The Science of Belief
Rice University Professor James Tour Delivered a Guest Lecture on God's Existence
On April 1st, Rice University chemistry professor James Tour visited Harvard to deliver a guest lecture on the existence of God. During his lecture, which was hosted by Christian student group Harvard Undergraduate Faith and Action (HUFA), Tour presented what he called a scientific challenge to the current explanations for life’s origin, and he discussed the myriad of unanswerable dilemmas within the presumed scientific consensus.
Tour, who was raised in a secular Jewish home but converted to Christianity, began by introducing his religious background and his ongoing nanotechnology research. He then overviewed the current state of research on the origin of life.
“We just don’t know. Scientifically, we have no idea how life began,” Tour said.
Tour described the complexity of a living cell. Modern scientists cannot reproduce a cell’s constituent elements in a controlled setting—much less explain how they could develop spontaneously in a natural setting.
“Nobody has shown a method to make the enantiopure versions of carbohydrates, amino acids, nucleotides, or lipids in a prebiotically relevant manner,” Tour explained. “Nobody has made any of the higher-order structures needed for the simplest of cells.”
While he observed the failings of origin-of-life research, Tour noted that he is not solely a proponent of the “God of the gaps” theory—the idea that because something is unexplainable, it must be God.
“Science might explain it some day, but that day is far from today,” Tour said. “Because we are getting further away from a solution due to our increasing realization of the complexity in a cell.”
This is what I want to do; I want to see people saved.
With this, Tour transitioned to the historical evidence for the Bible being true. According to Tour, there are three claims concerning the Bible upon which most academic religious scholars agree: first, Jesus died by crucifixion; second, the disciples of Jesus asserted that Jesus rose from the dead, and they were willing to die for that assertion; and third, there were individuals who previously did not follow Jesus but converted after asserting that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them. They, too, died for that assertion. None of the disciples, in any record—including in their recorded thoughts—recanted before being killed.
“No man dies for what he knows to be a lie,” Tour stated.
Tour recognized that no worldview will provide absolute certainty. He became a Christian, however, because the Christian worldview best explained the scientific and historical record before him. To that end, Tour concluded with a prayer: “Lord, I believe, but help me with my unbelief.” He also invited audience members to contact him personally and discuss Christianity further.
Candace Fox, an event attendee, commented, “I’m not a scientist, but the way he described the science and chemistry—I think it made sense to someone not in that realm. It was really clear in the way he’s explaining and the way he answered questions.”
HUFA event organizer Jonathan Chen explained, “We were very excited and enthusiastic about this event. It’s a format of discussion of faith that doesn’t really happen at Harvard very often, in my experience.” He continued, “Growing up, I heard a lot about how God and science were incompatible, but it doesn’t seem to be quite as contentious as a topic anymore—this seemed like a relevant topic.”
Speaking with the Salient after his event, Tour discussed his time at Harvard: “Everyone was warm, and I got my point across. I was able to say everything I wanted to say, everyone was gracious. Very cordial and friendly—you don’t always get a welcome like that.”
He also commented on his speaking tour across several Ivy League campuses—Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Princeton—and what motivates him through it. “I want to introduce people to Jesus Christ through the power of His resurrection. This is what I want to do; I want to see people saved,” Tour said. “This is my main motivation—I will leverage everything I have for the power of the Gospel.”
More on Dr. James Tour’s work can be found here.
The only near-death experience I'm confident of was Christ's. And bear in mind that "believers" say he was in Heaven with God for endless millions of years before turning into a baby. I prefer to focus on action aimed at resuts. Not "beliefs."
I don't think we'll understand anytime soon what we don't understand now. The Church has PROOF of THOUSANDS of "miracles." WOW! Why rely on a small number of people who are said to have come back from the dead and give utterly unverified accounts. Until i see the people still alive and waiting for the Kingdom of God for 2000 years, I won't be convinced.