PRESS RELEASES   Minister balances religion with science 06/15/2008 Sun June 15, 2008 By Jim Stafford Business Writer, THE OKLAHOMAN Michael Anderson uses a parable to show how his religious beliefs square with his faith in the scientific process. It is the story of the hedgehog and the fox. Anderson explains the meaning of the parable, which was first told in the seventh century, B.C., by the Greek poet, Archilochus. Bottom line: The fox has many strategies to defend itself against the hunter, while the hedgehog has a very simple, but effective, strategy. Both survive by using their strategies. "I choose that analogy as no accident because it's also the analogy given by the great paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen J. Gould, who died just in '02, one of the great scientists of the 20th century, a preeminent lecturer and speaker and writer,” Anderson said. "He said, ‘that's how I compare the science and the humanities,' the humanities including all religions for him. They are not in conflict. It's just a different strategy approaching life.” A longtime Presbyterian preacher who led one of Oklahoma City's largest congregations, today Anderson is the president of the Presbyterian Health Foundation. The foundation has built a science-based economic engine for Oklahoma City by providing office and lab space at the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park on the Oklahoma Health Center campus. The Research Park has created more than 1,000 highly paid jobs for people involved in commercializing scientific breakthroughs spun out of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Before he assumed his current role in 2003, Anderson was senior pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City, where he had served since 1977. His ministry began in the 1950s and continues today, he said, although he is now "pastor emeritus.” Anderson recently discussed with The Oklahoman his life as a modern day Renaissance Man, who is at once a preacher, economic development officer and an enthusiastic supporter of the scientific process. Here are edited excerpts of that conversation: Q: So, you've never had any personal conflicts between your faith in God and your faith in the scientific process? A: I've never seen the conflict. I know of it, but not personally. It has not been a conflict in my life. I know there are people for whom it's a conflict. I was never raised that way. So the God of science and what we learn from science is also the God of the Bible and religion and our personal faith. There are imperceptible things in science that require us to launch out in faith by the same way that we launch out by faith in religion. The evidence comes later. Science isn't a paradigm that is opposite of religion nor religion the opposite of science. Religion also must eventually have evidence; the evidence of things hoped for, the Scripture says. That's not been a conflict for me. Q: What led you into the ministry? A: I grew up in Spokane, eastern Washington. My dad was a school superintendent, my mother was a teacher. My granddad, my dad's dad, had a wheat ranch they had homesteaded. My weekends and summers were spent on a wheat ranch. So I had kind of a dual life, but went to an urban school, which was good because there was more competition and a lot better sports. So, I chose a college with a friend of mine who I played ball with all the way through school. We simply looked at the travel schedule of the college and chose the one that had absolutely the best travel schedule of any college or university in America, and they gave us both scholarships. We chose it because they played in Hawaii. We are talking here about the early '50s. A lot of teams didn't fly at that time. It was in that college setting, the influence of several key college professors, one a Greek teacher, a philosophy teacher and a world literature (teacher), all of whom were gentlemen of deep Christian insight and faith. All had a significant influence on me. So by the time I had spent some time there, the idea of thinking about the ministry became a very strong and clear calling. It was the last thing I thing I would ever want to do. I came there just to play basketball. I always say I dribbled my way into the ministry, literally. It was Whitworth College in Spokane, a Presbyterian School. Q: But did you ever get that trip to Hawaii? A: Oh yes, absolutely. I even learned to surf, on a long board. We didn't have a real surfboard in those days. It was fun. Q: Why is this Research Park so successful? A: Timing and proximity. The Indian chief was asked how is it that your rain dancers make it rain when they dance, and he said it's all in their timing. It was the right time for biology to get out of the labs and into the marketplace. And that has to do with the history of the biological sciences, the great breakthroughs. And I say proximity because the research park only makes sense in that we are close to two research engines — the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. So our first company sprang out of a department at OUHSC and eventually it was purchased and purchased again and it is now what we call LabCorp, and is still here. The company started as UroCorp. There was an effort in Colorado to take them to Colorado and provide them a very nice home. That's what encouraged us to get started on the Research Park. We've got companies coming out of here, we need to be ready to provide the infrastructure for that. Working in cooperation with Oklahoma City and Urban Renewal we were able to do that. Square foot by square foot we grew the Research Park in what was Urban Renewal land in Oklahoma City. That partnership with Oklahoma was very important because it allowed us to incrementally grow and use our resources frugally. That $125 million investment here was not just suddenly expended all at once, but we were able to expend it over a decade and eventually arrive at where we are now, seven buildings; the seventh building will be finished in about 45 days at the end of July. We have now just under 700,000 square feet of Class A wet lab and office space. Q: You will be among almost 90 Oklahomans who will represent the state's life sciences industry next week at the annual BIO show in San Diego. How does the investment in that show benefit Oklahoma? A: The most important thing is the leaders of our companies — the CEOs and science leaders of our companies — make contacts that they can use in the operation of their companies, not only for spreading good will but actually developing contracts, contacts that go to contracts. That is very, very important. And the other thing is it allows us to highlight what we are doing here at the Research Park, for example. We have a leader here who has come back to Oklahoma and we were able to talk to him on the floor of the BIO show in Boston. This Research Park really looks good when you go to a BIO show and see the other kinds of research parks that exist, there is nothing that looks better than this. And people don't necessarily expect, when you are on one of the coasts, either the left coast where I grew up or the right coast, they don't expect Oklahoma to even have a bio research park. When they see this it just answers their questions right off. Q: You take such a philosophical approach to life; are there any books on philosophy among the five you have written? A: So far I have not written a book in this field, and I probably should. My books have always been devotional or theological. That's something I will do in my next incarnation. I just haven't had time to do that or I would. I think that would be something that would be fun to do.