"And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it," reads a passage in the book of Genesis, the section of the Bible that describes the creation of the Earth. Many contend that this sacred poetry - and other biblical passages like it - underscores man’s responsibility as the planet’s chief steward.
As groups all around Harvard honored the life and lasting impact of one of the world’s most influential scientists last week, a scientific discussion with a religious twist about the Earth and its future took place in one corner of the campus between two unlikely allies.
At Harvard Divinity School, a prominent man of science and a prominent man of God shared the stage in Andover Hall, each calling for urgent action to save the world.
Fueled by the little book by Charles Darwin, "The Origin of Species," scientific and evangelical communities have been at odds for more than a century over the dawn and development of the universe. The two camps fall along sharply divided lines: Darwin’s theory of natural selection on one side, the story of Genesis on the other — evolution vs. creationism.
The debate has evolved, say some evangelicals, into a controversy over "intelligent-design," with which some Christians have lobbied the courts to broaden the teachings of evolution in schools to include the theory of an omnipotent creator as a scientifically valid option for the existence of life on Earth. Much of the scientific community thinks of the intelligent design movement as merely creationism dressed for school.
Another contentious topic whose lines of battle are a bit hazier is the existence of, and reasons for, global warming.
But as scientific evidence has mounted to support the global warming hypothesis, the speakers on Feb. 12 (Darwin’s birthday, not coincidentally) suggested that scientists and evangelical Christians are increasingly aligned in their concern for the fate of the environment and increasingly convinced that humans play a critical role in that fate.
Four years ago the men forged an alliance that has been steadily gathering steam.
Eric Chivian, director of Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, talked of his trepidation when he was introduced in 2006 to the Rev. Richard Cizik, former vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals. Worried they wouldn’t have anything in common, the assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School said he was surprised to realize that in addition to both driving a Toyota Prius, the two men held more profound things in common.
"What was incredible and wonderful for us to learn about each other is that we shared a very, very deep reverence for life on Earth, that it was fundamental to who we were as people - and that we both felt committed to spending our lives working to protect the natural world."
Chivian won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 as part of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. He founded the Center for Health and the Global Environment in 1996 with others who viewed "global and environmental changes as Armageddon in slow motion."
Read the rest of the article on the Gazette site
by
...we shared a very, very deep reverence for life on Earth, that it was fundamental to who we were as people...