Concern is growing in the research community about people’s trust in science. From vaccines to the climate, too many people doubt the clear evidence science provides. The results are all around us. Mistrust of vaccine safety and effectiveness means Canada has lost its status as a measles-free country. Enough individuals are hesitant to vaccinate that…
In our retirement, my wife and I have been blessed to travel. We were in Paris at the beginning of June, where we took a river cruise up the Seine to Normandy and remembered the sacrifices Canadian soldiers made on Juno Beach. Unlike past vacations, the weather was a disappointment – cool (18-22°C highs) and…
Sometimes the issues of the day have a clear scriptural directive. Scripture tells us, for example, to care for God’s world, and thus we should do all we can to address human-induced climate change and its adverse effects. At other times, scripture provides no obvious guidance – how, for example, should we assess the benefits…
The news is filled with reports of wars and conflicts, in which modern weapons inflict widespread death and suffering. And those are just the conflicts that reach our feeds. We live in a time when small, local conflicts are increasing. Wars affect millions of civilians, both adults and children. Humans are, unfortunately, experts in the…
Psychologists have a complicated relationship with consciousness. At one end of the spectrum are behaviourists, such as B. F. Skinner, who ignore consciousness and only study observable behaviour. At the other end of the spectrum are the psychoanalytic approaches of Freud and Jung, who give the unconscious a prominent role in their systems. Along the…
During the first week of April, four image-bearers hurtled toward the lesser light to swing around it before returning to Earth. The astronauts in Artemis II, including a Canadian, were an important step on humanity’s return to the Moon after about half a century. Future Artemis astronauts hope to land and ultimately to build a…
What a wonder our universe is! Take light, for example. We can see only a tiny band of the electromagnetic spectrum. At the shorter end are ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays, while at the longer end are infrared light, microwaves, radar and radio. Our atmosphere absorbs many of these wavelengths, preventing them from reaching…
Looking back at 2025, there was both good and bad news about how we are caring for the world that our Lord has entrusted to us. First, the good news: this past year, for the first time, power generated by solar and wind exceeded coal-generated power. Energy from environmentally friendly sources is now the cheapest…
I serve as the Christian Reformed Church of North America’s representative on the Faith and Life Science Reference Group (FLSRG) of the Canadian Council of Churches. The FLSRG focuses on the relationship between science and our God-given humanity. Often, I get to learn about and discuss topics I normally wouldn’t delve into. We explore genetic…
This month, we celebrate the Incarnation, a fancy word we use to remember a baby born in a stable, in an occupied country, in poverty. Yet this event is full of mystery. The creeds tell us this baby was fully God and fully man in one person. Yet from what we have learned about God’s…
Recently, President Trump, with the backing of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, went on a tirade arguing that pregnant women should not take Tylenol (acetaminophen) as it can lead to autism. He implied that the explosive epidemic of autism is due to the behaviour of mothers, in the medicine that they inappropriately consume. There…
Last month, I discussed a large, well-designed study of early school math ability in girls and boys. At the start of Grade One, the study found no difference between boys’ and girls’ math abilities. Some girls and boys perform well, while others struggle, but girls generally match boys’ performance on standardized math tests. Yet four…
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