I used to be a physics teacher. I'm now training for ordination in the Church of England. People's reaction is often surprise because they think the two are very different. Here are some similarities....
- Both are about conveying truth, even Truth. St Augustine (I think it was him anyway) said "All truth is God's truth". That's quite profound and I might well blog on that soon (along with more creation / evolution stuff).
- Both involve a lot of interaction with and responsibility for people. That was actually one of the key reasons I went into physics teaching in the first place.
- A lot of the thinking skills involved are the same - the way I think about them anyway. There's lots of putting different ideas together needed in both, and lots of explaining one thing by saying it's a bit like something else.
- Both physics and theology often end up taking something really beautiful, interesting and cool and making it seem utterly dull and uninteresting. I aim not to do that.
5 comments:
Have you heard the writer H Menken's description of theology as "explaining the unknowable in terms of the not-worth-knowing"?
No, but it's a good description at times.
At times, theology can be absolutely wonderful, but that's not usually the stuff on the reading list.
william perkins described theology as 'the science of living blessedly forever'.
I can fairly safely say in that case that perkins did not have to study form criticism of the psalms. Neither do I, but just skating near it is upsetting...
Have you seen the TV commercial to recruit physics teachers showing pupils posing such questions as "What is dark matter?", and "Why can't you see forces, because you can see their effects?".
I would like to add a couple from my own school days.
"Miss. What colour are electrons?"
"Miss. What happens when the sattelite runs out of petrol?"
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