Yesterday I had the chance to talk to an esteemed professor of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Ross Ethier of Georgia Tech, about glaucoma. Sometime during the meet and greet, he asked me what my Urbana t-shirt meant, and all I said was "oh...just a conference I went to." I didn't even mention it was a Christian conference or even a missions conference.

Things are always like that in the scientific sphere. You don't talk about faith, even though a good number of scientists are Christians, and even more are Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu. I don't know if I was genuinely afraid of mentioning my faith in front of this hot shot and other professors from UPitt and CMU, or was I just following professionalism. I still remember talking to Dr. Marshall about attending Urbana 2012, as that was the reason why I was in St. Louis at the time and able to meet up with him. As a person truly living on the edge of science and religion, I wonder all the time if they can ever complement one another on a social level even if they are compatible at a veracious level.

Was there fear? Was this a missed opportunity? What if he was also someone who had a strong faith? 

He looked and sounded a lot like Christopher Lee, Saruman from Lord of the Rings. Pretty cool and intimidating.