RE: [asa] Crossing the Divide

C. S. Lewis said, "If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all. But, fortunately, it works the other way round. Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world." Mere Christianity, page 75 (The "Cardinal Virtues.")

 
Moorad

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Christine Smith
Sent: Fri 2/22/2008 6:41 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: 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.
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at
> giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo!
> Mail

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sat Feb 23 11:14:44 2008