Defining Truth

When Dr. Naomi Larsen took her first sociology class as a freshman in college, she dropped it because so many of the ideas that were explored conflicted with her views as a Christian.

Now associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, Larsen says she was able to come to terms with utilizing her worldview within her discipline.

“What I tell students is that you can’t be a Christian and do Christian works without having a sociological imagination, seeing why people do things the way they do. Without sociology you wouldn’t be able to understand terrorists and why they would commit suicide,” explains Larsen, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The aim of the social sciences is to express truth about social reality,” says Dr. Antonio Chiareli, assistant professor of sociology. “So we have to define what truth is. We believe that truth is revealed in God’s word, and so we must find a way to bridge the gap between the Christian outlook and what the social sciences are saying.”

Chiareli points out that there is a tremendous gap between the two and that it’s very difficult to find a Christian textbook on sociology – what normally happens is a secular textbook is used with discussion included on the Christian worldview. The ultimate goal is to establish a dialogue between the Bible and the world, something Chiareli calls “Word-World dialogue.”

“You basically read the world by reading the Word,” says Chiareli. “You analyze the world with a biblical framework in mind.” He adds that this isn’t always easy due to the antagonism many social scientists have towards religion. “Any sort of an ideological system that makes claims about absolute truth will be highly suspicious to the social sciences.”

Larsen agrees that remaining objective as sociologists are encouraged to do is hard for a Christian and probably impossible.

“In our classes, we take all of the ideas that are out there and look at them objectively, but we also look at them with our Christian faith,” says Larsen. “I think a lot of times we make Christian living more difficult than it needs to be. To me, it gets down to love and the old saying ‘what would Jesus do?’ God is love. So what you do – you do with love, what you say – you say with love. That is what needs to be your guide in everything you do.”

“I think God is deeply interested in our character,” says Chiareli. “The training of our character in God’s eyes will have to follow certain biblical guidelines which you can’t get in a secular school. It’s about developing a framework for biblical living that you can get in a Christian setting – not necessarily teaching religion in every class, but allowing all of the different disciplines to work together to form a worldview that can be passed onto the students.”

Science - A Double-Edged Sword

Natural science is another area where students are challenged with using their Christian worldview and, according to Union professors like Dr. Sally Henrie, assistant professor of chemistry, it’s an area that has few professing Christians.

“Responsibility plays a key role in these disciplines,” says Henrie, who worked as an industrial chemist for several years before coming to Union to teach. “Science can do as much harm as good, and as Christians we need to be very responsible in the directions we go and make sure that the science we practice is not detrimental but works for good.”

As students approach a career in the physical sciences, their beliefs will be bombarded by people who don’t share a Christian worldview, says Henrie. Dr. James Huggins, chair of the Department of Biology, agrees.

“We’re to be salt and light,” says Huggins. “God didn’t put us here to be isolationists but to make a difference in the world. We’re preparing young people to go out and take their Christianity with them. This is their training ground for what God would have them do in the real world.”

“I try to have my students understand the creativeness of God within what I teach,” says Henrie. “When you take the chemical reactions and you look at them through an atomic or molecular view, the awesomeness of God is overwhelming as we see the intricacies of these chemical reactions.”

According to Dr. Wayne Wofford, biology professor and director of the Edward P. Hammons Center for Scientific Studies at Union, the origins of science actually came from Christians.

“During the 17th century, they weren’t called scientists but natural philosophers and their motivation was to demonstrate the glory of God’s creation,” explains Wofford. “By integrating faith and science and getting more people comfortable with the idea, we may be able to create some individuals that can address the concerns that science has like Intelligent Design or the Big Bang theory.”

Wofford says the phrase “god of the gaps” is widely used to explain anything that can’t be explained by science and assumed to be by God.

“If we can get students here to understand that they’re compatible, that science and faith can work together, then maybe we can address some of these issues,” says Wofford, referring to the creation and evolution debate among others.

“We have a diversity of opinions and a variety of viewpoints represented on the faculty when it comes to the age of the earth and the process of creation,” says Dr. Carla Sanderson, provost and professor of nursing. “But we are united in our conviction that God is creator of all and thus we can confess that ‘we believe in God the Father, almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.”

“Science can be a double-edged sword,” says Huggins. “We swing it in one direction and it’s good. People want to believe in science – they know that we can take a heart out, work on it and make their life better. At the same time, we can swing it in the other direction and use it for evil like with bio-warfare.”

Huggins adds that all of this is based on a moral foundation and how knowledge is used, though many scientists remove their moral responsibility, defending their choice by saying the role of science is simply to provide the information and it’s up to society to do with it what it will.

“We can choose God or some other avenue. What are we doing in our universities if we’re producing scientists with no moral or ethical responsibilities?” asks Huggins. “Christians have an opportunity to make a difference.”