William D. Walker, Ph.D.
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Duke University
“The year 1960 was crucial in my life. The U.S. government was considering a large new research facility for high energy physics—the study of protons, neutrons, pions and other exotic particles. A colleague and I were convinced it was a mistake and wanted to prove our point. I was working night and day, harder than I'd ever done before. Fortunately, after years of being a nominal Christian, I had recently started attending church, and I began praying about our work. Gradually, over a period of months, the Lord opened new areas of physics to us. We realized that the facility was actually a good idea, but not for the reasons originally given. We published our results in several very important papers in physics journals, and for forty years the facility has been an outstanding success.
More importantly, during this period I recognized that God knows far more physics than my colleague or I or anyone else will ever know. He let me absorb that fact and then confronted me as I was tossing in bed one night. He told me to turn my life over to him. After resisting a few minutes, I agreed. What a change! The next day the sky was bluer, the grass was greener. Even my work accelerated.
Three years later, when C. S. Lewis died on the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was working at a physics laboratory outside Oxford, England. As an American, I was shocked by the Kennedy assassination, but as a Christian, it was Lewis’ death that distressed me. His books had helped me, and I had really hoped to meet him, especially since these were turbulent times for my family and for society.
Today I marvel at the intricate structure of elementary particles and how they are put together to make atomic nuclei. The Lord designed it that way; it did not happen by chance! The intricacies show the hand of the Maker. I see no conflict between Biblical faith and my kind of science. In fact, God’s fingerprints are on all of nature.”
