When scientists are clueless

I got back today from a conference down in Dunedin. Overall it was ok; my talk went ok and I made contact with a bunch of colleagues I don't get to see much.

I had an interesting conversation with somebody I don't normally agree with, when he noted that people who've won the Nobel prize in physics or chemistry tend to develop an arrogance (if they didn't have it already). Somehow receiving that makes one infallible. And no less so than the Nobel prize winner who spoke at our conference.

As usual (he was invited to a different conference here 2 years ago) his talk was entertaining. This time it was basically a story of his life and research over the years. His interest, he said, was studing the vibrations of molecules that exist in stars. Which was fine, except at one point in his presentation he pointed to a picture of a star and said, 'This is Mummy. This is where you came from.' Grr.

As if that wasn't bad enough, at some unrelated point further in the point he said, '29% of British school teachers want creationism to be taught alongside Darwinian evolution in the classrooms. That should scare you. Think about the implications.'

Excuse me? Saying a star is 'mummy' is less ridiculous than believing that God is able to create the world in seven days? Yeah right.

That wasn't the only slur I heard during the week against people holding Christian beliefs.
(The reason is clear: people don't want to believe in God because they don't want to be accountable to Him.)

I can't help but feel the time is soon coming when I'm going to be dragged onto the carpet for believing what I do. Rationally, it doesn't make sense, because in a way my faith doesn't impact on my job at all. Yet for some people, they see it as a threat to the scientific culture. Still, I am a Christian first and scientist second and the first is non-negotiable. I don't have to think twice about that.