We are pleased to republish today’s post by Luke Janssen, professor in McMaster University’s Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, from his blog entitled Reaching into Plato’s Cave. Genesis 11:1-8: “Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens …’ ” “The Lord said, ‘…Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building…” Last night we lost the ability to communicate with the Philae Lander that the Rosetta Probe dropped onto Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko, …

On the subject of science and faith, the stars literally aligned for me this past July. Early in that month I gave talks to two different age groups on the topic, at the national Presbyterian Youth Conference at Brock University (Canada Youth 2014). Two weeks later at McMaster University, just down the highway, was the joint annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, the Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation, and, from Great Britain, Christians in Science. Bethany Sollereder on the previous blog entry has shared some reflections on that meeting. I was asked to do an article for the Presbyterian Record …

This year’s conference marked my first joint conference between the CSCA (Canadian), ASA (American), and CiS (British) associations. It was, I think, a great success. While the CSCA regularly joins the ASA annual meeting, the addition of like-minded friends from across the pond brought a new dynamic to the meeting: a certain freshness and perspective that added a unique flavour to the meeting. Since I have been living in England for these last three years, the meeting was especially significant as it was a peculiar meeting of my worlds: my British friends were meeting my Canadian and American friends for the …

One area in which the “war” between science and faith is manifest is the study of human mental processes and behaviour – commonly known as psychology. Some psychologists view Christianity as a “crutch” for weak people, or something that is obsolete given our advanced understanding of neuroscience. Some Christians view psychology as unnecessary – all we need to know about human minds is found in the Bible. And some Christians who are also psychologists compartmentalize their work and their faith. Yet, as with other areas of science, there is no need for conflict or separation. There are many areas of …

As some of you are aware, most of England has been inundated with rain and lashed by gale force winds for the better part of the last two months. Although there has been widespread flooding and thousands of homes left without power, from a scientific point of view, there have also been some very interesting discoveries resulting from these storms. A couple of weeks ago I went down to Lyme Regis: the place where fossil hunting began. The storms had brought down several new portions of the fossil-filled cliffs onto the beach. At some personal risk (after all, one is …