I went to a debate tonight between Hugh Ross/Fazale Rana and Michael Shermer/some UT professor Sahotra Sarkar. It was basically evolution vs intelligent design - Ross/Rana presented what they called a testable model of creation by design, and Shermer/Sarkar attacked it in favor of naturalistic evolution. To those who were curious, the debate was OK/not that great, and some decent points were made by both sides, but I still feel like there were unanswered questions and holes in each presentation that were covered up by the use of numbers and big words.
While my interest in these topics have subsided, the debate did get me to reflect on the idea of authority and the interaction of Christians with secular authorities and experts. Obviously, intelligent design is one of them - Christians (some in science, some not) disagree with secular experts on macro-evolution and the development of the human species. However, this is a fairly extreme and polarizing example.
More commonly, I feel like I can see Christians disengaging themselves from human authority in less outrageous ways. Broadly, I've wondered how commonly Christians consult experts in the different fields relating to their ministries? For example, urban ministry is closely intertwined with sociology, missions with cultural studies (many Christians strive to do this well; some not so much). When we consider restructuring the church, does the thought of studying human interaction ever cross our minds? In preparing for ministry or thinking about Christianity in general, does it ever cross our minds to pick up anything but a Christian book on the subject?
One example of this taken to the extreme would be, say, end times speculation (spurred on by the Left Behind series and such) - instead of carefully analyzing and thinking in a Christian manner about a series of events, the events are simply seen as (only) the fulfillment of eschatological prophecy and treated as such - as supernatural events that are far beyond us. In doing so, we distance ourselves more and more from culture. Instead of offering a Christ-like analysis of the situation, wrestling with secular analysis/opinions and presenting a Christian response, end-times speculation simply causes the church to withdraw further into itself, muttering amongst ourselves of things that only we understand. This is negative on two fronts - we refuse to interact with culture and confront it with our convictions, and two, we appear more and more like lunatics than revolutionaries to the culture we're called to influence. (This is not ruling out that the end times are being heralded - only that the response we commonly give is probably not optimal)
To some extent, I can understand the separation - Christian counseling and Christian psychology, for example, have flourished as fields on their own, and there is a genuine need for them, since non-Christian counselors and psychologists typically evaluate progress/success/health via different metrics than the ones a Christian would use. However, in some cases, the tendency for Christians to ignore secular authorities on subjects just seems baffling, or worse, ignorant.
I tend to believe any church trying to influence culture should still listen to its critics and to people outside itself. There's genuine danger of any good Christian body becoming an isolated society of zealots, and examples of such are fairly numerous. While we as Christians may often claim to follow the truth, it'd be going a little to far to say we have a monopoly on all truth in every area.
I see my current applied mathematics department as an analogy: we are an interdisciplinary department focusing on real world problems through 1) accurate physical modeling of the problem, 2) sound pure mathematical formulations, and 3) accurate numerical solutions to the problem. We manage large databases of code that run our numerical methods and simulations, but while there is much emphasis on good mathematics and solid engineering/modeling, we seem to have ignored all of what computer science has to say about good coding practices (global variables everywhere, illogical function names, few comments, FORTRAN, no object oriented programming, etc). The result of engineers coding without any consultation of the field of computer science is a code that is mostly functional, but is inflexible, extremely hard for anyone to get used to, difficult to modify and change without breaking lots of things, and very tedious to understand. Likewise, if a church is functional but yet similarly unrelatable and inflexible, I feel like culture might acknowledge what we can do but would never really want to get involved with us.
In the end, I'm reminded of Jesus' admonishing us to be wise as serpents and yet innocent as doves.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Keller on idolatry
A video of Keller speaking at the Gospel Coalition on Idolatry (written notes here
).
I thought this was a very good message on the whole, and definitely challenging. Gave me a lot of things to think about, some related to the message (my own idols, family, possibly treating a relationship as an idol), and some related to concepts (penal substitution, differences b/w Reformed and other theologies).
Perhaps I'll blog about them sometime if I can get to it, but for now, I hope you enjoy the video (and I hope you leave comments on how you think it is!)
).
I thought this was a very good message on the whole, and definitely challenging. Gave me a lot of things to think about, some related to the message (my own idols, family, possibly treating a relationship as an idol), and some related to concepts (penal substitution, differences b/w Reformed and other theologies).
Perhaps I'll blog about them sometime if I can get to it, but for now, I hope you enjoy the video (and I hope you leave comments on how you think it is!)
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
a Ph.D fable
In lieu of a thoughtful, well-written post, I give you - stuff I found on the internet!!
The Rabbit, the Fox, and the Lion
One day, a rabbit was casually hopping back to his hole when, just as he was about to jump into his hole, he was grabbed around the neck by a fox, bent on eating him.
"Oh, please don't eat me," said the rabbit to the fox, "For I am just about to finish my dissertation."
"Why should I care about your dissertation?" asked the fox.
"Because," replied the rabbit, "I think the subject would fascinate you. It's entitled, 'Why Foxes Can't Eat Rabbits.'"
"That's a stupid dissertation," declared the fox. "Of course foxes can eat rabbits. In fact, I'm going to eat you right now!
"But wait," said the rabbit, "Just come down to my hole for a minute. I'll show you my dissertation, and, if you're not convinced, you can eat me. But, I promise you, I will prove to you that my thesis is, in fact, true."
Reluctantly, the fox agreed, and he followed the rabbit down into the hole. There, in the rabbit's hole, the fox saw a pile of bones in one corner, and a lion typing on a laptop in the other.
"What's that?" the fox asked, gesturing at the pile of bones.
"That's my research," replied the rabbit.
"Well, what's he doing here?" asked the fox, looking at the lion.
"Oh, he's my advisor," said the rabbit, at which time the lion pounced and ate the fox.
Moral: The subject of your dissertation really doesn't matter. All that matters is who's your advisor!
The Rabbit, the Fox, and the Lion
One day, a rabbit was casually hopping back to his hole when, just as he was about to jump into his hole, he was grabbed around the neck by a fox, bent on eating him.
"Oh, please don't eat me," said the rabbit to the fox, "For I am just about to finish my dissertation."
"Why should I care about your dissertation?" asked the fox.
"Because," replied the rabbit, "I think the subject would fascinate you. It's entitled, 'Why Foxes Can't Eat Rabbits.'"
"That's a stupid dissertation," declared the fox. "Of course foxes can eat rabbits. In fact, I'm going to eat you right now!
"But wait," said the rabbit, "Just come down to my hole for a minute. I'll show you my dissertation, and, if you're not convinced, you can eat me. But, I promise you, I will prove to you that my thesis is, in fact, true."
Reluctantly, the fox agreed, and he followed the rabbit down into the hole. There, in the rabbit's hole, the fox saw a pile of bones in one corner, and a lion typing on a laptop in the other.
"What's that?" the fox asked, gesturing at the pile of bones.
"That's my research," replied the rabbit.
"Well, what's he doing here?" asked the fox, looking at the lion.
"Oh, he's my advisor," said the rabbit, at which time the lion pounced and ate the fox.
Moral: The subject of your dissertation really doesn't matter. All that matters is who's your advisor!
searching
I just now thought of a church in a different way: a place in which to belong, in which to learn and grow and serve. A sanctuary unto which an individual entrusts his current and future self - a place he can belong and can identify with, but also one in which he can grow as Christ intended him to.
Now the question I find myself asking - what if said individual doesn't know either what exactly he believes (and thus/or) what type of person he hopes to be? What does a church search look like then?
To be precise, said individual knows a few things he believes, but they tend to be very basic and fairly broad (and said individual is me, in case that wasn't clear). For example - the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the existence of God, etc...things that tend to be taken for granted in most churches I've visited, though even these were big steps I had to take/retake.
More nuanced beliefs - conservative/liberal tendencies, specific doctrines, attitudes towards social issues, science and faith, controversial issues, etc. - I am less sure of myself on, and the same is true for other issues such as race. As I try to make a checklist of things that I believe a church should have, I'm finding it difficult to write down more than two things, and thus to really narrow down my choices.
I was going to write a post listing churches I've visited and reviewing each one, but I nixed that one - it seemed as if I was writing pros and cons of each one, but not drawing any closer to finding a church home. And so instead, I write this, and instead I feel wishy washy. Not plugged in. Still kind of wandering around Austin, even after having visited 7 churches so far, but fearful also of settling down somewhere because I'm unsure of whether or not I want to go down that path and not another one. I hope I can ask for your prayers on where to go from here.
"And I still
Haven't found (or figured out)
What I'm looking for."
Now the question I find myself asking - what if said individual doesn't know either what exactly he believes (and thus/or) what type of person he hopes to be? What does a church search look like then?
To be precise, said individual knows a few things he believes, but they tend to be very basic and fairly broad (and said individual is me, in case that wasn't clear). For example - the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the existence of God, etc...things that tend to be taken for granted in most churches I've visited, though even these were big steps I had to take/retake.
More nuanced beliefs - conservative/liberal tendencies, specific doctrines, attitudes towards social issues, science and faith, controversial issues, etc. - I am less sure of myself on, and the same is true for other issues such as race. As I try to make a checklist of things that I believe a church should have, I'm finding it difficult to write down more than two things, and thus to really narrow down my choices.
I was going to write a post listing churches I've visited and reviewing each one, but I nixed that one - it seemed as if I was writing pros and cons of each one, but not drawing any closer to finding a church home. And so instead, I write this, and instead I feel wishy washy. Not plugged in. Still kind of wandering around Austin, even after having visited 7 churches so far, but fearful also of settling down somewhere because I'm unsure of whether or not I want to go down that path and not another one. I hope I can ask for your prayers on where to go from here.
"And I still
Haven't found (or figured out)
What I'm looking for."
Friday, April 17, 2009
busyness
A few congratulations are in order -
1) congrats to Jimmy and Deborah Jessup on their new marriage! It was a blast playing at your wedding.
2) congrats to Peter Yang for passing his defense!
Other than that, studying for qualifying exams, visiting churches, dealing with real estate, and other miscellaneous activities (wedding, beer bike, etc etc) have kept me busy these past few weeks, but hopefully I'll find some time to blog some thoughtful things soon.
Until then, ciao!
1) congrats to Jimmy and Deborah Jessup on their new marriage! It was a blast playing at your wedding.
2) congrats to Peter Yang for passing his defense!
Other than that, studying for qualifying exams, visiting churches, dealing with real estate, and other miscellaneous activities (wedding, beer bike, etc etc) have kept me busy these past few weeks, but hopefully I'll find some time to blog some thoughtful things soon.
Until then, ciao!
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