GA08116

What has Silicon Valley to do with God?

by Shane Whisler

Dr. Lynn Bondurant, former NASA educational programs officer, accepted the Daniel W. Martin Award for Science as Christian Vocation, which recognizes scientific and technological professionals who demonstrate in their lives that scientific endeavor, science teaching, and technological development are all part of God's calling, at the Science and Faith Luncheon on Thursday. Photo by Danny Bolin

SAN JOSE, June 26, 2008 — Silicon Valley may not have much to do with God, but God has everything to do with Silicon Valley.

That was the message to those gathered for the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the Christian Faith (PASTCF) Luncheon on Thursday, held during the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The luncheon provided the opportunity to present the Daniel W. Martin Award. PASTCF president the Rev. Bob Keefer said the Martin award recognizes persons who articulate their scientific work as a Christian calling and share how their work informs their Christian faith. Keefer said more than one person can receive the award, but this year the honor goes to one scientist and educator: R. Lynn Bondurant.

“I couldn’t be happier today,” Bondurant, a Presbyterian elder, said. “I think this award represents my life more than any award I have ever received.”

That list of awards ranges from NASA’s exceptional service and leadership medals to being inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame for North Kansas City High School. Though still active as an educator, Bondurant retired as a director of external education from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Keynote speaker Derek L. Pursey highlighted the many connections between God and Silicon Valley that the latter simply can’t or won’t recognize on a regular basis. The professor emeritus of physics at Iowa State University said he was using Silicone Valley as an umbrella term meaning more than just computers or science in the region and beyond the region.

“Everyday living for most Americans is dominated by technology,” Pursey said. “Should we be surprised that high-tech addicts have little to do with the church?”

“We use the (cell phone and other) gifts every day but rarely, if ever, regard them as gifts from God,” he said, adding that we shouldn’t be surprised that people don’t get the connection. However, Pursey thoroughly made the case that technology and science are God’s gifts and should not only be recognized by users, but even in the church’s liturgy.

Reading that humanity is made only a “little lower than God” (Psalm 8) has “gone to our heads,” Pursey said.

“Through the science of climatology, I believe God is telling us to mend our ways, or else,” Pursey said, adding that just like the prophets of God’s written word, the book of nature — particularly astronomy and cosmology — shows how small we are in God's universe.