Science v. Religion
My grandmother gave me The Language of God, by Francis S. Collins, the leader of the Human Genome Project, for Christmas. Already finished it. (That's fast for me.) He basically presents how he reconciles his love of and trust in science with his faith in Christ. He talks precisely about how science is ill-equipped to answer the "why" questions, and why belief in evolution does not render God "unnecessary" (he is a "theistic evolutionist"). It was really good; highly recommended.
Which brings me to my brother. Some years ago--five or six or so--Luke shared with me that he didn't really consider himself a Christian anymore. I didn't want to overreact or try to use my apologetics-fu on him then and there. So I just kind of let him do his thing. Every once in a while the subject would come up, but not for very long. (Luke's generally not a very talkative guy.) Anyway, about a month ago he sent me and my sister a link to a video of a talk given by Richard Dawkins (biologist & The God Delusion author), basically enumerating a number of arguments against belief. He said he wasn't trying to "convert" us, he just wanted us to "know where he was coming from".
I watched about 15 minutes of it, and it was fairly standard stuff. Anyway, the other day when I was home sick, he sent another e-mail asking if either of us had watched it. And that wound up starting a long back-and-forth e-mail conversation about such things. (We both do better with text than with speaking.) I think it was really good. It sounded like he was starving for some Christian answers to these tough questions. I did what I could with some of them, but basically said, "Look, I've got ALL KINDS of books I could lend you from when I was asking these same things. They were really helpful, and they could be helpful to you too." He said he'd like to borrow them. We were going up to see him next weekend anyway, so I've got a stack of about 17 or so books ready to bring with us.
Anyway, your prayers would be greatly appreciated. I feel like, if my math/science brain can wrap itself around the mystery of faith, then his ought to be able to as well. But I'll need some patience and some graciousness for the conversations that are bound to follow this book exchange.
As to your second topic, Greg... I often think about careers I wouldn't mind being able to jump right into (as in not having to go to school and all that). But I don't think in terms of, how else could I use my particular talents, but more like, which jobs do I wish I had the talents for? I definitely wish I had some visual arts talent. I mean, something like drawing storyboards for films for a living... that would be an absolute blast to me. Or even film direction. I don't quite have the authoritative a-hole thing going on, which you kind of have to in order to get what you want, and the obligatory hobnobbing and schmoozing would drive me crazy, but again... I'd love reading screenplays, visualizing scenes in my head, and then making them reality. That's just one of many artistic venues I wish I had some talent for.
My grandmother gave me The Language of God, by Francis S. Collins, the leader of the Human Genome Project, for Christmas. Already finished it. (That's fast for me.) He basically presents how he reconciles his love of and trust in science with his faith in Christ. He talks precisely about how science is ill-equipped to answer the "why" questions, and why belief in evolution does not render God "unnecessary" (he is a "theistic evolutionist"). It was really good; highly recommended.
Which brings me to my brother. Some years ago--five or six or so--Luke shared with me that he didn't really consider himself a Christian anymore. I didn't want to overreact or try to use my apologetics-fu on him then and there. So I just kind of let him do his thing. Every once in a while the subject would come up, but not for very long. (Luke's generally not a very talkative guy.) Anyway, about a month ago he sent me and my sister a link to a video of a talk given by Richard Dawkins (biologist & The God Delusion author), basically enumerating a number of arguments against belief. He said he wasn't trying to "convert" us, he just wanted us to "know where he was coming from".
I watched about 15 minutes of it, and it was fairly standard stuff. Anyway, the other day when I was home sick, he sent another e-mail asking if either of us had watched it. And that wound up starting a long back-and-forth e-mail conversation about such things. (We both do better with text than with speaking.) I think it was really good. It sounded like he was starving for some Christian answers to these tough questions. I did what I could with some of them, but basically said, "Look, I've got ALL KINDS of books I could lend you from when I was asking these same things. They were really helpful, and they could be helpful to you too." He said he'd like to borrow them. We were going up to see him next weekend anyway, so I've got a stack of about 17 or so books ready to bring with us.
Anyway, your prayers would be greatly appreciated. I feel like, if my math/science brain can wrap itself around the mystery of faith, then his ought to be able to as well. But I'll need some patience and some graciousness for the conversations that are bound to follow this book exchange.
As to your second topic, Greg... I often think about careers I wouldn't mind being able to jump right into (as in not having to go to school and all that). But I don't think in terms of, how else could I use my particular talents, but more like, which jobs do I wish I had the talents for? I definitely wish I had some visual arts talent. I mean, something like drawing storyboards for films for a living... that would be an absolute blast to me. Or even film direction. I don't quite have the authoritative a-hole thing going on, which you kind of have to in order to get what you want, and the obligatory hobnobbing and schmoozing would drive me crazy, but again... I'd love reading screenplays, visualizing scenes in my head, and then making them reality. That's just one of many artistic venues I wish I had some talent for.
posted by Matt | 11:40 AM
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