I spent several years in high school and college planning for a career in science. My favorite classes in high school were chemistry, physics, and calculus. As I immersed myself in the academic environment of the university...I continued to enjoy the chemistry and calculus...though the physics was starting to kick my butt.
Then I sensed that God had other plans for my vocation. I surrendered my plans for chemical engineering and eventually teaching...for what I understood to be a "calling" to serve God full-time in a pastoral capacity. I wouldn't say that my decision at that point was a mistake or that I regret it per se...but I'm not sure it was a necessary change of plans. Honestly, I've always missed the sciences and the math as well as the environment of the lab and scientific experimentation.
Perhaps it makes me hypersensitive to the debate between science and faith. According to this article in Newsweek, my alma mater's sister campus is having quite a debate over the teaching of evolution as fact.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20657204/site/newsweek/
There are many other articles referring to the Olivet controversy if you google it a bit too.
But something that really raises my blood pressure in this article is the kind of flack the college is getting from local churches in the denomination...threatening to withhold financial support etc...give me a break!
It's just like the church's arrogant narrow-minded reductionism of any single issue or cause to an irreducible claim on God's position. As with homosexuality, abortion, being a Republican, the War in Iraq, Evolution vs. Creationism, etc...who gets off deciding what God's view is and then dictating it to others. Religious elitists and prudes beware or be damned! There are certainly some guides and commands in Scripture which make certain things clear. But on many other things there is SO much room for interpretation that you've got to be mentally deficient to claim a definitive stance (e.g. evolution).
3 comments:
Oh man! You're gonna burn for that one! Keep it up brother o' mine!
Chris,
Perhaps even to consider that evolution is from the mind of man, and creation is from the mind of God, Now am I a prude? I should hope not, but some one man has considered something that even he stated has flaws, and the scripture is either correct or not.
Which should I believe?
We should definitely keep a higher view of Scripture than any other written, spoken, or blogged words of man.
But I'm not sure that Scripture is to be interpreted as evidence for a literal 6-day creation...or as evidence against evolution in any form.
I'm not sure that one has to claim the earth to be 6,000 years old or less to be orthodox.
Maybe it would be accurate to say that too many times, Christians speak with a sort of scientific sense of accuracy while disparaging a scientific method vs. faith approach to truth.
It is not mine to judge anyone a prude...so again I apologize for my careless words earlier.
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