April 2007 Archives
It is with profound sadness that I must relay the passing of our dog Rudy. He had been hospitalized on Monday night after a 3-week battle with pain and nausea. We received a call from the vet early yesterday morning informing us that Rudy's condition was declining. It was finally clear that he was suffering from severe liver problems, and that his organs were likely shutting down. He probably had a tumor in his liver, but it may have been an infection. We could have tried to wait out steroid treatment for another 72 hours in case it was an infection, but even if it worked he would have had low quality of life.
Cynthia and I were able be there to comfort him for a while before the end. I held his head in my hands as he went to sleep for the last time. This is without question the hardest emotional event I've experienced in recent memory. I miss him so much.
I'm a scientist; I believe in God.
I encourage you to read the brief commentary by Dr. Francis Collins linked above. He's the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, and former atheist. I nearly included his book on my list for 2007, but went with John Polkinghorne's book instead.
As a scientist, academician, and Christian, I'm always interested to read about other believing scientists and philosophers. Especially those that speak openly about their faith. It's far more common to see this boldness with senior scientists (hence the title of this entry) because faith is shunned so much in the sciences, and especially in my field of Psychology.
Let me just say how refreshing to read his statement about Evolution:
Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things.
It's time for evangelicals to embrace evolution and common decent much like the Catholic Church (eventually) adopted Copernicus's heliocentric model of the solar system. As Collins says, "I find no conflict here." However, it is not my intent to delve deeply into the Evolution-Creation debate with this post. That'll have to wait for another day.
