The first thing I need to do in my first President’s Column, is to thank Jim Miller, my predecessor, for all he has done for the Association. It is highly unlikely that any future president will ever have such an illustrious predecessor again. Jim has been active in an official capacity in PASTCF for the past 39 years; we hope and trust that “in an official capacity” will be the only thing that is going to change: he has so much to offer us! As he took his leave from the board under the title “au revoir”, there is justification for this hope. But Jim certainly is entitled to a healthy breather after this long sustained period of service. Thank you, Jim, and definitely au revoir!
Unlike Jim, I may be a relative unknown to many of you, so to introduce myself I can refer you to my bio sketch on the PASTCF website, but some additional information may be in order. Yes, I am a native of the Netherlands and a product of the Dutch educational system, as well as the Nederlands Hervormde Kerk. The latter has since merged with other denominations into the PKN (Protestant Church in the Netherlands). My wife, hailing from the Dutch predecessor of the RCA, and I met in school (the gymnasium – not the sports version, but the high school) in the 1960s and we have dragged our three children from the Netherlands to Virginia, West Virginia, New Mexico, India, Maryland, and finally Massachusetts; well, some joined us along the way, and others left home before the end.
In my professional life I started out as a radio astronomer, working on neutral atomic hydrogen gas in spiral galaxies, and then jumped to the other end of the spectrum, to X-rays, working on pulsars. During the last 20 years before my retirement I managed the data archive of one of NASA’s Great Observatories, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and spent much effort on integrating the data in the archive with the relevant professional literature (or, if you like, the other way around). This is very relevant for data science/mining applications in astronomy. Time and time keeping is another interest I picked up professionally; it used to be an important practical service that astronomers provided to society.
What may be – or rather, should be – of more interest to you is the work of our Association. My sense is that PASTCF serves three important audiences – not necessarily restricted to the PC(USA), but that is our primary charge.
- Scientists and engineers, who have to ensure that any tension between their professional persona and their religious persona does not endanger the integrity of their persona as a whole human. This is a more difficult issue for some of us than for others.
- The larger PC(USA) membership: the world we live in has become more and more dominated, if not by science, then at least by its ensuing technology. That means that discussions on what lies at the interface of faith on the one hand, and science and technology on the other, need to become an integral part of 21st century religious life – for all PC(USA) members and, indeed, for all persons of faith. I will say more about this below.
- Theologians, pastors, seminary students: they will have to be able to provide guidance to the members of our congregations on matters of science and theology – at least when they are asked to, and at least they need to be able to find the resources.
There is a good reason why science and technology literacy is of the utmost importance, especially in the US. This country, more than Western Europe, always has had a much stronger anti-intellectual streak. That probably has its roots in a combination of anti-elitism and, regrettably, the equation of scientists with elite. But it has in many instances resulted in a disconnect between what people believe to be true and the technology they happily embrace. The ultimate example is a group of flat-earthers sailing to Antarctica, happily guided by GPS (to be clear, I am not suggesting that Presbyterians are flat-earthers). What it amounts to is an unquestioning and uncritical acceptance of technological novelties without thinking through any consequences, side effects, or implications. What I am getting at is that there are two somewhat related activities missing in the process of introducing new technology: the discernment of ethical implications and the crafting of governmental regulations. There are plenty of examples of the latter, where regulations are running way behind technological development: from the trivial question of whether and how online purchases should be subject to sales tax to social media to ownership of the human genome; or the tricky question what constitutes a human life – both at the beginning and at the end. And I am sure all of us can come up with dozens of other examples. Ideally, governmental regulation should follow technology close, but it should also be informed by ethical considerations.
And here lies the crux of it all: presuming that our ethical outlook has its basis in what I would call our faith and our religious convictions, this means that we need to be cognizant of the fact that our religious and our scientific or technological personae need to talk to each other on these matters. This is not exclusively an issue that concerns Presbyterians, Christians, or even adherents of any other religion. Replace “basis […] in religious convictions” by “informed by our understanding of the human condition” and it applies to all of humanity.
My sense is that at this time of fast technological development our capability to discern its ethical implications is severely impaired. As a result, those implications go unrecognized and ignored, leading to unregulated, unfettered, and unchecked spread of a great diversity of technologies into the lattice of society – multiple train wrecks waiting to happen simultaneously. However, in order to remedy this situation two things need to happen: increased scientific and technological literacy throughout a technologically advanced society and a general awareness of the relation that forms the interface of our religion on the one hand, and science and technology on the other. Only then can society adequately assess the ethical implications and decide on regulation. PASTCF’s mission points at the role the association can and should play in this. We, as members of PASTCF, have our work out for us!
Peace and grace,
