Imagine a world in which hunger is vanquished
by crops that don’t depend on soil, water, or fertilizer, or pesticides to
thrive.
–
Vice President Joseph Biden, Commencement
address, Cypress Bay High School in Florida
Nothing wrong with graduates being
challenged to imagine what they can accomplish.
Creative imagination is sometimes a spark in the development of
hypotheses and the design of experiments. However, imagination that sets one adrift from
reality can also interfere with good science.
For example, disciplined reasoning based on the existing body of
scientific theory is required to interpret data and to establish probable “cause
and effect.”
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| Vice President Biden at Cypress Bay H.S., Weston, FL* |
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to Biden’s imaginary crops that “don’t depend on soil, water, or fertilizer.” Plants can grow in soilless culture
(hydroponics) but not without water, nutrients, and carbon dioxide (a vital gas to plants). I cannot imagine how
plants can grow without material constituents necessary to build the cellular
and molecular structures of the plant body.
Can you?
When
bureaucratic agenda overreaches into science for political gain, even uglier
things can happen. For example, evidence
leaked from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University, Norwich,
England, in 2009, suggested that efforts were made to intimidate or discredit
opposing scientists, suppress exchange of climate data, and suppress
publications that question the assumptions of climate change models. Thus, legitimate scientific attempts to understand
the effects of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions on global temperatures was
hi-jacked by the political and economic agenda scientific data to the contrary
was ignored (see
Oikonomia, November 30, 2009).
Here’s
another case in point. In the 1940’s and
50’s, the Russian scientist, Trofim Lysenko (1898-1976), duped the communist
leadership into believing that he could produce crops that would thrive in
Siberia by repeated exposure to cold treatments to make them more
vigorous. His theory was based on the
false theory of “inheritance of acquired characteristics” promoted by Jean-Baptiste
Lamarck (1744-1829). Although his
proposals were not grounded in good science at the time, they fit the communist
philosophy of the rise of the working class through persistent struggle to
overcome harsh conditions. Lysenko
succeeded in swaying the communist leadership so much so that he became
president of the Agricultural Academy.
By the time Lysenco’s false science was discovered and discredited,
Russian agriculture had already been set back for decades.
Today,
as we see more government intervention into housing, health insurance, and
alternative energies causing failed outcomes, maybe Mr. Biden believes that a
trip down imaginary lane will lift the spirits of the American electorate. But there is little hope for such amazing
crops without a magic wand to override the scientific principles of biology,
chemistry, and genetics that define reality in the created order.
The
“created order” turns out to be a common theme among all of the scientific,
political, economic, and religious issues we face today. Does your reality and mine take into
consideration the objective reality as revealed in Scripture and confirmed in
creation? Both biological systems like crop
plants and whole economic systems that value and distribute goods and services are
irreducibly complex. These systems are,
as the oft quoted phrase suggests, “not more complex than we think, they are
more complex than we can think.”
Our
challenge as stewards of creation and citizens of government is to learn to
recognize and respect the realities of both the spiritual and physical worlds
around us. Crops will never grow from
nothing; they will always require some kind of medium and constituents from
which to grow. Instead of imagining
plants that grow from nothing, perhaps we should imagine ways in which the
enhance the function of our agro-economic systems which already deliver a
tremendous variety of fruits, vegetables, and meats to our dinner tables for a
small fraction of the cost of living compared with many parts of the world.
More
amazing is that our agro-economic systems provide relatively cheap nutritious food
in spite of increasing government regulations, many of which are being added to
protect us from eating too much; or to ensure that our children get a
nutritious breakfast. Humm, is it government’s
role to protect us from our bad decisions and provide nutritious meals for
children? I thought parents were responsible
to make good decisions themselves and to provide nutritious meals. I thought parents were also responsible to
provide wholesome training of their children in mind, body, and spirit, with
the support of church and community.
Perhaps, Mr. Vice President, our graduates should be challenged to consider
(not imagine) that there is a loving God in Heaven Who has given us His Word to
instruct us in right living. And to recognize
the created order as explained in the Bible in which man was created to serve
and preserve creation for God’s glory and for the flourishing of humankind and
all of creation. That marriage was ordained between one man and
one woman who would be faithful to each other; and, that as God would permit,
become the parents of children who would be theirs for a time to train up to
use their gifts and abilities to be productive members of family, church,
community, and civic organizations. That,
as professionals, they would conduct themselves and their businesses virtuously
toward their clients and customers.
They would be committed to prospering financially but would refuse the
temptation toward greed, or to take short-cuts that cause degradation of
creation. Instead, they share the fruit of their labor
in support of worthy causes. They
recognize that there will always be the poor and those who need lifting up; but
that, as they are committed to doing their part of the” lifting”, the number of poor and needy will always be small. That government would then be smaller
because individuals would behave ethically, break fewer laws, and seek to build
stronger families, churches, and communities.
Imagine
that, Vice President Biden.
Photo: CNSNews.com, June 4, 2012
