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ScienceTheology

The Gift of Gene Therapy

My father had his first heart attack at 37 years old. Let that sentence sink in for a second. No part of this shocking statement has been lost on me, certainly not when I recently turned 38. I have spent my entire adult life aware of the seriousness of heart disease and I have assumed since my teens that eventually heart disease will cause my death. However, I am doing my best to prevent that from happening any time soon.…
April 23, 2019
CultureScienceTheology

Determinism

by Clayton Carlson “Of course you are smart, your dad is a scientist.” My kids, who tend to do pretty well in school, have heard a comment like that more than once. There are different ways to interpret what they are being told. The teacher, parent, or classmate trying to affirm my son or daughter might mean that as children of a college professor, they live in a world where education is highly valued. They could be recognizing that my…
March 26, 2019
ScienceTheology

Welcome to the Century of Neuroscience, the Century of the Brain: Changing Views of Who and What we are as Human Beings

Ralph Davis is an Associate Professor of Biology at Northwestern College, Orange City, IA. He directs the Neuroscience and Persons Program (NAPS) at Northwestern. The Nature of Human Nature: Traditional Dualistic Views Who am I? What is the nature of human nature? Of human persons? Such fundamental questions have been raised and debated from time immemorial. A host of answers have been given and in this article we will briefly survey the main categories of views. The traditional dualistic/two component…
January 24, 2019
ScienceTheology

Prophecy and Climate

Jeremiah 22 (link) offers a clear and concise warning from God. The message is addressed to the King of Judah who sits on the throne of David. But, as verse two of the chapter indicates,
January 16, 2019
Science

Ecclesiastes and Science

The universe is vast. On average, it is about 140 million miles to Mars, which is our next door neighbor. Considering the broader solar system (from Neptune to the sun) if we were to throw a dart at the solar system, the odds of hitting anything would only be about one in 10 million. Further out, the next closest star in our galaxy is 4 light years, or tens of trillions of miles away. Andromeda, the next closest galaxy, is…
October 3, 2018
EssaysScience

Genesis 1 within the Faith-Science Debate

What are we going to do with Genesis 1? I have heard that question throughout my career, first as a pastor and then as a professor. I understand the urgency behind it, but the question itself needs serious revision. For Christians, a more important question asks what Genesis 1 is going to do with us. Or, to put it differently: How does God want to challenge and nurture the church through Genesis 1? Obviously, in order to arrive at an…
April 30, 2016
As We See ItScience

Lunar Stories: The Violence of Creation

THE FORMULAS AND EQUATIONS THE AUTHOR USES IN HIS MOON RESEARCH. Tales of the moon’s creation abound in myth, legend, history and science. Given its conspicuous brightness and nearness, we should not be surprised that the moon has captured the imagination since the dawn of human consciousness, variously treated as a deity or a vessel of the divine (such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s lunar Isil, guided by the reckless Tilion) or in a significant departure from other ancient Near East cosmologies,…
April 30, 2016
As We See ItScience

Science and Faith: My Personal Journey

For most of my life, I have been a carefree young-earth creationist. Because I had no reason to believe otherwise, I assumed the creation of the world played out precisely as described in Genesis 1 and 2. That’s what my teachers seemed to believe, that’s what my parents seemed to believe, and that was, apparently, the only real Christian way to approach the matter. The theory of evolution was reserved for poor heathen atheists who because they refused to acknowledge…
April 30, 2016