In its third consecutive year, the Veritas Forum was hosted by Stevens Christian Fellowship (SCF), Philosophy Club, Newman Catholic Association, and the Engineers Without Borders chapter on February 24 to bring Professors Troy van Voorhis of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Lee Vinsel of Stevens together to “discuss how to test your worldview,” according to the event’s official advertisement.
Professor Troy van Voorhis is a professor of chemistry at MIT with an expertise in the dynamics of energy in chemistry, such as molecular electronics and solar energy. Raised Christian, van Voorhis had a crisis of faith, only to return to Christianity in his adult life.
Professor Lee Vinsel is an assistant professor of Science & Technology Studies at Stevens with an interest in the history of automobiles and its standards. Like van Voorhis, Vinsel was raised religiously but fell out of his faith in high school. However, both van Voorhis and Vinsel consider themselves Christians today, though Vinsel refers to himself as a “radical Christian perennialist,” someone who believes that all religions are preaching about the same subject matter and deity.
In his opening statement, van Voorhis discussed how faith personalizes scientific questions, prompting one to ask, “Do I believe this?” Vinsel’s address focused on the dichotomy of Christians’ beliefs and their actions, such as adhering to the Golden Rule, unless “thy neighbor” is an ethnic minority.
After their introductory words, Vinsel asked van Voorhis what science’s shortcomings were. Van Voorhis recounted a dinner he had with a fellow chemist wherein they discussed that using aborted fetal tissue for others’ benefits is a divisive moral issue among society. Van Voorhis recalled that he and the chemist were in a circular argument about the issue, the chemist continually prefacing her words: “‘But if [people] just understood all the good things that would come out of the research…'” Van Voorhis argued that even if everyone understood the benefits from the aforementioned practice dividing society, they still may not approve due to their stances on where life begins.
Van Voorhis continued, explaining that abortion is not considered murder in scripture. He encourages further thought about the interpretation of scripture, given a societal gap from when the Bible was written to today, which was pointed out by Vinsel.
Vinsel then asked what boundaries should be placed on science. Van Voorhis responded that scientists are given too much latitude to make ethical decisions because scientists are essentially “average people who have been given a great amount of power.” Because scientists, according to van Voorhis, receive credit for science’s successes and are unblamed for its failures, allowing them to be the arbiter of ethical decisions is no different than permitting an average person to do so. On the contrary, van Voorhis outlined that politicians and religious leaders do receive blame for their communities’ successes and failures and are much more wary of the ethical decisions they make.
On the origin of morality, and thus religion’s relationship with morality, van Voorhis stated that while atheists can live by a moral code, religious people have the ultimate impetus of adherence to morality in God, which governs a believer’s moral stance more firmly than a moral code chosen to live by.
“You said the Bible is ‘perfect,'” Vinsel said, “I think that the Declaration of Independence has principles about equality that the founders didn’t buy into.” Van Voorhis clarified that he believes that the Bible is “infallible bordering inerrant,” meaning that the Bible is without error, but that context is important when interpreting the literal words on the text’s pages.
For example, in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians 6:5, he says, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” Van Voorhis said, “There’s obviously some caveat that he’s not explicitly writing,” and that Paul’s views on slavery cannot be necessarily compared to modern society’s.
The final question before student questions were read was in regards to gay marriage, and homosexual activity is considered a sin in the Bible. Van Voorhis determined that, “The way you interpret scripture is the way you view those things.” Depending on one’s interpretation, homosexual activity may be permissible in relation to their faith.
SCF President Miles Wascher began the student-generated portion of the forum with a question about how Christianity is different from other religions. Van Voorhis said that Christians believe that God sets a high, impossible standard for humans to strive for, but unlike other religions, God provides a “ladder” to help Christians near that standard. “There is this thing we call God,” Vinsel said, “I was raised where Jesus is the paragon — the indwelling is the [Holy] Spirit… [They] teach us how to live.”
The next question asked if humans have control over their fate. “Fate isn’t exactly a concept,” van Voorhis said, using “predestination” instead because it denotes divine activity, whereas one’s fate would be uncontrollable. Vinsel answered the question differently, citing racial, gender, and socioeconomic statuses as determinants of people’s lives for centuries. “We’re fated in all kinds of ways that are beyond our knowing. That’s causality,” Vinsel said.
In the event’s closing minutes, Vinsel explained that he wanted to see more moral dialogue on the Stevens campus. “They’re not getting it from their other classes,” Vinsel said, “[You need] more talk about what you need to do with your lives.”
Van Voorhis simply stated that, in order to widen one’s worldview and tackle meaningful issues, people should engage in conversations with others about these topics: “You should chat.” Vinsel added, “We all have a lot to gain from learning where we come from.”
After the event, van Voorhis spoke with students to answer their questions and converse.
SCF will be holding discussions throughout the year to continue the discussion started at the Veritas Forum. For more information about those discussion, visit veritas.org/stevens or contact the organization’s president, Miles Wascher, at mwascher@stevens.edu.
