No Need to Insult Believers in Religion
In his recent column, "Taking on God in Course VI" [Sept. 9], J. Ryan Bender '00 seems to use a disagreement over a class offering as a personal launching pad for a vindictive attack on religion. Calling the Course VI class entitled "God and Computers" (6.915) an example of "Christianity's declaration of war on science," he satirizes the instructor and mocks anyone who would profess faith in a Christian God. Whether or not Bender is correct in arguing that the class should not be offered is one thing; writing that "Christianity has no solution to human beings' daily problems and sufferings" is a very different matter.
Bender makes the same mistake that many who deem themselves defenders of
pure science, unpolluted by religion, have the habit of making. He forgets
history. Many of the greatest scientists in history have also been
Christians, some of them theologians and apologists in their own right. The
towers of Buildings 1, 2, 3, and 4 bear the names of prominent scientists.
Many of these men studied science not because of an abstract notion of
"productive thought and effort to overcome" but because they saw in the
universe an orderliness and a beauty which could only have come from a
god. Bender faults the instructor for going beyond the scope of a class in
artificial intelligence because she attempts to connect it with "Christian
myths." But at the same time, he goes beyond the scope of his argument by
categorically denouncing Christianity and confusing the real question of
appropriateness. Bender should remember the framework in which he argues
and limit himself to statements he can support without resorting to
name-calling and irrational accusations. Believing in Jesus Christ does not require suspension of rational
thought; it requires acknowledging the fact that science, or anything else
for that matter, is unable to meet human beings' need for a savior. I pray
that one day Bender's eyes may be opened to see the perfect solution that
Christianity indeed has for human beings' daily problems and
sufferings. Robby L. Stephenson G
View Archives