Worth Two in the Bush

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Worth Two in the Bush

Hello Friends,

I had just named my new Substack Birds in the Hand when two things happened:

In the first, our young setter Doozy snatched a song sparrow as it flew over snow. When I shrieked, the dog dropped the bird into a drift and looked at me.

Her eyes didn’t slay me this time. I lunged for the bird.

Too dazed to resist, the little passerine hunched in my hand, fragile as tinder—warming, recovering—until I tucked her into a cage away from commotion and assessed. Was she injured?

Didn’t seem to be, so I released her. She flew a wide loop and landed in seeds strewn outside our door.

The second thing: I ran across a photo I’d taken on my birthday a few years back. A researcher with our raptor group had caught a young red-tailed hawk on the Skagit River Flats.

Thin moments, both of them—when my heart and mind perched in that rarefied space where the mundane and the holy meet. Birds in the hand, dazzling me with the inspired science in their making. You know, Romans 1:20 stuff.

A sparrow and a hawk, both miraculous enough to compel lifelong atheists to hunt the Source of their wonder.

One former atheist did exactly that—and met the living God through science. In his first book, The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith, Sy Garte, PhD biochemist, recounts how.

Now Dr. Garte has written a second book: Science and Faith in Harmony: Contemplations on a Distilled Doxology.

Here’s the gist:

Rather than discord between science and Christian faith, there is a harmony as grand as any choral masterpiece.

The idea that Christianity and science are inextricably in conflict is a relatively recent conception. However, with each new scientific discovery and scriptural insight, it’s an idea that’s being proved to be insupportable.

Sy Garte has immersed himself in both science and faith and knows they work beautifully together to sing of the greatness of God. Now this respected scientist shares how God’s world (nature and science) and God’s word (made flesh in Christ) are bound together in loving harmony.

In Science and Faith in Harmony, Garte examines modern scientific concepts and what they can teach us about theological truths, such as the dual nature of Christ. He explores the ways in which the terminology and language of science and faith consistently match each other. Despite his deep dives into theology and science, Garte does not get overly technical in his writing. Instead, he is personal and passionate, speaking directly to readers with a tone of joy and wonder, inviting them to join the chorus of praise to the Lord.

Readers still wondering whether the truths of science and Christian faith are in conflict need this book. Following the path of Christ and holding a scientific worldview at the same time is not only possible but also leads to a fuller, richer life of harmony and truth.

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I had the opportunity to read this gem early, with no expectation of a favorable review. Here’s what I wrote after I did:

In times where science is both revered and mistrusted—and often represented as incompatible with Christianity, PhD biochemist Sy Garte again bridges the gap between science and faith in another winner. His new book Science and Faith in Harmony: Contemplations on a Distilled Doxology picks up where his first book, The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith, leaves off.In this wonderful collection of essays, he invites readers to consider his worldview, where “science is distilled doxology,” and where the “Book of God’s Word (Scripture) and the Book of God’s Works (Nature) tell us the same story of truth.”

Decades of work as a researcher, curator of others’ research, and tenured professor have steeped Dr. Garte in the natural world’s most minute functions. In midlife, however, his studies of the intricacies of life’s underpinnings convinced this formerly atheist scientist that, like it or not, nature’s existence by chance was statistically impossible. When his determined quest for answers about life’s beginnings led him into the unknowable realms of quantum mechanics and the origins of cellular structure and function, he had to acknowledge that such perfection could only have been designed by a wise, loving Creator, whom Dr. Garte met in the person of Jesus Christ.

In these essays, the author reflects on that intersection of faith and its expression in the natural world. As with any book that stretches one’s thinking, readers will agree, applaud, question, and disagree with the author’s tenets. I imagine Dr. Garte would engage such discussions with open arms and season them with his vast knowledge and experience. The stance of this brilliant, creative scientist is that of a humble, joyful, curious listener. I felt awed and respected as I read, sensing that I was in the company of a caring teacher who never stops learning. Even the book’s appendix was fascinating.

This collection is an accomplished synthesis of art and community and science and faith—and the journey of a dedicated scientist who ties them together, delivers the package, and waits with delight for the contents to bless his readers.