Two local pastors recently took a deep dive — literally 4,850 feet deep — into the language and understanding of physics and faith exploration.
In September, a group of Lutheran theologians visited the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) as part of the Deep Science and Dark Mysteries Project. Workshop participants engaged with scientists and with each other, reflecting on Scripture and theology and how the experience might shape their ongoing work.
SURF is the U.S.’s deepest underground science laboratory and is located in the former Homestake Gold Mine in Lead. The facility’s depth provides natural protection from cosmic radiation, making it ideal for experiments involving the search for dark matter and neutrinos.
“We got to go to the 4,850-foot mark below the earth — my ears popped at about the 2,000-foot mark,” the Rev. Jeffrey Otterman of Trinity Lutheran Church, told the Press & Dakotan. “The cage we were going down in takes 10 minutes and it’s all surrounded by wood which has to be wet all the time, otherwise it might spontaneously combust.”
The group, wearing protective clothing, was drenched for the entire 10-minute ride, he said.
“It was fascinating just listening to all the different experiments down there, mostly trying to discover neutrinos,” Otterman said.
A neutrino is a subatomic particle with no electrical charge. Scientists who study neutrinos believe they hold a key to understanding the processes within stars and other cosmic events.
“(For example), they say neutrinos come in flavors and there’s three that they know of and they can change from one to the other, to the other,” he said. “So, if you think about the Trinity, it actually fits in pretty interestingly with our understanding of physics.”
The doctrine of the Trinity — that God exists as one God in three co-equal, co-eternal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit — is not easily grasped by human reason, Otterman explained, but through metaphor, analogy and poetic expression, humans can begin to glimpse its depth.
“The church always said that God is the Creator of the universe,” said the Rev. Kwen Sanderson, who was also a participant in the program. “And you’re there trying to fit together the details of what exactly that means: Neutrinos? Dark matter? Black holes?”
Everybody is trying to figure it out and more and more people in science do have a faith, and it’s not an either-or philosophy, Otterman said.
The Deep Science and Dark Mysteries Project, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), will involve multiple visits to SURF by a range of clergy from the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with the goal of creating congregational resources, the Rev. Kari Webb told the Press & Dakotan.
Webb, currently the director of Digital Community and Learning and the project director for Journeying Together In Christ for the ELCA South Dakota Synod, previously worked at SURF.
“I was a science education specialist there, working on the education and outreach team, and so I have a deep love for science. It was my first occupation,” said Webb, who started her career teaching high school chemistry in rural northwest Iowa. “I discovered that AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion (DoSER) had this opportunity to create congregational materials that address this intersectionality between science and faith, and this is the water I swim in. This is my life, because I am first, a scientist, and secondly, a pastor.”
The first workshop included 10 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Lutheran pastors and two lay people, including one professor at Augustana University. The workshop was also supported through a Thriving Congregations grant from the Lilly Endowment.
“The ongoing work that we have is for these folks to create congregation facing resources,” Webb said. “Our hope is that it will touch thousands of congregations across South Dakota in terms of saying, ‘It’s okay to have questions about how science and faith interact with one another.”
The idea behind the project aligned well with SURF’s mission to advance world-class science and inspire learning across generations, Deb Wolf. director of Strategic Partnerships and External Relations, told the Press & Dakotan.
“We’re all wrestling with some of these big questions — origin, creation, why are we here?” she said. “We can approach those questions from a theological perspective and from a traditional scientific perspective. (But) I think, when both entities come together, it sort of fills in the spaces, and it rounds out the conversations, and it makes everything richer and deeper.”
While Wolf said she didn’t think that faith and science informed each other deeply regarding science and space exploration, it was fascinating to be curious together, she said, adding that it highlighted a strange but common struggle of both scientists and religious leaders.
“We struggle at SURF with making some of this esoteric science relatable to the general public, making neutrinos relatable to the general public,” Wolf said. “Personally, it feels like people don’t always engage in those conversations if they don’t feel confident in their science background. What I heard from the pastors was similar: that people didn’t feel like they could have faith-based conversations unless they were already well steeped in it.”
The importance of faith and science to be in constant dialogue in order to find all the common ground is as important as any issue in our society today, Otterman said
“Even in Yankton where we have at least two companies that work on the larger international scale of microchips — Vishay — and space exploration — the Freeman Company — the importance of faith and science always finding ways to meet the needs of people around the world cannot be overstated,” he said.