The Adam Quest: Eleven Scientists Who Held on to a Strong Faith While Wrestling with the Mystery of Human Origins by Tim Stafford

Author:Tim Stafford [Stafford, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2013-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

Schweitzer represents a third wave of dinosaur research. Wave one was bones, with skeletons fitted together and put on display in museums. By studying the bones’ shapes and sizes and the places where tendons had attached, paleontologists put together a catalog of hundreds of species of dinosaurs and how they lived.

Jack Horner and others initiated a second wave, looking at the interior structure of the fossils using microscopes and other tools of analysis. Schweitzer and others have taken this to a third stage, doing chemical analysis. Molecules are fossils, too, these researchers say, transformed by time but nonetheless retaining remnants of the past. Schweitzer has discovered what appear to be organic molecules hidden in dinosaur fossils. Analyzing these is a complex, expensive matter.

She despairs of funding. Often she wonders whether it will be possible to continue her work, considering how few grants are available and how difficult it is to obtain them. Grad students depend on continuing funding, and “if I lose my technician, I’m done. I have to trust God. It’s up to him. If he’s closing this door, I will look for something else.” It’s hard to imagine Schweitzer doing anything else.

She is passionate about science and passionate about God. Schweitzer belongs to conservative churches that believe in a young earth. She leans heavily on these congregations, who trust in the Bible and offer her spiritual nurture. “We don’t have to be on the same page if we have Jesus at the core of our friendship.”

She did draw the line at a pastor who, not knowing who she was, preached about her discovery of red blood cells as an indication of the stupidity of scientists. “I got up and left. If you can’t do your homework on something as simple as that, why should I believe you on spiritual things? If you are going to rely on just one source, how do I know what you do with the Bible?”

“I have few close friends who are scientists,” Schweitzer says. “I can only let walls down with those who share my faith.” Friendships with fellow Christians are not without tensions. “Many of my friends are praying for my enlightenment.” But she also sympathizes with the stresses affecting young earth creationists.

Many of the North Carolina State undergraduates who take her course, Dinosaur World, come from conservative churches. “They see the data for evolution, and they are placed in an uncomfortable position, splitting their heads and their hearts. They usually choose to walk away from their faith.”

Some come privately to her with their questions. “I tell them that the world might indeed be six thousand years old, just as dinosaurs might have had purple polka dots, but without data you can’t say that.” She wants them to grasp the authority of science in its proper area but also the limits of science. “The best gift I can give my students is to ask the right questions. I tell them that science is not the only answer. Science can’t prove the existence of God or that you love your children.

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