I’m currently studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science. I’ve always loved observing things and solving mysteries, so obviously science is right up my alley.
I love that science lets us ask questions and tempts us to seek understanding.
I love that it calls us to back up our ideas and requires us to strive to prove ourselves right or wrong.
I’ve always seen and valued science as an open space; a place for continuous searching and exploring. Science has always relied on its open hands to falsifiability for its growth and expansion.
However, it seems that in more recent years, the science community has been steadily turning away from the constant search that is science.
Instead, using mere theories as stakes in the ground, they’ve shut out anyone who doesn’t see their beliefs as fact.
When did we decide that we have surpassed science?
When did we decide to stop questioning ourselves and others?
Have we really become so scared of being wrong?
The greater point
Really this phenomenon applies to a great range of things, particularly in the general society of our current day.
Christians and non-Christians alike have become so offendable – it seems like even an innocent question flares up conflict and controversy.
Our response
Firstly, as Christians, we need to be ready to respond to questions and questioning with patience, kindness and wisdom.
We want people to ask questions – questions are opportunities to open doors of truth in people’s hearts.
We need to honour the opportunity and respond to questions with wisdom and truthfulness.
If we get asked something that we don’t know the answer to, we shouldn’t shut it down, we should instead let it spur us to seek God for the truth and the answers.
Being asked questions can reveal things to ourselves that we didn’t know we didn’t know, which in turn if paired with a passionate seeking of God and His truth, only deepens and strengthens our relationship with God and understanding all the more.
What a blessing it is to be asked questions!
Love covers a multitude
Secondly, why is it that we can no longer respect or connect with people that are different to us?
Does one difference, whether that relates to religion, politics, culture etc, sever the possibility for friendship?
Does one belief define the entirety of a person; can a difference of opinion right them off completely?
Why is everyone so polarised?
I can’t think of anyone I know who holds all the same beliefs and opinions that I do. That’s part of what makes friendships healthy.
It’s good for us to be challenged by one another. We’re supposed to stir each other on to become better and wiser and more understanding.
How will we grow?
We need to question ourselves and others. It’s essential for our growth.
If you never question yourself or let others question you, how will you know when you’re wrong?
Sometimes we need another point of view to help us see things more clearly.
Sometimes we can offer the alternative point of view to someone who needs it.
Either way, there’s nothing to be offended about. It’s okay to be wrong. It’s okay to disagree. Neither should come in between our love for each other.
Anyway, being in the science world constantly doing my degree has me thinking about all this a lot more.
There are many other things that could be said about this, but I’ll leave you to ask further questions and make your discoveries yourself.
Let’s become okay with being wrong! Let’s become okay with being different! Let’s refuse to write one another off over a difference of opinion.
Laura Miles is an excitable and fast-paced Brit, living in Australia. She can’t sit still; she has a serious addiction to sudoku, and she can be won over by a good cup of tea and a laugh. Studying to become a doctor, she is expectant and excited to see all the crazy things that the Lord is going to do in her life.