DÎSCΖ
The Disciples’ Institute for Scientific and Cosmological Inquiry.
This site is under construction. Check back often for updates and content.
Rainbows in the Crashing Surf, Yachats, Oregon, January 2008
DÎSCÎ is pronounced “dye-sigh.”
DÎSCÎ will be a forum for discussing issues that the Church confronts in the ongoing conversation and debate between religion and science.
Sue, the tyranasaurus rex, the largest & most complete fossil of a t-rex ever found. On display at the Field Museum in Chicago. Photo taken with my cell phone.
DÎSCÎ contributors will be members and friends of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), usually called “Disciples” for short. They will include clergy and lay people, scholars, scientists, and those with an insatiable drive for learning.
Peking Man Homo Erectus by Russell Ciochon UIowa
The goal of DÎSCÎ will be to confront head-on the most difficult controversies between the church and science, but to discuss those controversies in a manner that is respectful and tolerant.
Sagittarius A*, the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Source: Spitzer Space Telescope
DÎSCÎ will be a virtual institute for those who have the spiritual gift of terminal curiosity about God’s universe, life, biology, astronomy, quantum physics, geology, exobiology, paleontology, meteorology, and any other “ology” that might merit discussion and scholarly reflection.
Here, from a PBS interview, in this statement by Dr. Francis Collins (former director of the Human Genome Project, and just last month sworn in as the Director of the National Institutes for Health), is a perfect example of one way to illustrate of the kind of dialogue that DÎSCÎ will hope to conduct :
Actually, I don’t see that any of the issues that people raise as points of contention between science and faith are all that difficult to resolve. Many people get hung up on the whole evolution versus creation argument — one of the great tragedies of the last 100 years is the way in which this has been polarized. On the one hand, we have scientists who basically adopt evolution as their faith, and think there’s no need for God to explain why life exists. On the other hand, we have people who are believers who are so completely sold on the literal interpretation of the first book of the Bible that they are rejecting very compelling scientific data about the age of the earth and the relatedness of living beings. It’s unnecessary. I think God gave us an opportunity through the use of science to understand the natural world. The idea that some are asking people to disbelieve our scientific data in order to prove that they believe in God is so unnecessary.
If God chose to create you and me as natural and spiritual beings, and decided to use the mechanism of evolution to accomplish that goal, I think that’s incredibly elegant. And because God is outside of space and time, He knew what the outcome was going to be right at the beginning. It’s not as if there was a chance it wouldn’t work. So where, then, is the discordancy that causes so many people to see these views of science and of spirit as being incompatible? In me, they both exist. They both exist at the same moment in the day. They’re not compartmentalized. They are entirely compatible. And they’re part of who I am.
The fading infrared afterglow of GRB 090423 appears in the centre of this false-colour image taken with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii. The burst is the farthest cosmic explosion yet seen (Image: Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA/D Fox/A Cucchiara/Penn State U/E Berger/Harvard U)
DÎSCÎ will be based on the following scientific and theological assumptions:
- God created the universe, and as such, what we are able to observe, both on the largest and smallest scales is real.
- It is assumed that God would not create an observable universe that is not real in order to deceive the observer because those observations do not match what is described in certain passages in Scripture.
- Science is based on a process that involves hypotheses, observation, testing, and theories built on the results of that process.
- Doing science is a dynamic process that changes over time as new hypotheses are developed based on new observations.
- Science is always an interpretive process, and the hypotheses may be proven wrong. They may also lead to new hypotheses that are confirmed by observation and experimentation that results in a theory that accurately describes what was observed.
- Scientists change their minds as needed when new observations require new hypotheses.
- Disciples accept God as creator of the universe, and as such, seek to understand what is the role and meaning of humans, as a part of that creation.
- Disciples, as a rule, believe that the Bible contains God’s revelation to humans regarding that relationship, and that the Word of God was made flesh and walked among us.
- As stated in the Preamble to the Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada: “We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and we confess him as Lord and Savior of the world.
Resurrected Christ by Mattias Grunewald, Isenheim Altar Piece, 16th Century
The DÎSCÎ Perspective:
Although Disciples’ views vary regarding the historicity of what is written in the Bible, DÎSCÎ, as an institute for scientific and cosmological inquiry, will assume that the Bible is the divine guide to faith, but is not a scientific treatise, was not intended to be such, and that in particular the two creation stories in the text of the book of Genesis are not historical or literal descriptions of the creation of the universe, and with it, humanity.
Single Molecule Pentacene. First Molecule Photographed in History. Source: IBM
DÎSCÎ is moderated by Rev. David Waggoner, PhD, a Disciple’s minister for over 30 years. His personal blog, www.extremethinkover, can be read by clicking here.
© 2009, David C. Waggoner, PhD
