Karl Giberson: Sketches
Karl Giberson is professor of physics at Eastern Nazarene College (ENC). He teaches, writes, and edits publications dealing with science and religion. Oxford University, the Vatican, and many colleges have invited him to lecture. He met his future wife Myrna (Fuller) Giberson at ENC and recommends Nazarene colleges as good places to find spouses. They have two daughters. His Ph.D. in physics is from Houston's Rice University.
Q: Where were you raised?
A: New Brunswick, Canada, in the middle of potato fields. My dad was a country preacher.
Q: How and when did your interest in science develop?
A: I liked tinkering with electricity. In high school, I read about Einstein and relativity and thought that was the coolest stuff in the world. Also, I was into aliens for a while and read silly books about flying saucers.
Q: How can parents encourage their children to be interested in science?
A: Don't let them watch television very much as toddlers. Instead, have them play with imagination-enriching toys. Talk to them about numbers and math before they realize they are not supposed to like math.
Q: What misconception do some Christians have about science?
A: Many Christians are scared of science, but they don't need to be. Throughout most of church history, scientists were Christians, and even today many practicing scientists are Christians. It is only a few outspoken scientists that make everyone think science is against religion.
Q: Are science and religion at war with each other?
A: No. No. No. This is a popular misconception. We see many points of agreement, and some disagreement, but mostly religion and science are just not connected to each other. If they were at war, there would not be so many scientists who are religious.
Q: What's the most important thing religion can learn from science?
A: Humility. Scientists tend to be open to being wrong and scientific disagreements are often quite cordial. At a scientific meeting, people who strongly disagree almost seem like they want to change their minds. We always know much less than we think and should not be too dogmatic about our favorite ideas.
Q: Are there scientific mistakes in the Bible?
A: Only in the sense that there are scientific mistakes in the newspaper, such as references to "sunrise." We know the sun does not rise but we speak in common language. Psalm 93 says that God "has established the world; it shall never be moved" (NRSV). This is plain language that would be wrong in a science book, but the Psalmist was not writing a science book. So he was free to speak in the common experience of people, which was that the earth seemed stationary. People quoted this verse to Galileo and got him in trouble for teaching that the earth moves around the sun. It is crazy to suppose that the Old Testament writers were writing in a modern scientific way.
Q: If you could go anywhere, to study anything, where and what would it be?
A: I would like to study the formation of black holes from the inside to see if they can really give birth to baby universes as some astronomers think. (Of course, this would kill me, so I might not get to pass on my discoveries.)
Q: What's your greatest personal scientific finding?
A: I built a laser that allowed me to verify detailed concepts from atomic physics. It was great to be able to calculate the result, and then find out that nature matched the calculation perfectly.
Q: With which historical scientist do you most identify?
A: I really like Johannes Kepler. He was one of the last great thinkers who were equally religious and scientific. He wrote praises to God for being allowed to discover the secrets of creation. He was also a terribly sloppy dresser, and some people seem to think this is a strong similarity between Kepler and me.
Holiness Today, September/October 2006
Please note: This article was originally published in 2006. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.
