Our Calling to Create More Good, An Aerospace Engineer’s Perspective

Kenneth D. Visser

Keywords: creation, engineering, aerospace

TL;DR: An aerospace engineer's perspective on our calling to create more good in our world

Abstract: Our God gave engineers the mandate in Genesis to continue to shape and tend our world into even greater things for His glory. Aerospace engineering is a good example of our ability to make ‘more good’ from the goodness that God has bestowed upon us in creation. Producing aluminum to build aircraft from bauxite, for instance, utilizes the ‘gold and onyx’ resources given to us in Genesis 2 to make a strong and light material, a material that God did not directly give us. Combining this with the physical principles of lift on a moving body in a fluid, also part of God’s creation, enables us to create vehicles to fly through the air. The result is a handiwork of more of the ‘good’, if you will, from the good of the creation given to us and reflects, in a small way, our being made in His image. As well intentioned as this may sound, however, do we always critically consider that our solutions could have longer term impacts that may not be good at all? Is our understanding of ‘good’ good enough? Do we contemplate the potentially sinful use of what we have developed and really think about what might be required to mitigate that? The airplane can help us explore the world and to spread the gospel, but it has also been used as a weapon of destruction. How does our ‘creating’ fit in with a proper interpretation of the ‘ruling’ and ‘subduing’ mandate that glorifies our Maker? A discussion is presented on our calling to create more good from the inherent goodness of God’s creation and our accountability in light of this creational mandate. Several strategies of how we might ponder our creative more good impact, drawing on the author’s aerospace engineering experiences in industry, academia, and the entrepreneurial world, are offered along with helpful normative guidelines drawn from the literature.

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Submission Number: 7