Schaefer

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Henry F. Schaefer

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Dr. Henry F. Schaefer, III
1. Dr. "Fritz" Schaefer is the Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and the director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia. For more information about his research see http://www.chem.uga.edu/DoC/ResFacHFS.html.
2. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize and was recently cited as the third most quoted chemist in the world. "The significance and joy in my science comes in the occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to myself, 'So that's how God did it!' My goal is to understand a little corner of God's plan." –U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 23, 1991.
3. The following are excerpts from a lecture, "Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence?", by Dr. Schaefer.
4. The entire lecture may be found at http://www.irr.org/scientists-and-god.html. Copyright © 1999 Dr. Henry F. Schaefer. All rights reserved.
The Genesis of This Lecture
1. I first began teaching freshman chemistry at Berkeley in the spring of 1983. Typically we lectured in halls that held about 550. On the first day of class you could fit in 680, which we had that particular morning.
2. I had never addressed a group of 680 people before and was a bit concerned about it. But I had a fantastic demonstration prepared for them.
  1. At Berkeley in the physical science lecture hall, the stage is in three parts. It rotated around, so you could go to your part of the stage and work for several hours before your lecture, getting everything ready.
  2. My assistant, Lonny Martin, was setting up 10 moles of a large number of quantities - 10 moles of benzene, iron, mercury, ethyl alcohol, water, etc. At just the right time, at the grand crescendo of this lecture, I was going to press the button and Lonny would come turning around. The students would have great insight as they realized that all these had in common was about the same number of molecules of each one.
  3. We got to that point and I said, "Lonny, come around and show us the moles." I pressed the button to rotate the stage but nothing happened. I didn't realize that he was overriding my button press because he wasn't ready. This was very embarrassing.
3. I went out in front of the 680 students and was at a loss of what to say, so I made some unprepared remarks. I said, "While we're waiting for the moles, let me tell you what happened to me in church yesterday morning."
  1. I was desperate. There was great silence among those 680 students. They had come with all manner of anticipations about freshman chemistry, but stories about church were not among them!
  2. I continued, "Let me tell you what my Sunday School teacher said yesterday." That raised their interest even more. "I was hoping the group at church would give me some support, moral, spiritual, or whatever for dealing with this large class, but I received none.
  3. In fact, the Sunday School teacher asked the class, in honor of me:
    What was the difference between a dead dog lying in the middle of the street and a dead chemistry professor lying in the middle of the street?
  4. The class was excited about this and I hadn't even gotten to the punch line. They roared with laughter. The very concept of a dead chemistry professor lying in the middle of the street was hilarious to them. I'm sure some of them began to think, "If this guy were to become a dead chemistry professor very close to the final exam, we probably wouldn't have to take the final exam. They'd probably give us all passing grades and this would be wonderful."
  5. I told them my Sunday school teacher had said that the difference between the dead dog lying in the middle of the road and the dead chemistry professor lying in the middle of the road is that there are skid marks in front of the dead dog.
  6. The class thought this was wonderful! Just as they settled down, I pressed the button and around came Lonny with the moles. It was a wonderful beginning to my career as a freshman chemistry lecturer.
4. About 25 students came down at the end of class and wanted to know "What were you doing in church yesterday?"
  1. One in particular said, "The person I most have admired in my life was my high school chemistry teacher. He told me with great certainty that it was impossible to be a practicing chemist and have any religious view whatever. What do you think about that?"
  2. We didn't have a long discussion at that time, but the students asked me if I would speak further on this topic. That became the origin of this lecture.
5. I gave this talk in Berkeley and in the San Francisco area many times. When I moved to the University of Georgia several years ago, the interest increased. And some faculty members complained to the administration. It was an interesting chapter in my life. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the largest newspaper in the southeastern United States, came out with an editorial supporting my right to give this talk, saying, "Fanatics are demanding rigorous control over the dissemination of ideas."
A Perspective on the Relation of Science and Christianity
1. Let's put this question of the relationship between science and Christianity with as broadest, most reasonable perspective we can. The relation between science and other intellectual pursuits has not always been easy. Therefore, many feel there has been a terrible warfare between science and Christianity. But I feel this is not the whole story.
2. For example, the recent literature text by Susan Gallagher and Roger Lundeen says:
  1. For several centuries, scientists have set the standards of truth for Western culture. And their undeniable usefulness in helping us organize, analyze, and manipulate facts has given them an unprecedented importance in modern society.
3. Not everybody has liked that. For example, John Keats, the great romantic poet, did not like Isaac Newton's view of reality. He said it threatened to destroy all the beauty in the universe. He feared that a world in which myths and poetic visions had vanished would become a barren and uninviting place.
4. My point is there has been some sparring between science and virtually every other intellectual endeavor. So it should not be entirely surprising if there weren't a bit of that between science and Christianity.
Has Science Disproved God?
1. Nevertheless, the position is commonly stated that "science has disproved God."
  1. C. S. Lewis says, in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, that he believed that statement. He talks about the atheism of his early youth and credits it to science. He says,
    1. You will understand that my atheism was inevitably based on what I believed to be the findings of the sciences and those findings, not being a scientist, I had to take on trust, in fact, on authority.
    2. What he's saying is that somebody told him that science had disproved God and he believe it, even though he didn't know anything about science.
  2. A more balanced view is this by one of my scientific heroes, Erwin Schrodinger. He was the founder of wave mechanics and the originator of what is the most important equation in science, Schrodinger's equation. He says,
    1. I'm very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world is very deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight, knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously.
The Alternatives to Belief in the Sovereign God of the Universe
1. Lev Landau
  1. I want to give examples of two atheists. The first is Lev Landau, the most brilliant Soviet physicist of this century. He was the author of many famous books with his coworker Lifchets. I actually used some of these books as a student at M.I.T. This is a story about Landau from his good friend and biographer Kolotnikov. This appeared in Physics Today. This is a story from the end of Landau's life. Kolotnikov says:
    1. The last time I saw Landau was in 1968 after he had an operation. His health had greatly deteriorated. Lifchets and I were summoned to the hospital. We were informed that there was practically no chance he could be saved.
    2. When I entered his ward, Landau was lying on his side with his face turned to the wall. He heard my steps, turned his head, and said, "Kollat, please save me." Those were the last words I heard from Landau. He died that night.
2. Shandrasekar
  1. Shandrasekar was a famous astrophysicist. He won the Nobel prize in physics in 1983. He was a faculty member at the University of Chicago for many years. At the back of his biography is an interview. Shandrasekar says,
    1. In fact, I consider myself an atheist. But I have a feeling of disappointment because the hope for contentment and a peaceful outlook on life as the result of pursuing a goal has remained largely unfulfilled.
    2. His biographer is astonished. He says:
      What? I don't understand. You mean, single-minded pursuit of science, understanding parts of nature and comprehending nature with such enormous success still leaves you with a feeling of discontentment?
    3. Shandresekar continues in a serious way, saying:
      I don't really have a sense of fulfillment. All I have done seems to not be very much.
    4. The biographer seeks to lighten up the discussion a little saying that everybody has the same sort of feelings. But Shandresekar will not let him do this, saying:
      Well that may be, but the fact that other people experience it doesn't change the fact that one is experiencing it. It doesn't become less personal on that account.
    5. And Shandrasekar's final statement:
      What is true in my own personal case is that I simply don't have that sense of harmony which I'd hoped for when I was young. I've persevered in science for over fifty years. The time I've devoted to other things is miniscule.
Is it Possible to be a Scientist and a Christian?
1. So the question I want to explore is the one that I was asked by that young man after my freshman chemistry class at Berkeley, "Is it possible to be a scientist and a Christian." The student and his high school chemistry teacher obviously thought it was not possible.
2. C. P. Snow
  1. Let me begin from pretty neutral ground by quoting two people with no particular theistic inclination. The first one is C. P. Snow. C. P. Snow used to be very famous as the author of a book called The Two Cultures. C. P. Snow was a physical chemist at Oxford University. He discovered about halfway through his career that he also was a gifted writer and he began writing novels. They are about university life in England. One in particular is called Masters, which I would recommend. C. P. Snow became quite wealthy doing this and then he was able to sit in an in-between position, between the world of the sciences and the world of literature.
  2. He wrote this book, which in it's time was very famous, about the two cultures - the sciences and the humanities. He said statistically slightly more scientists are in religious terms, unbelievers, compared with the rest of the intellectual world, although there are plenty that are religious and that seems to be increasingly so among the young.
  3. So is it possible to be a scientist and a Christian? C. P. Snow, who was certainly not a Christian, said yes.
3. Richard Ferriman
  1. Richard Ferriman, Nobel prize in physics in 1965, was a very unusual person. He said some 9 years before receiving the Nobel prize, "Many scientists do believe in both science and God, the God of revelation, in a perfectly consistent way." So is it possible to be a scientist and a Christian? Yes according to Richard Ferriman.
4. Allen Lichtman
  1. A good summary statement in this regard is by Allen Lichtman, who has written a very well-received book called Origins. He's an M.I.T. professor who has published this book with Harvard University Press. He says,
    1. References to God continued in the scientific literature until the middle to late 1800's. It seems likely that the lack of religious references after this time seem more from a change in social and professional conventions among scientists rather than from any change in underlying thought. Indeed, contrary to popular myth, scientists appear to have the same range of attitudes about religious matters as does the general public.
5. Sigma Zi
  1. Americans love statistics. Here's the result of a poll of the professional society Sigma Zi. Three thousand three hundred responded, so this is certainly beyond statistical uncertainty. It says that half participate in religious activities regularly. The poll said that 43% of Ph.D. scientists are in church on a typical Sunday. In the American public, 44% are in church on a typical Sunday. So it's clear that whatever it is that causes people to have religious inclinations is unrelated to having an advanced degree in science.
6. Michael Polony (see full text).
Science Developed in a Christian Environment
1. Francis Bacon
  1. Let's explore the idea that science grew up in a Christian environment. I was taught that Francis Bacon discovered the scientific method. The higher critics now claim he stole it from somebody else and just popularized it. We'll leave that to the science historians to settle.
  2. One of Francis Bacon's statements is called the two-books statement. It's very famous. He said:
    1. Let no one think or maintain that a person can search too far or be too well studied in either the book of God's word or the book of God's works.
    2. He's talking about the Bible as the book of God's words and nature as the book of God's works. He is encouraging learning as much as possible about both. So right at the beginning of the scientific method, we have this statement.
2. Johannes Kepler
  1. Johannes Kepler posited the idea of elliptical orbits for planets. He's considered the discoverer of the laws of planetary motion. He was a devout Lutheran Christian.
  2. When he was asked the question "Why do you do science?", he answered that he desired in his scientific research to obtain a sample test of the delight of the Divine Creator in his work and to partake of his joy. This has been said in many ways by other people, to think God's thoughts after him, to know the mind of man.
  3. Kepler might be considered a Deist based on this first statement alone. But he later said:
    1. I believe only and alone in the service of Jesus Christ. In him is all refuge and solace.
3. Blaise Pascal (see full text).
4. Robert Boyle (see full text).
5. Isaac Newton
  1. Newton was a mathematician, physicist, co-discoverer with Liebnitz of calculus, the founder of classical physics.
  2. He wrote more books on theology than on science. He wrote one about the return of Jesus Christ entitled Observations on the prophecy of Daniel and the Revelation of Saint John. He said:
    1. This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.
6. Michael Faraday
  1. My very favorite - and probably the greatest experimental scientist of all - is Michael Farraday. He discovered benzene and electromagnetic radiation, invented the generator and was the main architect of classical field theory.
  2. Let me contrast the end of his life with the end of Lev Landau's life. Faraday was close to death. A friend and well-wisher came by and said, "Sir Michael, what speculations have you now?" This friend was trying to introduce some levity into the situation. Faraday's career had consisted of making speculations about science and then dash into the laboratory to either prove or disprove them. It was a reasonable thing to say.
    1. Faraday took it very seriously. He replied:
      Speculations, man, I have none. I have certainties. I thank God that I don't rest my dying head upon speculations for "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day."
7. John Clerk Maxwell (see full text).
Organic Chemists
1. George Stokes
  1. He is one of the great pioneers of spectroscopy, study of fluids and fluorescence. He held one of the most distinguished chairs in the academic world for more than fifty years, the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge - a position held by Sir Isaac Newton and currently by Stephen Hawking.
  2. Stokes wrote on other topics besides organic chemistry, including the topic of natural theology. Concerning the issue of miracles, Stokes said:
    1. Admit the existence of a personal God and the possibility of miracles follows at once. If the laws of nature are carried out in accordance with his will, he who willed them may will their suspension….
2. William Thompson
  1. William Thompson was later known as Lord Kelvin. He is recognized as the leading physical scientist and the greatest science teacher of his time. His early papers on electromagnetism and heat provide enduring proof of his scientific genius.
  2. He was a Christian with a strong faith in God and the Bible. He said:
    1. Do not be afraid to be free thinkers. If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to the belief in God.
3. J. J. Thompson
  1. In 1897, J. J. Thompson discovered the electron. He was the Cavendish professor of physics at Cambridge University.
  2. The old Cavendish laboratory sits in the middle of Cambridge campus. So much was discovered there that it was turned into a museum. A total of fifteen Nobel Prizes resulted from work done there. Inscribed over its door is a Latin phrase "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
  3. J. J. Thompson made this statement in Nature:
    1. In the distance tower still higher [scientific] peaks which will yield to those who ascend them still wider prospects and deepen the feeling whose truth is emphasized by every advance in science, that great are the works of the Lord.
Theoretical Chemists
1. Charles Coulson
  1. Charles Coulson is one of the three principal architects of the molecular orbital theory.
  2. Coulson, a professor of mathematics at Oxford University for many years, was also a Methodist lay minister.
  3. From the biographical memoir of the Royal Society after Charles Coulson's death, we read a description of his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ in 1930 as a 20-year-old student at Cambridge University. Coulson testified:
    1. There were some ten of us and together we sought for God and together we found Him. I learned for the first time in my life that God was my friend. God became real to me, utterly real. I knew Him and could talk with Him as I never imagined it before and these prayers were the most glorious moment of the day. Life had a purpose and that purpose coloured everything.
  4. Coulson's experience is fairly similar to my own at Berkeley. It would be nice if I could say there was a thunderclap from heaven and God spoke to me in audible terms and that is why I became a Christian. However, it did not happen that way, but I did have this same perception Coulson is talking about - this sense of purpose and more of a vividness to the colors of life.
2. Charles H. Townes
  1. My candidate for the scientist of the century is Charlie Townes. (Of course, he is a friend of mine and there could be some bias here.) He did something fairly significant when he discovered the laser. He almost got a second Nobel Prize for the first observation of an interstellar molecule.
  2. He has written his autobiography, entitled Making Waves (a pun referring to the wavelike phenomenon of lasers).
    1. An excerpt from his life's story:
      You may well ask, "Where does God come into this," to me, that's almost a pointless question. If you believe in God at all, there is no particular "where" - He is always there, everywhere….To me, God is personal yet omnipresent. A great source of strength, He has made an enormous difference to me.
  3. At eighty [years old], Charlie Townes still has a very active research program at Berkeley.
3. Arthur Schawlow
  1. Schawlow won a Nobel Prize in physics, 1981, serves as physics professor at Stanford and identifies himself as a Christian.
  2. He makes this unusual statement which I think could only be made by a scientist:
    We are fortunate to have the Bible, and especially the New Testament, which tells so much about God in widely accessible, human terms.
4. Alan Sandage
  1. The world's greatest observational cosmologist, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution. He said: The nature of God is not to be found within any part of the findings of science. For that, one must turn to the Scriptures.
  2. In one book, Sandage was asked the classic question, "Can one be a scientist and a Christian?" and he replied, "Yes, I am." Ethnically Jewish, Sandage became a Christian at the age of fifty.
  3. This is the man who is responsible for our best values for the age of the universe: something like 14 billion years. Yet, when this brilliant cosmologist is asked to explain how one can be a scientist and a Christian, he doesn't turn to astronomy, but rather to biology:
    1. The world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance…I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order and each of its organisms is simply too well put together.
5. William Phillips
  1. His Nobel Prize in physics was for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. At a press conference following the announcement of his winning the Nobel Prize, he said:
    God has given us an incredibly fascinating world to live in and explore.
Conclusion
1. I hope that I have given you a flavor of the history of science. Those of you who have taken a freshman chemistry or physics course will surely find many of these people familiar. In fact, the reason I have prepared this talk is that these represent the very people I have taught in such courses.
2. There is a tremendous tradition of distinguished scientists who were and are Christians. I hope that my work is considered sufficiently outstanding to fall into the distinguished among that category.
3. I also hope I have given you enough evidence that you will never again believe that it is impossible to be a scientist and a Christian.

(This page was last edited on October 22, 2009 .)