Cosmos and Creation: A scientist deepens his faith while defending it

By PETER DODSON
Special to The CS&T

I am a cradle Catholic, a former parish council member and a longtime choir member. I am also a scientist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
As a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, I am accustomed to observe God’s handiwork in creation every day. Part of the joy of Catholicism is that we recognize no conflict between an evolutionary understanding of the cosmos and God’s hand in creation.
It makes little difference to me whether God breathed upon the face of the waters, or cast a bolt of lightning into a soup of organic chemicals 4.5 billion years ago. My faith is in Jesus, who 2,000 years ago came to save humans like you and me, not trilobites and dinosaurs, despite the splendor of these animals.
I had never pondered much the reconciliation of faith and science, in part because I never saw any need to do so.
My complacency was shattered in December 1988, when I attended a provocative seminar at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
The speaker was Dr. William Provine, an evolutionary biologist and historian of science at Cornell University. His topic: “The evolution of human morality.” It turned out to be an atheist’s manifesto, the finely tuned homily of a brilliant evangelical atheist fervently proselytizing the scientific community on the case for godlessness.
Much of the talk was clearly outside the domain of science, yet he claimed scientific authority when he bluntly stated that evolutionary biology shows us that there is no God; there is no soul; there is no life after death, and there is no such thing as free will — all of our countless daily decisions resulting either from our genes or our environment. Moreover, he stated that not more than a handful of evolutionary biologists believe in God, the implication being that anybody of my persuasion — a theistic evolutionist — belongs in the closet. You must leave your brains by the church door!
I was stunned by the message. It was so convincingly delivered that I, literally, had no answer. I left the seminar in a state of depression. This was not the message I had come to hear only days before the birthday of Our Lord.
Within a few days, however, my feelings changed to anger. I decided to put my thoughts together, and wrote Provine a four-page letter of rebuttal. He responded in five pages, and I wrote again in six!
He invited me to Cornell to debate him in front of his students. I declined to enter the lion’s den, lacking confidence in myself at this stage in my formation. What followed, however, has been a lengthy intellectual and spiritual journey on my part.
I discovered that I was not alone as a Christian scientist. I already knew that the history of science is filled with men of faith. I discovered among other contemporary savants Owen Gingerich, a Harvard astronomer and historian of science; Ian Barbour, a physicist and theologian at Carleton College; John Polkinghorne, a Cambridge University particle physicist and Anglican priest; Arthur Peacocke, an Oxford University biological chemist, and Jack Haught, a Catholic theologian and philosopher at Georgetown University.
In fact, there is a large and rapidly expanding body of literature exploring the historical and philosophical roots of science and its constructive relationship to religion.
I am convinced that God sends us what we need when we need it. A Catholic discussion group, now called the Circle of St. Bede, began meeting at Penn Newman Center in the fall of 1989 and is still prospering 15 years later. (It’s at 8 a.m., for those who rise and shine.)
In May 1990, Father Tom King, S.J., introduced me to the wonderful company of Cosmos and Creation, an annual weekend conference at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md., sponsored by the Jesuits in science. I knew I had found my spiritual and intellectual center, and I have never missed a meeting of this group of priest-scientists and spiritually-oriented lay scientists ever since.
I also learned of the John Templeton Foundation, based right here in Radnor, Pa., devoted to promoting the dialogue between science and religion. One of the ways the Templeton Foundation promotes the dialogue is by sponsoring courses in science and religion on college campuses in the United States and around the world. Such a course was taught at Penn in 1996, and I was able to attend and participate.
I became fast friends with the professor, William Grassie, a newly minted Ph.D. from Temple University. Three years later, I received a course award from the Templeton Foundation and taught my own course on science and religion in the Department of Religious Studies at Penn.
Moreover, with Billy Grassie, we founded the Philadelphia Center for Religion and Science, and I served as its first president from 1998 to 2001. This organization has been so successful that it has now become the Metanexus Institute for Science and Religion, and is a national leader in the field.
What then of Will Provine, the man who inadvertently set so many things in motion in my life? Fifteen years earlier, his words had cut me deeply. I personalized all of his taunts and jibes. I demonized him. I told him I would pray for him (and I did), but he clearly took offense at this.
Now, I realize that the reason he took offense was that there was more of pride than of charity in my prayer. (“Oh God, help my errant brother Will to see the world as I do. And thank you that I am not like him.”)
As I grew in knowledge, my pain and sorrow at our encounter lessened, and I ceased to think much about him. A wise spiritual counselor told me, “Peter, we should thank God for our enemies.”
A few years ago, I learned that Will was gravely ill with a brain tumor, and that he was suffering seizures that affected his ability to speak. Now, I was able to pray for him with love and humility, for I realized I indeed owed him a great deal.
The circle closes. Several months ago I gave a paleontology seminar at Cornell University. Unbeknownst to me, Will Provine, now largely recovered following successful neurosurgery, attended my seminar.
That evening, he sought me out at a reception, and invited me, indeed almost pleaded with me, to speak to his evolution class the following morning because he genuinely wanted his students to hear from a theistic scientist.
I was overcome with emotion and embraced him on the spot. And I prayed that God, who was clearly calling me to witness, would be with me and use me to His ends. Of course I accepted. How could I do otherwise?
So I spoke to his large class, first of science and then of faith. In the questions at the end of class, a student asked me the perfect question: Did I see God acting in my life on a daily basis? “Yes, of course,” I replied. “Part of the thrill of being a Christian is how sometimes God uses me to touch other people, and sometimes He uses other people to touch me. As a concrete example, 15 years ago, God used Will Provine to touch me.”
It gave me enormous pleasure to witness to this, and Will himself beamed. I embraced him on stage just to make it clear to the students that I know how much God loves him.
Has Will changed his beliefs?
No, he is as committed to his faith in non-God as I am committed to my belief in a loving personal God. But I respect him for his integrity, I admire him for his intellect and courage, and I love him as a friend and brother.
What I have learned in 15 years is that it is wiser to witness for the integrity of one’s beliefs than to attempt to convert unbelievers with facts and arguments. I know that God loves Will Provine and has His plans for him, just as He does for me.

Peter Dodson, a parishioner of St. Francis de Sales Parish in West Philadelphia, is recognized internationally as a dinosaur authority. In May, he and colleagues published a paper announcing the discovery of a new dinosaur species that lived in Montana 150 million years ago. You can visit the Metanexus Institute Web site at www.metanexus.net.