LetsMoveToTheMoon

God, Technology, and Things That Make Us Want to Move to the Moon

Having the Right Tools for the Job

July 17, 2010

In reading through T.F. Torrance’s Mediation of Christ, this section stood out to me. It’s very important to keep in mind the significance of having the right tools for the job. One could argue that moving forward in a situation like the one described below involves creating tools to push along discovery and then developing new tools based on those new discoveries, ad infinitum. Considering this in terms of studying science, history, sociology, or really any other topic could lead to some big conclusions.

A few years ago I had a meeting with a group of research scientists in industry, some of whom were engaged in the work of devising and making very sensitive, complex instruments. I was quite astonished when one of them explained the kind of tools he was making for a university department of high energy physics, for it was quite clear that in order to make those tools he had not only to know as much about high energy physics and the physicists who ordered the tools, but had himself to engage in a good deal of original research and make fresh discoveries in order to provide those physicists with the kind of tools that would really advance their research. I thought a lot about that, for it brought home to me the fact that, while science and technology are not to be confounded, all science and not least pure science, is engaged in the construction of appropriate tools with which to shape knowledge and understanding of what is being investigated.