Science and religion - friends?

One of the students in my Science and Religion class posted this excerpt from an episode of Friends. It's classic!

PHOEBE: You know, there're a lot of things that I don't believe in, but that doesn't mean they're not true.

JOEY: Such as?

PHOEBE: Like crop circles, or the Bermuda triangle, or evolution?

ROSS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, you don't, uh, you don't believe in evolution?

PHOEBE: Nah. Not really.

ROSS: You don't believe in evolution?

PHOEBE: I don't know, it's just, you know...monkeys, Darwin, you know, it's a, it's a nice story, I just think it's a little too easy.

ROSS: Too easy? Too...The process of every living thing on this planet evolving over millions of years from single-celled organisms, too easy?

PHOEBE: Yeah, I just don't buy it.

ROSS: Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe. Evolution is scientific fact, like, like, like the air we breathe, like gravity.

PHOEBE: Ok, don't get me started on gravity.

ROSS: You uh, you don't believe in gravity?

PHOEBE: Well, it's not so much that you know, like I don't believe in it, you know, it's just...I don't know, lately I get the feeling that I'm not so much being pulled down as I am being pushed.

ROSS: How can you not believe in evolution?

PHOEBE: Just don't. Look at this funky shirt!

ROSS: Pheebs, I have studied evolution my entire adult life. Ok, I can tell you, we have collected fossils from all over the world that actually show the evolution of different species, ok? You can literally see them evolving through time.

PHOEBE: Really? You can actually see it?

ROSS: You bet. In the U.S., China, Africa, all over.

PHOEBE: See, I didn't know that.

ROSS: Well, there you go.

PHOEBE: Huh. So now, the real question is, who put those fossils there, and why?

ROSS: Ok, Pheebs. See how I'm making these little toys move? Opposable thumbs. Without evolution, how do you explain opposable thumbs?

PHOEBE: Maybe the overlords needed them to steer their spacecrafts.

ROSS: Please tell me you're joking.

PHOEBE: Look, can't we just say that you believe in something, and I don't.

ROSS: No, no, Pheebs, we can't, ok, because--

PHOEBE: What is this obsessive need you have to make everyone agree with you? No, what's that all about? I think, I think maybe it's time you put Ross under the microscope.

ROSS: Ok, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase I carry actual scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old.

PHOEBE: Ok, look, before you even start, I'm not denying evolution, ok, I'm just saying that it's one of the possibilities.

ROSS: It's the only possibility, Phoebe.

PHOEBE: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok? Wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?

ROSS: There might be, a teeny, tiny, possibility.

PHOEBE: I can't believe you caved.

ROSS: What?

PHOEBE: You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how, how are you going to go into work tomorrow? How, how are you going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going to face yourself? Oh! That was fun. So who's hungry?

75 days to go!

I had a friend tell me I couldn't count down by the day until there were only 30 days to go - she simply wouldn't allow it. Good thing I don't care what does and does not allow!

I think I'll post every five days now. It's getting close, but not close enough! I just can't wait to be married!

Matt and I are going to count down the rest of the days until our wedding by reading through the Psalms, two a day. I'll try to post some thoughts on here, if I get a chance.

Wedding preparations are going quite well (though I can't say the same for my thesis...) The main thing at the moment is finding somewhere to live. We've had two applications to rent units knocked back so far, and we're waiting to hear about another. I'm going to check out a few places in Miranda and Caringbah tomorrow. It's good that I have flexible working hours so I can do these things during the day! It must be so hard for couples who both work 9-5.

Revelation - A Preview

A preview of my church's upcoming series on Revelation.



The main guy speaking is Tim MacBride, our associate pastor. The one who comes in to tell him to clean up the car park is Ange, the senior pastor. Christian, who Tim calls on the phone with a "ministry opportunity" is our (relatively) new student pastor. The girl who comes in at the end is Hayley, who works in the office one day a week.

80 days to go!

Very exciting indeed!

CPX

The Centre for Public Christianity website has launched.

Check it out!

5 songs I'm loving at the moment

1. Sweet About Me, by Gabriella Cilmi
2. Mercy, by Duffy
3. Saving my Face, by KT Tunstall
4. Untouched, by the Veronicas
5. Hot, by Avril Lavigne


Go ahead. Mock my taste!

For geeks with money?

Click here.

The Hermeneutics Quiz

Click here.

I scored 54, which makes me a moderate, albeit on the conservative end of the scale.

Oops

I missed the "90 days to go" milestone. That was yesterday. Now it's only 89 days to go!

I'm in a bad mood today. I got an email from my supervisor yesterday with comments on my draft of chapter 5 and the news that I have to rethink a lot of the way the second half of my thesis is structured and rationalised. Not good. At the moment, I'm feeling completely defeated by my thesis.

Why can't we just elope now and I'll finish the thesis later?!

The Seven Habits of Highly Testy Philosophers

Click here.

Three months to go!

OK, now this is just getting scary! I can't wait to get married to my wonderful fiance, but when I think about all the stuff that I have to get done by then, I freak out a little. OK, I freak out a lot. Pulling my hair out and moaning is usually involved. Here's a snapshot of what needs to be done:

• Finish PhD (by June 1, otherwise Matt says the wedding is off!)
• It's hard to estimate the percentage completed, but I've got one chapter in nearly final form, two chapters getting close to that, and three chapters that still need a lot of work. Plus the conclusion and introduction. And formatting and referencing.
• 11 weeks of teaching
• I'm teaching three subjects this session. I've got three face-to-face hours of teaching per week (two for history of medicine, one for the scientific revolution) and two online groups for science and religion
• Beyond preparing for and facilitating tutorial discussions, there's all the marking. I get out of the take-home exam for one subject because it's due while I'm on the honeymoon (!), and fortunately I have a whole week to mark all the science and religion journals before the wedding.
• Wedding planning
• Wedding cars
• Hair and make-up (i.e. find someone to do it on the day)
• Dress fittings for me and the bridesmaids
  
• Decide on vows, sermon, readings etc.
• Finalise music and ask musicians
• Decide on stuff for the reception - will there be dancing, what kind of music etc.
• Make and send invitations
• Order bonbonniere, make place cards
• Decide on flowers - I went to see the florist on Monday night, but I had a migraine, so it was a bit difficult to make decisions
• Gift registry
• Probably other things that I can't think of right now
  
• We still need to find somewhere to live.
  
• We put in an application yesterday for a unit that would have been perfect, but we missed out. Oh well. That would have been just too easy! Now it's back to the drawing board...
  

Overall, we're doing quite well with the wedding stuff. We've finished our marriage preparation course with Matt's minister, and that was very interesting and helpful. A lot of things have been done, and I know we'll get there in the end. Actually, it's probably the PhD that's stressing me out the most at the moment.

Still, only three months until I get to marry the most wonderful man in the world! Hurrah!

An interesting discussion thread

Interesting.

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79% Neo orthodox 64% Emergent/Postmodern 61% Reformed Evangelical 50% Classical Liberal 25% Roman Catholic 25% Fundamentalist 21% Charismatic/Pentecostal 14% Modern Liberal 4%

Overloaded

I think I have taken on way too much teaching this session. One of my subjects is an online Science and Religion course. I've tutored it a number of times now, and once again I seem to have been stuck with the hyperactive students who post more than all the other groups put together!

OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but last session both my groups posted twice as many times as the next most prolific group. And they weren't just short, nonsense posts either - they had some really good things to say! So I guess I can't complain too much...

One really amazing thing: for the first time someone has suggested rules/guidelines for making sure the discussion doesn't get out of hand. A brilliant idea - it's a controversial topic, people are passionate about their own views, and being online, people seem to feel that they have more freedom to be rude than they would be in person, and comments are open to much more misinterpretation. I've seen some nasty exchanges in the past - I hope this session is different.

Happy International Women's Day!

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Getting my hopes up

Received this email this morning:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Cambridge Platonist Spirituality (Classics of Western Spirituality) by Charles Taliaferro have also purchased The Cambridge Platonists in Philosophical Context: Politics, Metaphysics and Religion (International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives internationales d'histoire des idées) by G.A. Rogers. For this reason, you might like to know that The Cambridge Platonists in Philosophical Context: Politics, Metaphysics and Religion (International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives internationales d'histoire des idées) is now available. You can order yours for just $230.00 by following the link below.

The Cambridge Platonists in Philosophical Context: Politics, Metaphysics and Religion (International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives internationales d'histoire des idées)
G.A. Rogers
Price: $230.00

Just $230? And I was getting all excited when I saw "Cambridge Platonists" in the subject line of an email from Amazon...

100 days to go!

WOOHOO!

You might have noticed the countdown timer to the right - courtesy of my pet nerd!

A Woman's World

This sounds like a fascinating book.

Perhaps I'll buy a copy when classes start and I'm earning money again!

Darn. I just looked at a blurb for the book on Amazon, and I think it gave away the big twist! Grr.

I'm an oxymoron

Apparently I'm a "Christian" Feminist, and that means I'm an oxymoron. This post is a response to my earlier comments on "gender-specific education."

To be clear this has nothing to do with how smart or capable a woman is and it has everything to do with God’s order for society. Lara, is a PhD student so I’m fairly certain God blessed her with an articulate tongue and a quick wit, as evidenced in her writings. I happen to think my wife is brilliant. God has given her the ability to think and to write and to be a blessing to those around her. These gifting are not lost because she submits to her husband, rather they are enhanced.

I've been doing a lot of reading about submission in marriage because I'm getting married soon, and I want to be clear on what the Bible says about the roles of the husband and wife in a marriage, and how to live that out in my relationship with Matt. I've read a lot of comments along the lines of "submitting doesn't mean a woman is not intelligent." But, a lot of what I've read has suggested that the only place for a woman to exercise these gifts is in the home. One blog I visited seemed to be arguing that the only reason for a woman to get an education is so she'll be better equipped to home-school her children.

I find it hard to get straight answers, though. What exactly does it mean for a woman to submit to her husband? What exactly is the wife's role in marriage? If I want to be a godly wife to Matt, does that mean that all my efforts should be put into our home and to supporting him, or am I allowed to use my intellect to help others as well? Would that be restricted to helping other women, perhaps by blogging or running a women's bible study, or am I allowed to go out into the secular world of the university to teach, encourage students and give public lectures? Am I allowed to write articles and books that will be read by men? I might seem petulant here, but for me these are real questions.

Someone anonymously commented on my post (I'm getting really tired of anonymous comments, and will probably end up not replying to any):

Could you explain more about why her blog makes you angry? I'm confused. She is only stating what she and her husband believe about the world and how they should guide their children. Nowhere did she state in her blog that "Lara in Australia" MUST do as I am teaching my daughters!" If she had done so, of course your anger would be justified, as she has no authority over you and no business guiding your life. But she does hold these positions in relation to her own family. Her blog is not about attacking others, but rather her purpose is to explain how God has led her family and why they do the things they do. Why does this make you angry? I would realy like to understand.

Why am I angry? It's a good question. But I think the blog I linked to gives some of the answer. People like this are not simply describing they way that they live - they are prescribing it as the only correct way for Christians to live.

What is confusing about Lara is she claims to be a Christian and says the Bible is her favorite book, “above all else“. The confusing part is how someone who reads the Bible can claim that feminism is a good thing and even countenance it as a philosophy.

Firstly, I don't know where he got the idea that I'm a "self-proclaimed reluctant feminist," or that I claim feminism as a good thing, and countenance it as a philosophy. Most of the posts I've put on my blog about feminism have been attempts to work through the issues, and I've explicitly said that I don't call myself a feminism. I'm a Christian - that's why my favourite book is the Bible, and not Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. I don't derive my guidance on how to live from feminist texts - in fact, I can only really claim to have read one (Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth) - I derive it from Scripture. The thing is, people's interpretations of Scripture differ. I'm not talking about ultra-liberal, everything in the Bible is just a fable-type people. I'm talking about honest, God-following, truth-seeking Christians. The Bible, while being God's word, is still a text written in human language, and we're still fallible and sinful humans. We can never hope to agree on absolutely everything. So, we shouldn't be arrogant about our own interpretations. And that leads me to my second point.

Anonymous wrote, "Nowhere did she state in her blog that "Lara in Australia" MUST do as I am teaching my daughters!" If she had done so, of course your anger would be justified, as she has no authority over you and no business guiding your life."

Well, in a sense, she was. If someone writes that universities are places of pagan indoctrination and that a degree is just a piece of paper certifying that you've been "fully indoctrinated with statist, marxist-freudian ideologies," what is this saying about Christians who not only choose to receive a university education, but actually pursue several degrees and enjoy the process? And even the Vaughnshire Farm blogger is claiming that Christians shouldn't be educated in secular universities: "As to the socialist humanistic education system, I don’t think it is helpful for men or women. Why would we go to the God hating Darwinist to ask them to teach us about God’s world?"

Another question. What if my husband tells me to go out and work in a secular job rather than be a full-time stay-at-home wife? Should I submit?! The Vaughnshire Farm blogger wrote that his wife's giftings were enhanced because she submits. I believe that this would also happen in my marriage to Matt, because he encourages me to use the gifts that God has given me - not just in the home, but also in the wider world.

I should point out again that I've got nothing at all against women who choose to be stay-at-home wifes and mothers. That doesn't make me angry at all. Why should it? Such women are trying to live out what they see as the biblical model for marriage and family. What does make me angry is any kind of assumption that women who don't follow this exact model are sinning or disobeying God. I think it's arrogance to presume that one's own interpretation of the Bible (and especially the technicalities of how that interpretation is lived out) is the only correct one. I get angry when someone implies that going to uni is only about pagan indoctrination when I've spent the last 9 years seeking to honour God through my studies. I get upset when someone implies that I should be staying at home to serve my husband full-time once I get married instead of seeking to use the gifts and opportunities God has given me to encourage other Christians and to reach the lost. I get incensed when people seem to presume that a woman who wants to work outside the home is seeking worldly glory instead of seeking to honour God. I get frustrated by seeming inconsistency - "I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God" (1 Timothy 2:9-10) but yet wives should make sure they're all dolled up before their husband leaves for work and again when he gets home, to make sure he doesn't stray.

That's probably enough ranting for now. I should be working on my PhD - after all, the sooner I finish it, the sooner I can escape the pagan environment of the university. But to conclude, I'll just add that I'm quite ready to admit that I've misunderstood or misinterpreted what I've read about the points above. Maybe I've got no reason to be angry - maybe these people are not trying to impose their view of God's order on everyone. Or maybe they are right, and I'm just stuck in my worldly indoctrination. I'm still trying to figure these things out. This blog does not contain the final word on anything. It's a work in progress, just like me.

110 days to go!

I've mentioned before that the time is going slowly in some ways, and speeding by in other ways. There's still so much to be done before the wedding - finish organising it, finish the PhD, teach two classes this semester, write two conference papers - but I just can't wait for it all to be done so I can marry the love of my life!