In the first blogpost in our new Catalyst Perspectives series, PhD student Albertine Bayompe Kabou from Senegal shares how her perspective on the relationship between Christianity and science has evolved. This dichotomy was reinforced when I went to university. The Italian astronomer was tried and condemned by the Catholic Church for promoting the theory that the earth revolves around the sun. I later discovered that Galileo was a believer and his discoveries were not a contradiction between science and the bible but between science and interpretations of the bible.
Evidence was another issue that came up at university. Do you have evidence? But those things did not appear by chance. They are created by God. And I have come to believe that God is the master of science. The Bible tells us that God is the one whose science is perfect. Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge? Should we say that the one who has perfect science God is also against it?
On the contrary, the Word of God encourages us to seek understanding by relying on Him. Here, I was finally told that I could glorify God by serving him with my studies.
University is a synonym for corruption and parents worry that their children will be corrupted by bad influences. So when I started university, I had this attitude that I would just go to my classes and then go back home. I tried not to be in contact with anyone else. You have something to give to the university. In collaboration with my national student movement, GBU Senegal, I plan to conduct a study to help understand the root causes of poverty among students.
There are a lot of struggles students face at my university β Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar pictured left. These include poverty and delays in scholarship payments, and a recent report 4 found that some poor students prostitute themselves to cope with poverty.
