RE: [asa] Crossing the Divide

Greg writes: "What is ASA doing for the
> 20-something generation?"

I am 26 now, and ASA was quite literally an answer to
my prayers last year when I had a major crisis of
faith. ASA has helped me grow both spiritually and
scientifically by introducing me to new concepts,
helping me to explore questions I had never even
considered before, and just generally challenging me
to expand and deepen my thinking. It has become a
place I can go to ask honest, hard questions and get
answers that I know I can trust will uphold the
integrity of both the scientific and theological
facets of the problem. It is a place of (albeit
largely virtual for me) fellowship where people who
share not only my faith, but also my scientific
mindset, can interact. It has also become a resource
for me when I engage in apologetic discussions at
other on-line forums and in-person with one of my
Atheistic co-workers. On that latter point, ASA also
serves as a positive counter-example that I can bring
up when Christians are stereo-typed in a very negative
light as a result of YEC, which hopefully will
encourage skeptics to keep an open mind towards
Christianity.

In short, ASA has done plenty for this 20-something.

In Christ,
Christine

--- Gregory Arago <gregoryarago@yahoo.ca> wrote:

> Running to evolution(ists) for help...hmmm, quite an
> image that provides!
>
> A question on the text quoted: that's not Brian
> Alters (McGill, Evolution Education Research
> Centre), is it? I tried to meet him last summer
> after the SSHRC fiasco, no answer, disappeared.
> Definitely not an ASA/CSCA member.
>
> Though perhaps suggesting a different 'divide'
> that is to be crossed, one point to make is simply
> this: TE, if ASA is indeed to be a haven for it,
> unfortunately seems uninterested in bridging the
> divide between natural sciences and human-social
> sciences. THIS divide, however, is what is most
> notably touched on (though not thoroughly discussed)
> by the IDM and its peculiar brand of 'design'
> theory. That is because intelligence is 'always
> already' acknowledged in human beings. Human beings
> simply do 'design' things, 'nuf said.
>
> Turning the Creator into an anthropomorphic
> 'designing agent,' is nevertheless, a less than
> ideal solution. Theologically suspect,
> naturalistically-scientistically challenged.
>
> One other note: CSCA's Lamoureux converted to
> Evolutionary Creationism (not to TE) during mid-age.
> The tone of ASA seems directed to middle-aged or to
> retired persons. What is ASA doing for the
> 20-something generation? This is the demographic
> attracted to 'i+d,' which an antiquated TE, based on
> biology-physics-chemistry added to theology, minus
> anthropology, sociology, psychology (which should
> these days almost be written as PSYCHOLOGY), all but
> ignores. Where is a psychological account of
> transition from YEC to
> OEC/PC/TE/EC/not-literalist/hermeneutically-inclined
> person given? This seems to be, from the quotations,
> what the article is about (powerful emotions, risk,
> identity, loss of community, etc.).
>
> The notions of intentionality, purpose, meaning,
> reason (somewhat TE/ECish), and teleology embraced
> by i+d are quite attractive to young people today.
> Isn't this a 'divide' that ASA should draw its
> attention and network to?
>
> Which divide? Whose divide?
>
> Arago
>
>
> "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com> wrote:
> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:*
> {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:*
> {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape
> {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
> st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
> Randy said:
> “I particularly wanted to flag the comment "no one
> to turn to". I think this is a key function for ASA
> and the reason we need all you folks and your
> friends signed up for ASA so we can build a network
> and help folks know who they can turn to.”
>
> Randy- you know your charter well. I needed
> something, and ASA has been a tremendous help for
> me. I’m still searching and learning, and ASA is
> helping tremendously. Without ASA, where would
> Christians, who are willing to consider evolution,
> turn to?
>
> …Bernie
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of
> Randy Isaac
> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:07 PM
> To: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: [asa] Crossing the Divide
>
>
> Those of you subscribed to Science or other
> access may be able to read this article:
> Evolution: Crossing the Divide?
> I don't have permission to copy the whole article
> but here are a few snippets, including a quote from
> ASA's Denis Lamoureux.
> I particularly wanted to flag the comment "no one
> to turn to". I think this is a key function for ASA
> and the reason we need all you folks and your
> friends signed up for ASA so we can build a network
> and help folks know who they can turn to.
> Randy
>
> EVOLUTION:
> Crossing the Divide
> Jennifer Couzin
> Like others who have rejected creationism and
> embraced evolution, paleontologist Stephen Godfrey
> is still recovering from the traumatic journey
>
>
> ....
> Powerful emotions bind together young-Earth
> creationists, members of a movement making inroads
> from Kenya to Kentucky, where a $27 million Creation
> Museum opened last year. Scientists and educators
> have responded mainly by boosting biology's place in
> the classroom and building rational arguments for
> evolution. But reason alone is rarely enough to sway
> believers. That's because letting go of creationism
> carries enormous emotional risks, including a loss
> of identity and community and an agonizing, if
> illusory, choice: science or faith.
> People like Godfrey tend not to advertise their
> painful transition from creationist to evolutionist,
> certainly not to scientific peers. When doubts about
> creationism begin to nag, they have no one to turn
> to: not Christians in their community, who espouse a
> literal reading of the Bible and equate rejecting
> creationism with rejecting God, and not scientists,
> who often dismiss creationists as ignorant or
> lunatic.
> .....
> Although creationism might seem bizarre to
> individuals who have never believed in it, for those
> who do, its power is almost beyond words. Alters
> remembers, as a young teenager, sitting in on a
> sermon by Robert Schuller, a televangelist whose
> California church is fairly liberal. Listening to
> Schuller endorse the views of scientists who
> consider rocks to be millions of years old, Alters
> began to cry, horrified that the preacher would lie.
> "It was almost as if he stood there and said Jesus
> Christ didn't exist," he recalls. For biblical
> literalists, belief is generally an all-or-nothing
> proposition.
> ...
> Parents often cannot cope with such an upheaval in
> a child. "The day I had to tell my mother I wasn't a
> young-Earth creationist was the scariest day of my
> life," says Denis Lamoureux, who teaches science and
> religion at St. Joseph's College in the University
> of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. His mother was so
> embarrassed by his work in biology that she told her
> friends her son was still in the profession he once
> belonged to: dentistry. Some compare these
> conversations to informing fundamentalist Christian
> parents that they are gay--but perhaps even more
> wrenching.
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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Received on Fri Feb 22 18:42:16 2008