertaken. They had invented a new way to heat houses that would save a great deal on energy costs. As he described it, my husband, an expert in thermodynamics – the science of heat – grew more and more aghast. It became evident that the new ‘invention’ would break a fundamental law of physics. Finally he told the excited brother that it wouldn’t work. The brother shrugged his shoulders and said that there are naysayers in every crowd and they had the faith that it would work (and make them all a fortune).


My point is: The best of intentions without adequate knowledge of the laws of the universe often leads to failure. My purpose today is to show that that good science supports faith, and that faith is essential to good science.

Before I begin, I would like to establish my authority to speak on the subject of faith and the scientist. I was a scientist from birth, as all babies are. I experimented with dropping things and squishing bananas. And I kept at it through childhood. When I was 7, I looked at a glass of water that I had stirred salt into and honestly had a hard time believing the salt was still in there, even though I knew it had to be. I couldn’t see it. I had read that if you have a glass of salt water and evaporate away the water, the salt would return. I wanted to try it. My mother wasn’t so sure we should waste the gas to try the experiment, but my father was game, so we did it. We boiled the water in the pan and when it was all gone, salt covered the bottom of the pan.

Later I became fascinated by the Solar System, and wanted to know about the planets. I wanted to build rockets. I wanted to know how disease worked, and cars. I collected snakes, turtles, and frogs. I read about these things. I wanted to know this world and understand it.

Deep inside me, I knew there were rules, and I was trying to uncover them. It’s the same for all children, I believe.

I loved numbers. They work in predictable ways, and I loved the way they provided answers. I did my 9th grade project on electronics, a relatively new field back then, and taught my science class how a computer works, including doing arithmetic using the binary number system. I majored in chemistry in college because I thought it would provide me with ultimate answers about creation (and met Elder Lewis because I was the only person who would go out with a chemistry grad student). Later I got a graduate degree in linguistics, the science of language. I also translated science books and edited medical books, and I wrote space articles for Technology Review. Today I love math and computers, languages, the Solar System, the outdoors, all growing things, the mountains and other formations around us. I have never stopped being a scientist.

Now to the topic of our talks, faith and the scientist. First, a bit about science

The word science comes from sciere, a Latin word that means ‘to know’. Science is a way to know things. Science is a way to investigate truths.

Science is a way to eliminate he prejudices and agendas of scientists and those who hire them and pay their way and politicians who might use their discoveries for their own ends. It is a method for achieving objectivity and eliminating influence. It is friendly only to those seeking truth, and nothing but the truth.

In fact, the ultimate purpose of science is to discover the laws that underlie, and also give rise to, all of creation.

Likewise, the ultimate purpose of faith is to discover the will of God for us and understand his creation (so we can return to him).

The biggest difference between science and religion is in a few details of the method used to gain knowledge. We will look at this more closely in a moment.

But first, let’s look at the scientific method. We learned it in school, but that’s a long time ago, so let’s look at it again. Here are the steps a scientist takes to gain knowledge.

a. He becomes aware of a problem, or has a question he would like to answer.

b. He studies what others have done and finds out all he can about the problem.

c. He comes up with a possible solution, which is his hypothesis – an untested idea.

f. He designs an experiment to test his hypothesis, to find out whether this solution his correct OR NOT. (Rules have been laid down for the proper design of experiments to eliminate the possibility that the scientist will get only the results he is looking for.)

g. He runs the experiment and analyzes the data, and from the results draws a conclusion whether his hypothesis is correct or needs to be abandoned or adjusted. And he needs to replicate his results so that he can eliminate chance.

h. He publishes his results so that others can check them. If his results are flawless, he has now come up with a new theory. Otherwise he must repeat one or more steps.

Now, how does a person of faith solve a problem or answer a question? In a way that is strikingly parallel:

a. He ponders the question.

b. He studies it out through scriptures and conference talks, counsel, prayer, etch.

c. He forms a hypothesis, an idea of a possible solution.

d. He does an experiment by praying about the solution he has come up with.

e. He gets an answer through the power of the Holy Ghost and analyzes it in the clear light of day.

f. He may repeat the process of praying about it several times until he has a clear answer.

The greatest point of difference between science and a faithful approach to a problem is the nature of the experiment. Everything else is the remarkably similar: the question, the study of the issues, the conclusion about a possible solution, the analysis of the answer, and the verification or replication of the answer.

Importantly, in both science and faith it is necessary to ask a question and study it out. We have this important instruction in D&C 9:7-8: “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed I would give it unto you, when you took no thought, save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right. And if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you shall feel that it is right.” This is the scientific method using the Holy Ghost instead of a lab experiment.

In fact, we are urged to experiment. The following scripture is astounding to a scientist, because here is an essential piece of science found in a scripture, the need to experiment, to test the idea. It is:

Alma 32: 33. And now behold, because ye have tried the experiment and planted the seed and it swelleth and sprouteth and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good.”

We have just talked about how a good Latter-Day Saint essentially uses the scientific method but how about the scientist using faith? While some scientists are proud of not having faith in a personal God, including Albert Einstein, they are denying the very forces that give them their scientific interest and pursuit.

In fact the very essence of science is the elucidation and understanding of the laws that underlie creation. The fact that there are laws for them to study is a testimony of a Creator. The creation IS the handiwork of a creator, and Einstein admits this.

“A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.

While he investigated throughout his life the most fundamental laws of creation, nonetheless he is saying that there is an existence of something we cannot penetrate. Not that we haven’t penetrated it yet, but that we can’t. It is not a law – it underlies law.

So the fact that there are laws to investigate testifies to an orderly creation and a creator who brought it about.

D&C 130:20 “There is a law irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this world upon which all blessings are predicated.”

So when a scientist looks for a law, he is using faith that there is a law and an orderly creation, and he has a testimony whether he wants one or not.

I love the following scripture; to me it unifies science and faith.

Moses 6:63: “And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me”.

A second way in which scientists rely on faith is in the hypothesis step of the scientific method. Hypotheses are ideas that spring into the mind. Scientists talk freely about inspiration, or a hunch, or the lightbulb going on. Their hypotheses come from outside the realm of experimentation and logical thinking. A scientist may feel he is very clever to come up with such an idea. Of course we know where they really come from: They come from the Holy Ghost.

In case I sound as though I am mocking scientists because some deny God when they are essentially studying him, , let me testify as a scientist that others know and seek to know God through understanding his laws and mulling over and investigating his handiwork; that they openly use faith and inspiration as important tools; that inspiration is a key element of the scientific method, as are honesty and diligence and intelligence.

15. Let me tell you a story. Four hundred years ago, a great scientist, Isaac Newton, devoted a portion of his life to investigating the laws of motion that he observed around him. He came up with what are now called the 3 laws of motion. Later when he investigated the gravitation, he tested his hypothesis of gravity and found that his formulation was correct on Earth. By way of further experimentation he applied his new theory to the moon, based on what was known about the position and motion of the moon at that time. His theory failed: the motion of the moon could not be accounted for by his theory. He tucked his papers away in a drawer, where they remained for years. Later, though, when man’s ability to measure the distance to the moon became more accurate, large errors were found in the previous results. Newton then took out his papers and found that his theory of gravitation was correct. The theory was correct, though the original calculations on the moon’s distance from Earth were too crude to validate it.

From the time it was validated, we could find the mass of the sun and explain and predict the motions of the planets.

And this is how accurate these laws were: when the Voyager spacecraft was sent to Neptune in 1977, taking 7 years to get there, the moment when it was closest to Neptune as predicted by Newton’s laws to be within 1 second of the actual moment of arrival : 1 second out of 7 years and 3 billion miles! His theory is now a law for good reason.

Both scientists and the faithful as they strive to understand creation experience these things:

a. Joy in the discovery, and in creation. The more we know it, the more we love it and the more awe we experience.

b. Avoidance of mistakes (as our friends dreaming of a new type of heating system made )

c. Focus on what is important, true, and good

d. Improvement of life in practical ways.

e. The uncovering of the handiwork of God, to his glory.

In conclusion I would like to say, most earnestly: don’t be afraid of science. It is the systematic study of the works of the Creator. We ignore this knowledge at our peril. We give up our agency when we choose not to learn all we can on issues because they’re scientific, as if that were a dirty word. Learn all you can about God’s creation. That’s why he gave us the 13th article of faith. Read about DNA, about global warming, about pollution. Don’t take someone else’s word for them – knowledge and choiceyou’re your birthrights. Remember that science is a great tool for removing prejudice and agendas from fact-gathering and rule-making. It helps remove us from the clutches of ignorance and error and political and financial manipulation. We are asked to seek out the truth, as is laid out in scripture. As a scientist, I testify that this is true, that all truth can be known by the power of the Holy Ghost and the study of creation, and that all testify of the Creator. To this I bear personal and solemn witness.