Modesty compels me to assume that "insightful" refers to the words I quoted...

One of the nicest contemporary expressions of that idea is that God handed down two books: The Bible, and the "Book of Nature". While individual scientists may not be comfortable with it, for purposes of reconciling religion and science I think it's appropriate to say that scientists study God by studying his handiwork. Science studies the "how", religion ponders the "why". No conflict there that I can see, and at its best the religious why can put the scientific how into proper perspective.

I've often pondered how Christianity might have turned out if the early leaders had focused more on John 16:12. In context, Jesus is giving his followers their final instructions before he ascended Golgotha. The church might have turned out to be an institution of intellectual inquiry if they'd paid more attention to their charge to seek out new truth and continue to develop Jesus's teachings. The passage continues in the same vein and in many ways seems to poetically foreshadow the discipline of science:

"I have yet many things to say to you,
but you cannot bear them now.
When the spirit of Truth comes,
He will guide you unto all the Truth;
for he will not speak on his own authority,
but whatever he hears he will speak,
and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me,
for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the Father has is mine;
therefore I said that he will take what is mine
and declare it to you."
(John 16:12)

To blend science and religion, one could say that the mission of a scientist is to go out and study the Father's works, and to return to "witness" objectively and honestly: "he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak". Nothing is off-limits: "All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you". I'd say that Jesus would have made a darn good scientist.

I can understand how the early church had to fight for its life, and had to present an authoritarian front and not allow doubt to creep in, to maintain discipline. Such is practical politics. But what a missed opportunity.

--Robert