In late September I had the opportunity to attend the Theological Symposium at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.  The Topic was “Science and Theology: New Questions, New Conversations.”  The reality of the Symposium lived up to its title.  Most in attendance were out of the comfort zone and felt a little out of place.  Theologians and scientists spent two days together: theologians on new and uncomfortable ground struggling to listen to and discussing with scientists – scientists on new and uncomfortable ground at, of all places, a seminary, listening and discussing with theologians.

One keynote speaker really caught my attention - a quantum physics professor (who is also Christian) by the name of Dr. Ben Schumacher.  He began by telling us that, “Nature is weird, but it’s not insane.”  In other words, there are many things in the universe we still don’t understand, and we cannot yet “connect all the dots”, but there is order in what may seem to be chaos.  After introducing us to the “elusive reality” of the quantum world and discussing those elusive realities, Dr. Schumacher brought us to some conclusions:  We have a problem in science: we observe the universe from within the universe.  In other words, we are inside the experiment – making observation and measurement difficult.  He questioned whether science and theology are necessarily kin.  Both deal with reality.  But the reality in which we “live, move, and have our being” does not seem to create an easy harmonization of theology and physics.  And we do a disservice to correct science with theology and theology with science.

There were other addresses as well discussing a wide range of scientific disciplines and our theological reaction to and engagement with science.  And you have the opportunity to listen and or view a number of these addresses.  Concordia Seminary has an online resource in collaboration with Apple’s iTunes called “iTunesU.”  If you have iTunes loaded on your computer, you can log on at http://itunes.csl.edu.  There you will find content from the 2009 Theological Symposium and also a whole host of resources provided by the seminary at no cost.  If you have any questions, let me know.