By Joan C. McKinney, director of university communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Dr. Peter Adcock, assistant professor of chemistry at Campbellsville University, will discuss “The Significance of Natural Science in Christian Higher Education: Historical and Current Perspectives” at a faculty colloquium Thursday, April 12.
The event is free and open to the public. Adcock will speak at 4 p.m. in room 15 of the Administration Building.
Adcock, who came to teach at CU in 2004, said, “We live in an age 20 centuries after Jesus Christ and the Apostles, and approximately four centuries after the rise to prominence of a modern scientific attitude toward almost everything. Some would have us believe that Faith in Christ on one hand and on the other, the practice of science, which uses logic, reason, and hard evidence, are incompatible. Sometimes the place of science in Christian higher education is questioned.
Adcock said he will discuss the long-running encounter of Christianity with science and the philosophy behind it in the colloquium.
“Far from finding the two to be irreconcilably incompatible, I hope to show that Christian Theology and Theologians themselves played a most important role in the development of “Western” science – the natural science, which has far surpassed anything ever developed in another culture,” he said.
Adcock said, “The first conclusion is that true science and true theology or Biblical scholarship can never really be in conflict. When a seeming contradiction appears, calm and civilized dialogue is needed.
“Also, Christians should not allow neo-paganism to take over the reins of science, but train the young to enter fully into careers involving science and technology, if that is their calling. This involves teaching natural science according to the proper methods of science, and includes exposure to experimental research, since all natural science is based on experimental evidence/verification of some kind.”
Adcock earned his bachelor of science in chemistry degree from James Cook University in Australia, and he completed his doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Western Sydney.
Adcock was previously a Los Alamos summer school lecturer for the University of New Mexico, a laboratory demonstrator and report marker for Murdoch University and a laboratory demonstrator for the University of Western Sydney.
Some of Adcock’s published works include: “Controlled Current Methods in Studies of Nucleation and Growth,” “Testing Polymer Membranes for an Electrowinning Process” and “Oxidation of Isopropylamine Coordinated to Ruthenium.”
Adcock has published many reviews for chemistry journals, such as, “Journal of Physical Chemistry B,” “Electrochemical Acta,” Journal of the Electrochemical Society,” and the “Electrochemical and Solid State Letters,” from 2001 to 2004.
For more information about the colloquium, contact Dr. Roscoe Bowen at (270) 789-5509.
Campbellsville University, now celebrating her Centennial year, is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,310 students who represent 100 Kentucky counties, 32 states and 28 foreign nations. Listed in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” 14 consecutive years as one of the leading Southern master’s colleges and universities, Campbellsville University is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his eighth year as president.