Mercer University

Fall Convocation Address

William D. Underwood

August 21, 2006
University Center

I.

Galileo grew up in a 16th century world where people believed the Earth was at the center of the universe – that all the heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth.  This belief was based on what people of that age could see from their limited vantage.  The Sun and the stars seemed to move across the sky and around the Earth.  It was also based on Scripture.   Just as there are creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2, so there is a creation account in Psalms found in the 104th chapter.   That creation account begins in verse 5, which tells us that:

"God fixed the Earth upon its foundation, not to be moved forever."

Based on a literal interpretation of this passage, the leaders of the Church decreed that the Earth was fixed at the center of the universe, and that all heavenly bodies revolved around it.

Galileo was a brilliant scientist and mathematician – a man with an inquisitive mind.  A man who was not afraid to ask hard questions, even questions that challenged the orthodoxy of his day.  With the invention of the telescope, Galileo was able to see farther than scientists had before.  Based on his observation of the moons of Jupiter and his geometric calculations, Galileo concluded that it was, in truth, the Earth that  revolved around the Sun. 

This finding contradicted a literal interpretation of the creation account found in Psalms. It placed Galileo in direct conflict with leaders of the Church, who received it with alarm.

·           One religious leader proclaimed that "geometry is of the devil" and "that mathematicians should be banished as the authors of all heresies."

·           Another claimed that Galileo's conclusion was atheistic – that you could not believe in God and also believe that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

·           Yet another asserted alarmingly that Galileo's "pretended discovery destroys the whole Christian plan of salvation."^[1]

These religious leaders were afraid.  They were afraid of any idea that might undermine the authority of the scriptures.  Galileo was eventually tried before the Roman Inquisition in 1633 and found guilty of heresy.  Church leaders  forced him to recant, held him under house arrest for the remainder of his life, and banned his books.

Fortunately, that's not where the story ends.  Three hundred and sixty nine years later, in 1992, some 23 years after the first man walked on the moon, the church admitted that it had been wrong about Galileo.^[2]  The Earth does move.  As it turns out, the creation account found in Psalms was never intended to convey scientific truth.  Rather than a book of science, the leaders of the church came to understand Psalms as a book of theology – that the Psalmist uses poetry to communicate theological truth about the relationship between God and creation.  By examining God's creation – the bodies in space, their movement, and their relationship to one another, we came to know that our earlier understanding of scripture was superficial. 

Because Galileo was willing to question existing orthodoxy, people of faith came to a deeper understanding of God's truth.  There was another lesson in the Galileo episode.  That is that we are wrong when we cast our interpretation of scripture against what God has revealed to us through his creation.  If our search of God's creation leads us to conclusions that contradict our interpretation of scripture, it may just be that our interpretation of scripture is wrong, just as the 17th century church's literal interpretation of Psalms was wrong.

II.

It is the free thinkers among us – men and women like Galileo who are courageous enough to ask questions that challenge community orthodoxy – who advance human understanding and thereby change the course of history.   Free thinkers like a Puritan preacher named Roger Williams, who lived in a world of religious intolerance – a world where those with power had so little confidence in their faith that they feared it would be consumed by a sea of secularism unless they forcefully imposing their religious views on others.  When Williams advocated freedom of the individual conscience, he was declared a heretic by the Puritan religious establishment and forced to flee from Massachusetts. 

Williams found his way to what is now Rhode Island, where he founded the first Baptist church in North America and the only colony committed to religious liberty.  This colony founded by Baptist free thinkers became a refuge for Quakers, Jews, and others who faced religious persecution elsewhere.  Eventually, through the influence of these early Baptists, the First Amendment to the Constitution was ratified to ensure religious freedom throughout the United States.

III.

Jesus Christ was a free thinker who challenged the religious leaders of his day.  The Pharisees fancied themselves experts on the meaning of the scriptures.  They set themselves up as the spiritual masters for others.  Yet Jesus specifically warned his disciples to "beware" of the teaching of the Pharisees.^[3]  Referring to their interpretations of the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount:

·           "You have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

·           "You have heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."^[4]

Jesus challenged the orthodoxy of his day.  And he taught us to think for ourselves – to think critically – to not give mindless deference to anyone, including our religious leaders.   Jesus commanded us to use our minds – to love God with our hearts and our souls – and also to love him with our minds.^[5]  And Jesus rebuked the religious establishment of his day, urging us to think for ourselves: "Do not call anyone on earth your father [he taught us]; for One is your father, He who is in heaven."^[6]

IV.

Mercer is a university in the best Baptist tradition – the tradition of Baptists like Roger Williams.  A university community, like that early Baptist colony of Rhode Island, composed of individuals of all faiths.  A university community that honors the commandment that we love God with our minds.  A university community committed to a free and open pursuit of truth.

Our founder Jesse Mercer concluded his argument to Georgia Baptists in favor of creating this great university by exclaiming "The Lord save us from an ignorant ministry."^[7]  Since our founding in 1833, Mercer has been blessed with courageous and free thinking faculty, trustees, administrators, and students. 

·           People like President Rufus Harris and Professor Joe Hendricks, who together with our faculty and trustees had the courage to defy prevailing community orthodoxy by leading Mercer to become the first private university in Georgia to desegregate in 1963.^[8]

·           People like Professor John Freeman, who in teaching religion  courageously pursued truth even when that path led to attacks by the religious establishment here in Georgia.^[9]

·           People like President Kirby Godsey who for nearly three decades defended the academic integrity of this university community and was himself declared a heretic for having the courage to share his own views regarding the grace of God.^[10] 

Mercer is a community with a storied tradition of encouraging you to think for yourselves and then to test your ideas in free and open discourse with others, even ideas that are controversial – even ideas that challenge prevailing viewpoints.  We are a university community that understands that it is this free exchange of ideas that is most likely to lead to the discovery of truth – that, in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., "the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market."  We are a university community that understands that, in the words of the United States Supreme Court, our future as a civilization "depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to that robust exchange of ideas which discovers truth out of a multitude of tongues, rather than through any kind of authoritarian selection."

V.

Today, some religious leaders have never learned the lessons of Galileo.  These religious leaders seem more interested in defending orthodoxy than in pursuing truth.  They seem to fear where the pursuit of truth might lead.  They fear independent thought.  They fear science, just as the 17th century church feared science. 

Let me suggest that it is not science – rather it is this sort of intentional ignorance – that poses the real threat to faith.  The kind of ignorance that seeks to pit our faith against our minds, as though we must choose.  The Galileo affair was eventually resolved after 300 years on the basis of overwhelming scientific evidence.  But as is inevitably the case when we cast our faith against our intellects – more damage was done to faith than to science.^[11]

We owe it to ourselves never to give in to those who fear the pursuit of truth.  To our students, your responsibility to yourselves demands that you think for yourselves.   Not that you be arrogant.  There are many great thinkers here.  There are many great thinkers who have gone before us.  Their perspectives should be carefully considered in your search for truth.  You may find them persuasive.  But ultimately, you must decide all issues for yourselves.  Your responsibility to yourselves demands that you exercise your individual freedom of conscience. 

Let me go further.  Let me suggest that your responsibility to others – to your community – will require you to exercise your freedom of conscience.  Just during my lifetime, too few Christians in the South resisted community orthodoxy when it came to segregation of the races.  When a Baptist church, once located here on our campus, refused to allow African-American students to worship with that congregation as late as the mid-1960s, what that community desperately needed were more free thinkers who would exercise their individual freedom of conscience – free thinkers who would challenge the prevailing orthodoxy – free thinkers with the courage to say "this is wrong." 

How many other beliefs at one time firmly held as true have been proven false with the passage of time?  What so-called "truths" that we hold dear today will the passage of time prove false?  And how will we know if we accept what others declared as orthodox without question?  Let me challenge each student to fully engage this community of learning.  Ask tough questions.  Use the intellect that God has given you.  Think critically.  And have courage.