Jimmy Lin | Scientific Doxology

Jimmy Lin calls himself a scientific doxologist. The science part of that title describes his work to find cures and treatments for cancer and rare diseases and he talks about the real progress that has been made to that end. But for him, the science is merely his path toward doxology, the praise of God, and in this way, his work becomes a kind of hymn of praise.

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Loved this one. And loved Jimmy’s self-title of scientific doxologist. Made me wonder what adjective I would put before my own ‘doxologist’ title.

Great to see a discussion about what faith has to offer science and the Reformed perspectives that Jimmy brought to that. Paging @Dale and @heymike3 who might get a kick out of some of Jimmy’s name drops.

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Great discussion!! Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I loved so much of the theology and apologetics Jimmy Lin brings to his calling. I also loved Jim Stump’s question, “have you been a witness to any, what we might call miraculous healings,” and Lin’s answer was on point.

It would have been helpful if there was a word or two about Paul’s advice to Timothy for a predictable treatment of his stomach condition.

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Thanks, Liam! I don’t tend to gravitate towards podcasts, so I do appreciate the nudge! (And hardly parenthetically, thank you @HRankin and @jstump!)

Me too. I suspect many Christians don’t see that should be a primary motivation. But it did spark a memory (and at my age, that’s significant ; - ) of another scientist’s doxology after God’s marvelous rescue of her (actually rescues, plural):

And my little echo:

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Another thing evident early in the podcast (less than 12 minutes in) is that apologetics (gasp! :grimacing::grin:) was significant in the fledgling and very intelligent believer’s life. I’m sure for resolute Sadducees not so much, but for someone honestly open, thinking and inquiring, especially after discovering that Jesus is the real deal. I also appreciated his comments about his Asian heritage and Eastern religions.

And then about God’s sovereignty and the not startling, perhaps, but notable incidents (especially since he noted them ; - ) and his remark about maybe not sigmas and five independent lottery wins, but the p-values:

But there were events that helped me when I was very young in my faith and needed that sort of, that help, that God really sort of spoke to me in that way of, again, through different ways of illness or again, things that are improbable that happened in a very improbable way. I can’t tell you the p-value there, but improbable. But were they miracles? I don’t know. But they were encouragement to me at that time.

(God works with us as individuals, if we let him.)

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Cool, another thread on science and doxologizing. :+1:

    Ontogeny and phylogeny reconsidered

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“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31

Excellent stuff. The divide between science and faith would be lessened if we only practiced this more instead of falling to the gnostic influence that divides the spiritual from the physical.

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22 posts were split to a new topic: Can God be Described as A Scientist

And then there are those who preach that spiritual does not exist.

I do wonder what the best cosmologists think when they see the latest images of the cosmic web. I showed a friend of mine who is a psychologist one of these pictures and he thought he was looking at a neural network.

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One of my favorite courses in college and then again in medical school was histology. In that course in med school we used a histology atlas called, DiFiore


The pictures are magnificent, they are prepared using H&E stain and each is a work of art, though part of you and me

I recently watched a couple of videos from The Great Courses series David Meyer and his work with the Hubble telescope, the pictures of the Spiral galaxies are also things of wonder.

I paired these two to alternate, one picture of the histology of the human body, the next a wonderful spiral galaxy with Haydn’s piece of music, The Creation

What a delight to see God’s creativity at the cosmic and tissue level and like your comment, they seem so similar.

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Very nice! The Great Courses are sometimes a treasure. I’ve taken Brian Fagan’s audio recording of Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations to heart. He has such a rich voice, fantastic vernacular, and a wealth of knowledge that I have at times felt transported back in time.

This is the image I’ve been sharing of the cosmic web:

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Amazing. Thanks for the suggestion. Sean Carrol’s course on the Higgs Boson was pretty amazing too. Do you have a link for this picture?

It was a screenshot from this video:

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Thank you. How lucky we are to explore these mysteries. Reminds me of a scripture quote:

Proverbs 25:2

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”

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Do you mean that in the strict theological sense of the word? :grin:

amen Jimmy Lin
And btw, I know my disease ( MS) is far from rare, but if you could find a cure for it while finding cures for rare diseases,I’d love to hear from you! : ) Jimmy I say, keep on praising God as you are; I’ve no doubt he smiles upon it as you do.

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My work is more like meditation. When trimming to open up overgrown trails I not infrequently get to singing or humming hymns and just keep working, it’s such a familiar activity that requires little thought. A number of times I’ve come to the end of a song and realized I was fifteen or twenty yards farther along the trail.

At an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship retreat this was abused mildly (after an intense session of Frisbee golf) as “So, whether you shower or stink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”.

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That would be a great motto for working on a PhD!

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