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======The big Clash ...======
Thursday, Sept 12, 2013. When you work in science or medicine, there are different
groups doing research and development, different schools which follow and develop
some philosophy or technique. Often, these schools have their own terminology,
their own jargon, their own group history and idea about what is well-known and
what is a challenge.
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**Finding your Role ...**
When you are just applying some technique, it is usually uncritical. Then you are
looking towards your particular customer. But you might also be involved in
developing techniques or knowledge yourself.
Then, it is ok as long as you are savely part of one
group. When you stay oriented towards this group, they will recognize you and
you can interact with the other members. There might still be all the typical
human group processes going on, but that is just the normal thing.
But when you come from one group, and for whatever reason work in the area
or with techniques of the other group, it gets very difficult and complicated.
You use the wrong language or jargon - and people do not know you. So you might
need ten years or more to be accepted as someone who has something to say in
the other group. This is quite some time - when you do not start as a
student, your lifetime might not be enough.
It is a basic task or goal of science to develop knowledge or techniques and
then share them with the community. So there are two parts: "knowledge" and
"sharing". Sharing takes place in the form of research papers or books. So being
recognized is a key part of this communication issue. Communicating means
being recognized. If no on listens, and if you cannot get anything published,
you are dead in this community. Being accepted by one group is strongly linked
to being able to publish. When you do not fully take up their langunge, they
will not accept you and you cannot communicate.
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**The direction the Lord gives ...**
**
Looking into this challenge, I ran into the following text from Philippians, which
makes things even more difficult. This text questions the whole process going
on in and between these groups:
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but **in humility count others more significant than yourselves**.
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Phil 2,1-7)
Here, the apostel is giving us the goal to fully appreciate the others. God is
setting guidelines for our community. Unfortunately, these are not easily compatible
with the basic rules of the scientific world, where competition and recognition
based on leadership is the key driving force.
How do you reconcile these two worlds? Can you really live as Christian and be a
successful scientist? I have been trying to work with this and live with this now
for 20 years, being fairly successful, but I am still suffering from
the situation. There is the big clash between the world of acceptance and mutual
support, which we find in the biblical books, and the world of competition and
rejectance of everything which is not your established jargon,
which we find in science (and many other layers of society). Jesus told us, that
there are the two ways - and we will not get out of it until his kingdom fully
reigns.
(Roland Potthast)
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