Question:When is it appropriate to share your faith with a scientist?

[jammycakes (James McKay)]

@jbabraham88

When and how is it appropriate in the course of a relationship to share your faith with someone in science who has very fixed ideas about theologically traditional Christians?

When? When it fits naturally into the conversation. Don’t force the conversation round to the subject, but don’t be shy about it either.

How? Just be honest. Share your story. Perhaps talk about people you know through church, or conversations that you’ve had.

What to avoid? Loaded questions. Ulterior motives. Dishonesty.

Some things I wrote here might help:

@jammycakes

I think the main advice that I would give is: demonstrate to them that you take them seriously. For many scientists, their experience of Christianity has been tainted by bad attitudes towards science. There are many Christians who approach science in ways that are condescending, dishonest, suspicious, passive-aggressive, judgmental or even outright hostile, and if you want to persuade a scientist to listen to you, the very first thing you have to establish is that you are not one of them.

Another important piece of advice is: make sure your facts are straight. Scientists (and, for what it’s worth, engineers and anyone else who is scientifically educated) spend their careers working with factual data that is tightly constrained by logic and evidence, and they are trained to be able to work their way through multiple complex levels of reasoning to reach a conclusion. This means that you should never, ever, ever lie to them: they are much more sensitive to falsehood and misinformation than normal people, and also, being naturally sceptical, if they find you’re not being straight with them about one thing, they will start disbelieving everything you say about everything. Be especially careful to avoid ridiculous or easily falsified claims, and if a scientist tells you that you’re wrong about something, don’t keep repeating the same falsehood over and over again. Such things are not just being “odd” or “unintellectual”: they are an insult to a scientist’s intelligence.

Over and above that, ask questions to learn, not to win an argument. Genuine curiosity is always welcomed, but ulterior motives are not. For this reason, asking about their assumptions or motivations is not a good idea unless you’re willing to listen to their answer and to follow up with other questions to clarify anything that you don’t understand. And bear in mind that their answer will almost certainly not be the one you expect. Scientists know a whole lot more about the assumptions that they make, why they make them, and what you need to do in order to challenge them, than you do.

One particularly good question is to ask them to tell you about their research. It shows that you’re interested in them as people and you’re not just treating them as evangelism fodder. However, do make sure that you listen to their response and are prepared to ask follow-up questions as necessary. And don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know what you don’t know. Scientists are for the most part more than happy to explain to you anything that you don’t understand. It’s far better to admit to ignorance than to have it exposed by making a string of nonsensical or untrue claims.