DALLAS — Scientists, engineers, philosophers and faith leaders gathered together last weekend as part of the eighth annual “Dallas Conference on Science & Faith,” where world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson was the keynote speaker.
Hosted by the Discovery Institute at Park Cities Baptist Church, the Feb. 28 event, titled “Endowed by Our Creator: Science, Faith, and the American Idea,” was timed to coincide with the nation’s approaching 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing human dignity, intelligent design and shared equality rooted in a purposeful Creator.
In a conversation titled “Created Equal” with John G. West and Carson, the former secretary of U.S. Housing and Urban Development under the first Trump administration, and current USDA National Adviser for Nutrition, Health, and Housing, delivered the keynote address.
Drawing from his career in medicine and public service, Carson urged a return to objective facts, mutual respect and recognition of man’s divine origins amid societal divisions, even while engaging differing views.
“You can learn a lot more from somebody who doesn’t agree with you on everything,” said Carson. “And I always say, if two people agree about everything, one of them isn’t necessary.”
Even in an age of 24-hour-a-day political punditry, Carson said centering discussions on agreed facts rather than ideology will bear more fruit in the long run. “Put the facts on the middle of the table and then have the discussion,” he said. “Don’t put your ideology in the middle of the table.”
Reflecting on the political division in the U.S., Carson urged the audience to distinguish bad ideas from bad people. “Do you see how divided people are? They’re not likely to be able to come to any useful conclusions because they’ve said, ‘That is a bad person’ rather than ‘That is a bad idea,’” he said. “And if you say it’s a bad person, then no matter what comes out of their mouth, you’re not going to agree with it. But if it’s just a bad idea, maybe you can use facts to refute that idea and you can still be friends.”
Pointing to the fallout from the COVID-19 era, Carson critiqued misinformation tactics, comparing them to historical propaganda, which, he said, “did a lot of damage, because people did things not based on scientific facts, but based on their opinion of what scientific facts are.”
He added, “You’re not entitled to your own opinion about what facts are facts.”
Reflecting on human equality, Carson invoked his own experience as a neurosurgeon to illustrate his central thesis. He described what he saw when he would bring a patient into the operating room and open their skull for surgery.
“All the brains look the same from people from all over the world. That is the thing that makes you who you are,” he said. “It’s not the shape of your nose or the color of your eyes. Those are superficial characteristics that have very little to do with who you are as a person and with that entity that can communicate with God.”
In fact, said Carson, it’s the perceived differences among people that have fueled some of history’s greatest atrocities. “When you look historically at some of the horrible things that have happened, it’s happened because some people felt that they were better or superior to other people,” he said. “God loves everybody. And the reason that He gave us variety, I think, is because He loves us.”
Carson indicated where his support falls in the “nature versus nurture” argument, saying he believes the environment of a person shapes their identity more than biology.
“Have you noticed that if you take somebody, say from Nigeria, and you raise them in London, when they open their mouth and speak, they speak with a British accent? And you say, ‘That’s kind of strange,’” he said. “It’s not really strange. It’s a matter of how they were raised, what they were brought up to believe. That is much more important than what they look like.
“And if we can gain a true understanding of that, we have a tendency to treat each other very differently,” Carson continued. “Nobody’s superior, nobody’s inferior. That’s the way God intended it. And He treats everybody the same.”
Other prominent speakers at the event included philosopher of science Stephen C. Meyer, neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor, and engineer Stuart Burgess.
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