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***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Several times each year, some atheist or other triumphantly flings in my face the fact that most members of the elite National Academy of Sciences aren\u2019t religious.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In this context, I was interested some time back to learn a bit about Richard Smalley, formerly the Hackerman Professor of Chemistry as well as a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Houston\u2019s Rice University. \u00a0Smalley, who died in 2005 of leukemia at the relatively young age of 62, was honored upon his death by a resolution in the United States Senate as the \u201cFather of Nanotechnology.\u201d \u00a0In 1996, he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of a new form of carbon, dubbed (in humorous tribute to R. Buckminster Fuller<\/a>) \u201cbuckminsterfullerene\u201d or, colloquially, \u201cbuckyballs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n He was, of course, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, having been elected in 1990.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Smalley came from a religious background, but he evidently rejected his faith fairly early. \u00a0According to at least one source, he became for a long time an outspoken critic of Christianity. \u00a0And then he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an interesting passage from Professor Smalley, reflecting upon his own chemical specialty in the study of carbon:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I know that, except for carbon, there would be no life in the universe. Except for this one atom, there would be no life. Well, why? When you think about it, it does get spooky. Encountering these molecules are spiritual experiences similar to what I remember in church as a child, only these are more serious.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Shortly before his death, he wrote a fascinating letter, from which the following is excerpted:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As I write this I am at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center a few miles from my home in Houston, Texas. I am being infused with a modern miracle, a nanotechnological stroke of engineered genius called Rituxan. It is a monoclonal antibody that is part mouse, part human and with great purity and reliability targets the cancer cells in my body and marks them for graceful death. The motto of M. D. Anderson is \u201cMaking Cancer History\u201d, and I am convinced that within the next 20 years they and other scientists around the world will do just that: they will develop cures for the main forms of cancer that have plagued mankind since the dawn of history. I hope to see this all happen, and come back to Hope for my 60th reunion to tell you all about it. . . .<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Recently I have gone back to church regularly with a new focus to understand as best I can what it is that makes Christianity so vital and powerful in the lives of billions of people today, even though almost 2000 years have passed since the death and resurrection of Christ.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Although I suspect I will never fully understand, I now think the answer is very simple: it\u2019s true. God did create the universe about 13.7 billion years ago, and of necessity has involved Himself with His creation ever since. The purpose of this universe is something that only God knows for sure, but it is increasingly clear to modern science that the universe was exquisitely fine-tuned to enable human life. We are somehow critically involved in His purpose. Our job is to sense that purpose as best we can, love one another, and help Him get that job done.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Critics will respond, of course, that Dr. Smalley\u2019s return to Christianity was the desperate act of a fatally ill man. \u00a0Belief, they will say, comes from emotional, not rational, sources \u2014 such as the fear of death \u2014 whereas, apparently, unbelief is purely rational. \u00a0But might it not be said with equal probability that his return to church came because, after decades of intense involvement with scientific research, he had just been powerfully reminded of his mortality and of the general human condition?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Why is the faith of religious scientists regarded by some as insignificant, while these same folks often trumpet the lack of faith of unbelieving scientists as somehow revelatory of the true character of the universe?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve fairly frequently posted quotations on this blog from believing Nobel laureates and other prominent scientists. \u00a0Some have assumed that I intended, thereby, to \u00a0prove theism true. \u00a0They\u2019re mistaken. \u00a0I post such quotations mostly because I\u2019ve often thought that they made important points. \u00a0But I\u2019ve also posted them, simply, to illustrate the indisputable fact that more than a few prominent scientists see no incompatibility between religious faith and rigorous science.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Caltech\u2019s Kip Thorne, who shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, comes from a Latter-day Saint background although, sadly, he currently describes himself as an atheist. \u00a0But he rejects the notion, argued by many much lesser scientific lights (and, quite often, by people who aren\u2019t scientists at all), of an absolute opposition between theistic faith and scientific reason:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThere are,\u201d says Thorne, \u201clarge numbers of my finest colleagues who are quite devout and believe in God, ranging from an abstract humanist God to a very concrete Catholic or Mormon God. There is no fundamental incompatibility between science and religion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But what would he<\/em> know?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n How embarrassing this is.\u00a0 And yet the star of the show doesn\u2019t seem to be<\/em> embarrassed.\u00a0 For the sake of my adopted home state, though, I\u2019m content that he\u2019s settled in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTech Exec Spewed Toxic Garbage Long Before Antisemitic Email:\u00a0 Software entrepreneur Dave Bateman sent out a conspiratorial screed this week alleging that Jews were behind a plot to exterminate billions of people.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEntrata founder who sent antisemitic email will divest holdings in company\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are a couple of articles from Kerry Muhlestein that I think you might like \u2014 or that, if you\u2019re of a certain mindset, I think you\u2019ll absolutely loathe<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n