I signed up recently for the 2011 ASA Annual Meeting. The American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) is a society of Christians in science that within the past year I have become a “member” of. I can’t really be a member because I no longer believe their statement of faith. However, I can be a “Friend of the ASA” and receive almost all the benefits (no voting). I signed up for the ASA because I wanted to get in contact with other Christian scientist and get help with my unbelief and see how they deal with the cognitive dissidence. The local ASA meetings have been very interesting. One interesting aspect is meeting attendees. The main group are retired older men that had a science background. The other main group are college students and professors (the meetings are held at Wheaton College). So I’m in the minority in both age and beliefs. I have also got the sense that members have varying views of how to deal with both science and religion. Some appear to be old earth creationist and some theistic evolutionist. But I have yet to talk to anyone about the deep issues of doubt and unbelief.
In going through the tentative program of the annual meeting, I’m getting more excited to go. Here are some of the interesting topics that are going to be talked about:
- Science and Scripture: Interpreting the Information –Terry Morrison
- Dinosaurs under the Microscope: A New Look at Old Dinosaurs – Mary Schweitzer
- Stem Cells, Embryos and Ethics: A Continuing Controversy – William Hurlbut
- The Study of Paleontology and the Creation Mandate – Keith B Miller
- Physical Geography of the Eastern Nile Delta during the Bronze Age: Implications for the Location of the Red/Reed Sea – Stephen O Moshier
- Reorientation’ Therapies and Same-Sex Desire: Are they Effective and Ethical? – Heather Looy
- Does the Success of Science by Itself Provide Strong Support for Naturalism? – Peter Payne
- Myth and Mystery: Fostering New Avenues of Dialogue for Faith and Science – Matthew M Huddleston
- Climate Change: Why Are Science and Faith in Conflict? – Katharine Hayhoe
- Prayers for Healing: Does God Change His Mind? – Paul H Lange
I’ll also be curious if there will be discussion of the Christianity Today cover story about evolution that came out last month. The Christianity Today article discusses the search for the historical Adam and the implications if there was no historical Adam and Eve. They quote people from both sides of the camp, the BioLogos group and “all the other real Christians”. One of the statistics that I found interesting was from a mail survey of ASA scientist. 66% of them accept that humans share ancestors with everything else, and 90% accept an old earth. This was kind of disheartening. First, this means that 34% of the ASA (an association of scientists!) rejects or doubts a basic tenet of evolution. Second is that there is still 10% who are young-earthers.
Another disheartening part of the Christianity Today article are some of the quotes by evangelical church leaders.
“If Adam doesn’t exist, Paul’s whole argument – that both sin and grace work ‘covenantally’-falls apart . . . If you don’t believe what he believes about Adam, you are denying the core of Paul’s teaching.” Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
“Can the Bible’s theology be true if the historical events on which the theology is based are false?. . . The hermeneutics behind theistic evolution are a Trojan horse that, once inside our gates, must cause the entire fortress of Christian belief to fall” Richard Phillips, South Carolina pastor.
Tough words to chew on. . .
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