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What does the bible say about science? At Grace College one of the Christian Colleges with Engineering programs we explore this and more.
January 15, 2025

What Does the Bible Say About Science and Engineers?

This interview was originally published at reasons.org.

Does the Bible mention engineers? What does the Bible say about science and engineering? And how do Christian values inform the practice of engineering? 

Dr. David Winyard, associate professor of engineering at Grace, reveals surprising insights in this conversation with Jeff Zweerink, senior research scholar for Reasons to Believe. Bringing experience with secular and Christian colleges with engineering programs, Winyard and Zweerink bridge the gap between ancient scripture and contemporary engineering by exploring the creativity required in engineering, delving into the need for a moral framework to guide technological advancements, and emphasizing the importance of integrating faith and ethics into engineering practices. 

JZ: Today we’re going to answer the question, “What does the Bible say about science and engineers? I was interested when we discussed how you made the point that the Bible actually talks about engineers. You know, the Bible doesn’t say a lot about people who study science, but it talks a lot about how the world works. So what’s the motivation for saying the Bible talks about engineers?

DW: It is interesting. Science and faith is such a big matter, but I’m trained as an engineer. I noticed reading through the Bible there are places where things are made, such as artifacts for the Tabernacle and Temple, but I still didn’t see engineering anywhere until I came across a King James version of the Bible in a PDF file and I discovered that the word “engine” appears in the King James Bible in two places.

It’s used in both cases to describe the kinds of machines used to throw things, also known as catapults, and 2 Chronicles 26 is a very interesting discussion of these machines, these engines, and the “cunning” people that developed them.

JZ: Give us a bit of context. What’s going on in 2 Chronicles where it’s talking about this, and then what does it say about them?

DW: Sure, 2 Chronicles 26 is very interesting because it’s talking about King Uzziah, who was one of the good kings, one of the best kings, and he did a lot of things to help his kingdom prosper and be secure. At the end of the opening section it talks about the people that developed these machines to defend the city. For military defensive purposes, they develop these things, and the term “cunning” is just the perfect adjective for an engineer. Engineers are sneaky people. We figure out how to do things that would not occur to other people.

JZ: Sneaky and cunning imply a bit of mischievousness, a little bit negative, but I don’t think that’s accurate in your assessment.

DW: Well, there are mixed connotations. Engineers will sometimes do things that that would not occur to other people. Sometimes, they’re accepted, and other times, they’re not. I sometimes describe engineers as people who would break the very laws of physics if they only knew how. Their determination to achieve their goals and meet requirements is central to their work lives, and anything that can get them there is pretty much what they’re willing to do. So sometimes other people, such as lawyers and accountants, must hold them back. We refer to those people as “bean counters.”

JZ: That’s interesting. I’m trained as a scientist, but I’ve had a foray into teaching engineering, and what was interesting about the two different fields — and this is a gross oversimplification,  but it was interesting — in my science classes, we would go through and work on a problem, and if we didn’t know how to solve it, we would take a new problem and work it. In my foray into engineering teaching, it was like, we’re going to solve building a bridge this way, and then we’re going to solve building a bridge this way. We’re going to start building a bridge this way. It kind of makes sense because you want your engineers to make sure the bridge works, whereas if we’re off in a calculation and we find it several years later, nobody’s died, cars haven’t crashed, so there is that difference about it. But your description of saying engineers see a problem to solve and they’ll use any sort of tools to solve it is a really interesting way of looking at that. What’s your assessment?

DW: Engineers care about whether or not something works. We’re less interested in truth, which would be the focus of a scientist. However, the optimization question arises, and finding an optimum design is very challenging. We have examples, say, of the Brooklyn Bridge, where we have these massive masonry towers holding the bridge up, and they cost an enormous amount, not only in dollars but in human lives. Then they start building another suspension bridge and another one, and pretty soon, they’ve taken so much cost out of things that the bridges start to fall down. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a classic example. Henry Petroski wrote a book called “To Engineer Is Human.” In it, he describes this cycle of building something for the first time, where performance is the only thing that matters, and economics comes into this over time. How can we meet performance requirements at minimum cost? And sooner or later, somebody goes too far, and the device fails, or the bridge falls down.

What does the bible say about science? At Grace College one of the Christian Colleges with Engineering programs we explore this and more.

JZ: It almost sounds like engineering is good, but it needs some sort of framework to set up good boundaries. What problems will we solve? Where are we going to be efficient? It needs something on top of it to ensure it does well because the engineer, if I get what you’re saying, is how I accomplish that.

DW: Engineering problems are always faced in some context. There’s a social context, a social need, an economic situation, and there are always tradeoffs between the technical piece of something and what the user or the sponsor wants. Finding the sweet spot on multi-dimensional problems is more than what is taught in engineering. It’s something that has to be negotiated.  So at Christian christian colleges with engineering programs, like Grace, you understand that that people are sinners, engineers are sinners, and sometimes mistakes are made, and sometimes power rolls over the weak. You have to be sensitive to all of the stakeholders in engineering work.

JZ: So how do we do that? As a scientist, I was far more interested in how I understood mechanics or quantum gravity. Those are the things that I’m interested in. There’s this moral or ethical component. How, as Christians, do we do that? And how do we do that well as a technological civilization?

DW: Well, we struggle with that. When I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in 1980, ethics was not a big piece of engineering education. A series of engineering disasters (Three Mile Island and the DC-10 debacle) led to an increase in ethics education as part of engineering. But we still don’t have a very good handle on it. Bringing Christian thought into the picture is part of the solution. We have to realize that people have faults. People are sinners. People struggle to identify and do the right thing, and we cannot get to a perfect solution by just putting out a bunch of rules.

In many cases, what seems to happen is we have a problem, we have something that costs too much or doesn’t work well, so we’ll amend the list of rules you follow when you design as if those rules are going to produce a good outcome magically. Biblical theology understands that we had 10 rules, and that didn’t work out well. More and more, the message is if you just follow the rules, everything will work out. We know that that’s not the case.

JZ: That’s really interesting because that seems to be what Jesus is talking about. There’s the Ten Commandments, the rules of everything, and people say, “What are the rules? How do I follow them?” And Jesus says, “Love God with all you are and love your neighbor as yourself.” It seems like there’s a lot of that in the engineering as well. It’s like you’re trying to honor God, living with integrity, being honest in what you do, and asking yourself, “Is this going to take care of me, and is it going to take care of the people around me, my neighbors?” That goes a long way toward meeting those ethical components.

DW: Absolutely! Working for the U.S. Navy and Defense Logistics Agency, I was trained on the DoD Acquisition Policy, DOD 5000, and it’s just lots and lots of things that program managers are supposed to do. Depending upon the budget, they may choose not to do some of those things, or they may just give them lip service, and unfortunately, there have been a lot of defense acquisition programs that could have worked out better.

So, it’s more than just coming up with a perfect process -– a perfect set of rules. Human beings have to be part of the picture and exercise their responsibility to identify and do the right thing.

JZ: I would have never thought the Bible talked about engineers. It talks about engineers’ bottom line. What do we take away from this as people who want to serve and honor God as we do our technical professions?

DW: God has blessed us with an understanding of nature and given us the ability to use that knowledge for good —  for the good of people. But we’re not in control of this. God is in control of the outcomes. We do our best, but if the house’s builders are not trusting in God, and God is not in the work, problems will last.

Are you looking for Christian colleges with engineering programs where you will lean into questions like “What does the Bible say about science or engineers?” 

Learn more about Grace College’s ABET-accredited mechanical engineering program. 

To get a taste of our program, tune in to this docuseries as we follow our engineering students’ journey to the 2025 Baja SAE competition.