"Considering in a thoughtful and serious way the claims of Jesus is the most important thing any of us can do."
Russell Cowburn is a Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University and a world-expert in nanotechnology: the development of technology on a microscopic scale (think smaller than a single red blood cell). His research focuses on nanoscale magnetism and spintronics, with applications including low energy computer chips, ultrahigh density 3-dimensional data storage, and healthcare devices. Russell grew up in a church-going home, but was never actually challenged to believe in Jesus himself. In fact, as a teenager, Russell thought that Jesus probably wasn't even a real, historical person. But that all changed when Russell first left home at 18.
Surprised by Jesus
Russell had earned a place to study physics at Cambridge University, but before starting his degree he moved to London for a year to work in industry. He'd been raised going to church, so he thought he'd try out a church in his new neigbourhood. (For breaking news from Harvard School of Public Health on the mental health benefits of going to church, see here.)
The church Russell chanced upon was refreshingly different. Right away, he was invited to a Bible study. He'd never studied the Bible for himself before. "It was really reading the Bible for the first time that changed everything," Russell recalls. The group was studying John's Gospel and when they reached John 3:16, Russell was stunned: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life," he read. "It absolutely blew me away."
"I was astonished by the authority with which Jesus spoke about spiritual things. I think I'd been brought up to expect there should be a certain diffuseness around God, and I'd never really encountered anyone who would say anything was certain about God - it almost seemed inappropriate to be certain about God - and yet here was this man Jesus who was saying, "I know God, and this is how it is.""
Reading John 3:16, Russell remembers, "I was so struck by the depth of God's love through Jesus's death. And even though I didn't really understand how that worked, I didn't know that Jesus died for me...I could see that Jesus knew what he was talking about."
Were it not for this Bible study group, Russell thinks he would have gone to Cambridge and left behind whatever residual belief in God was lingering from his upbringing. Instead, he went to Cambridge as a convinced Christian.
Integrating Science and Faith
Russell did not himself feel troubled by any particular conflict between science and his newfound faith. He asked a few fellow physicists who were also Christians about it and they told him there was nothing to worry about, and that it was people in the arts and humanities who were struggling to reconcile their faith with their studies. Indeed, when Russell eventually started lecturing in the Cambridge physics department, he attended an annual dinner that his church held for members who were also university faculty. There were 23 faculty at the dinner and 22 of them were scientists - with "one very worried-looking historian!"
Far from being incompatible, from Russell's point of view, his faith and his science go hand-in-hand:
"Some people view faith as being one explanation of the world and science as another. It's a turf war...But I don't believe they're competing explanations, I think they're parallel explanations."
Indeed, rather than squeezing God out, Russell sees advances in scientific knowledge as magnifying God's glory: "Understanding more of science doesn't make God smaller. It allows us to see His creative activity in more detail." (See Russell's TEDx talk on Nanotechnology, Creation and God.)
What's more, Russell points out that the mysterious fact that science works - that the universe operates according to consistent laws that are the same everywhere and that we, as rational creatures, can figure out - fits far better with a theistic understanding of the universe than an atheistic one: "At a philosophical level, [Christianity] gives me the reason why science works. I think people sometimes overlook this. There is no reason why we should expect science to work."
Knowing the Creator God personally gives Russell additional motivation for his research: "To know that I go to my lab in order to study the works of my heavenly Father is much more motivating that going into the lab just to get another science paper out." In fact, it's worshipful:
"You can't work in science and not be struck by the amazingness of the universe. A good day in the lab is a cause for worship. Because you come out of it seeing God's creation just a little bit more clearly than when the day started."
