Having been a scientist all my adult life (30 years now), I think what is
challenged here is not science, but the political application of it.
Human politics remains at an evolutionarily primitive level. Last I
heard from my anthropologist colleagues, the baboons are more socially
advanced than we are. The idea that we have to choose between rational
thought and spiritual perception is being used by petty people who hold
offices in high places. At this point in time, we cannot apply
scientific methodogy to "proving" the existence of a sentient creator.
For most of us, the evidence is all around us: the order and beauty of
the cosmos, the dreams, achievements, and sense of the "I" in us and
perhaps in one or more other species on our planet, the glorious
diversity of life. As a scientist, I try to understand and add to the
knowledge base what appears to be real and regular in the universe.
That may be the best and highest responsibility of a sentient and
technological species such as ourselves. The word 'responsibility' needs
to be spelled in capital letters here. ALL of us, whether a professional
info gatherer or not, are responsible for how the information is to be used!

Our species seems to go through sorting processes on a regular basis.
Our current challenge involves the sheer numbers of us and our impact on
the environment of this planet. We are now advanced enough to make
choices and to drastically alter the heretofor "natural" processes of
evolution. We need to make some rational-spiritual choices very soon.
If you want a good example of what we may be facing otherwise, come to my
lab and I will show you a mammalian tissue culture flask that is
outgrowing its space and its resources and is contaminated by an
opportunistic bug that can't resist all that biological mass. Enough said.

Maureen Ellis
Dept of Environmental Health
Toxicology Group at Roos 1
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
me at u.washington.edu