Speaker Connects Faith and Science

There is historical and scientific evidence that God created the universe and Jesus Christ was resurrected, according to Dr. David Kingston.

Kingston, the final speaker in the Graduate Life Center Speaker Series, spoke on April 25 on “The Faith of a Scientist in the Rain Forest.”

The GLC Speaker Series is a weekly event open to the community, which allows graduate and faculty researchers to share their career stories and research passions. 


Kingston joined the Virginia Tech Department of Chemistry in 1971.

The American Chemical Society named Kingston the 2008 recipient of the Ernest Guenther award in the chemistry of natural products.

Michael Perfetti, chairman of the Graduate Life Speaker Series, said, “Dr. Kingston actually has a very close association with my family, seeing that he actually taught my father, uncles, and aunts when they were here in the chemistry department. So I’m the second-generation troublemaker he’s had to deal with. He means a lot to our family.”

The environment of the room was relaxed, as Kingston took off his suit jacket to be more comfortable and the audience chuckled throughout the speech at his numerous jokes.

Kingston began with the question, “Can a scientist believe in God?”

He said that there is credible scientific evidence in the existence of God and that God revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

The basis of his speech was about how science and God related to one another, and his experiences in the rain forests of South America.

His argument that God had a part in creation included facts about formulas and values in physics and chemistry are exactly right, and if anything was just a little bigger or a little smaller, there would no existence.

“My conclusion for all this is that yes, as a scientist, I can see there is logical evidence that a god created this universe to work. To have atoms that hold together reactions and chemicals and people. This is not proof that a god exists… a scientist cannot do that. But on another hand, a scientist cannot disprove that a god exists,” said Kingston.

When talking about basic physics and gravity, Kingston said, “Newton figured all this out and has his name attached to it, and of course he’s English which make him a great guy.”

He also made many other jokes about other famous English people saying to the audience, “I keep having English quotes. I don’t know why, you will have to judge that for yourselves.” Kingston studied Cambridge University.

He included many quotes from scientists including Stephen Hawking, Keith Miller and Charles Townes.

The second part of the speech was about the historical evidence for his faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God or God reincarnated.

This part included facts about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, stating that the tomb was empty, many different people saw Jesus and the disciples were changed men after the event.

Kingston’s personal motivation comes from a quote from Johannes Kepler, which said, “O God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee.”

Lastly, Kingston talked about his research in Suriname and Madagascar, which started about 15 years ago.

Taxol, one of Kingston’s research projects, is an anti-cancer drug from a tree. It’s used for treatment of ovarian and breast cancer and in stents to prevent restenosis.

“One of my former graduate students had Hodgkin’s disease, which is a cancer of the lymph system. He was treated with surgery and radiation therapy, neither of which was effective in eliminating the cancer. Finally they put him on a new treatment of Taxol and a few other drugs. It was a combination therapy, which eventually knocked out the therapy. He is still alive today,” said Kingston.

His goal of cancer research is to find even better drugs, which is difficult because of the complicated structure of the potential drugs found in the rain forests. The complicated structure makes it difficult to synthesize.

Due to the efforts of his research group, Suriname and Madagascar have benefited by increased conservation of their rainforests.