There’s a real renaissance right now to reunite faith and science. Some of the greatest scientists of history were all people of faith, and while some of them went through unjust scrutiny, the Church has come a long way in respecting and promoting the great work of science in the modern era to, for example, further the cause of protecting the environment and our health. Father Mike Schmitz is doing the catechism in one year on his podcast, and he is taking time to highlight how the church teaches our faith partners with reason and the natural order of things to appreciate God. Being in this season, and with these influences in my life, it’s no wonder that reading Adam Grant’s book, Think Again, would highlight how our faith grows when we think like a scientist.I’m James Cech, and this is The Seed. I want to capitalize on a pair of diagrams that Adam uses in his book to distinguish the thought process of a scientist. Politicians, prosecutors, and preachers he characterizes as having an overconfident thought cycle: pride in our knowledge leads to conviction, which leads to confirmation bias (aka, we only go looking for information that supports our viewpoint), which leads to validation and ultimately reinforces our pride. Everyone can be guilty of this cycle, so don’t get bogged down by the three professions. The second diagram shows the rethinking cycle, or how a scientist thinks, and it goes like this: humility about our knowledge leads to doubt, which leads to curiosity, which leads to discovery and ultimately keeps us humble. Now, I think in a faith context the word doubt is a misnomer, so I’ll offer a synonym from the definition of doubt and say humility leads to uncertainty. Let me say this rethinking cycle again and give you a chance to mull it over: humility leads to uncertainty, which leads to curiosity, which leads to discovery and ultimately keeps us humble.We don’t like to be uncertain about anything, much less matters of faith, but I immediately thought of a poignant example from scripture, Nicodemus. All the Pharisees quoted in scripture are stuck in the overconfidence cycle, except Nicodemus who shows us his uncertainty. Jesus is doing powerful things, but this is not the traditional way, so how can God be blessing his ministry? Finally Nicodemus’ curiosity overtakes him and he meets with Jesus, secretly, but sincerely. What he discovers in that conversation, and more importantly in the person of Jesus, is Truth; and his humility leads him towards transformation. When Jesus was taken from the cross, Joseph of Arimathea collected the body with Nicodemus by his side to wrap and prepare the body for burial. While Nicodemus is first called “one of their number,” meaning the Pharisees, he is clearly on a different path after encountering Jesus. Nicodemus was always a person of faith, but what makes his story admirable is that he engaged with the paradoxes of God moving in seemingly incompatible ways. He was open to the difficulties of faith as much as the answers of faith. As we go in to lent, it’s worth some prayer and reflection to see where we need to change from proud to humble so that we are led into curiosity and not confirmation bias. Remember the words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, “God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay
