Objective 3  Science as a human endeavor

To be properly performed, scientific research requires competence (defined in SPU's institutional goals as mastery of "discipline-specific knowledge and essential practical skills") and character (defined in SPU's institutional goals as "personal and professional integrity in knowing the right thing to do and doing it regardless of personal cost").  Although scientists attempt to carry out their research and to interact with others in an unbiased and objective manner, this ideal is challenging.  Where methodological naturalism is essential as an approach to carrying out laboratory experiments and field studies, it is much less successful as an approach to our own daily lives or the lives of our students.  It seems to follow then that scientists should also be people who can apply wisdom to their tasks and that such wisdom should reflect a personal worldview.

As defined in SPU's institutional goals, wisdom is "discernment of what is good, true, or right in complex of ambiguous situations that call for decision making informed by faith."  Since we serve as biology faculty at a distinctly Christian university and each of us strive to present science from a Christian worldview we should also encourage our students to apply wisdom to their studies.  Certainly science, and especially biology, has its share of complex and ambiguous issues.  Many of these issues (e.g., human cloning, human stem cell research, human population growth, man's contribution to global warming, etc.) concern recent scientific discoveries that have impacts far beyond the domain of science.  They provide special opportunities for our students to understand that advances in science often come at a price and that debate on the extrinsic value or the ethical ramifications of such advances, while perhaps uncomfortable, is healthy.  SPU's institutional goals of being a grace-filled community ("participation ... in a way that demonstrates caring and respect for self and others, forgiveness and responsible debate) and in engaging the culture ("involvement of students and faculty beyond SPU in a way that appreciates differences, serves community needs and respectfully challenges opposing ideas") can be realized in such discussions and debates.  Engaging the culture can also be a valuable paradigm in increasing student involvement as volunteers for environmental or humanitarian concerns.