Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. He is a leader in nuclear fusion research and its practical use for carbon-free power generation. He is an eminent scientist who is also a Christian.
Hutchinson comes from a non-religious British family. When he arrived at the University of Cambridge in 1969, his ambition was to be an enlightened intellectual, a free thinker who had “escaped the religious trammels” (his words). He had not considered that such a worldview is anything but free. Its shackles are the passions of self-worship, the idolatry that renders all others into one. “You are slaves of the one you obey” (Rom. 6:16).
This is not to say Hutchinson was a hedonist. He valued truth, integrity, and compassion. He began to wonder if “there is more to Christianity than the moldering detritus of a prescientific age or the calming opiate that helps sustain useful social structures” (again, his words). He knew that if Christianity is true, it has moral and eternal consequences. But he resisted. “I wanted to be my own Lord,” he writes. That is the original sin, one that tempts us all.
Enter two fellow students who were authentic Christians. Their lives and friendship attracted Hutchinson to consider their faith. He observed that Christianity was less about giving up freedom and more about receiving from the life of Jesus. What if the Christian story is actually true? As he investigated, three thoughts emerged. (1) There is historical evidence for Christianity. (2) It makes sense of the world and the human experience. (3) Jesus invites us into a personal relationship with Him. He still had questions, but had confidence that answers exist. He knew these thoughts demanded a response. “So, one evening,” Hutchinson explains, “I yielded my life to His lordship in prayer, and I began to follow Him.”
Hutchinson is super intelligent and has an impressive resume, but he came to faith the same as anyone else. He considered the truth claims of Christianity and felt a gentle nudge from God. He rejected the idolatry of self and received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).
In 2018, Hutchinson published a book entitled, “Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles?” Yes is his answer, particularly the resurrection of Christ. “Science cannot and does not disprove the resurrection,” he writes. Science reveals the ordinary course of events, but 2000 years ago, even ordinary people recognized that something extraordinary happened.
What if it’s true? Isaac Watts responds, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”