I have made a contact with Dallas Intervarsity staff and they have asked me to help a student trying to share her faith on campus with her peers who are asking questions about science and faith.
What do you think of this strategy?
Ask what her exposure to science has been in her life
Ask what kinds of questions are coming her way
Explain the unity of Christians over the Bible as far after Genesis 11 and diversity of opinion about Genesis 1-11
Explain there are Protestants who demand Genesis 1-11 be read as a science textbook
Other Christians including Protestants read Genesis as prescientific and designed to demonstrate to a prescientific people who is the true God among middle eastern gods
A lot of the issue is the existence of a literal Adam and a literal Fall, with Jesus as the second Adam
Talking about ICR, ID, and Biologos as three communities of believers differing about Genesis 1-11
The tension is between evolution teaching populations change over time and man being linked to the animals vs an imago Dei concept
Do Christians do science differently from atheists?
Here is a major issue. Intervarsity on this campus has staff untrained to deal with science and faith questions. So they go to Reasonable Faith, an organization tied to the aggressive discovery institute which wants to overthrow the legacy of Enlightenment science.
I feel like I need to mention the Baylor science depts response to ID.
Thanks for all your help re abiogenesis, kindness, etc
Good thoughts, but the primary thing is to listen to her and see where she is coming from, then assist in giving her resources to appropriately meet her needs.
This all day long. Listen, ask questions that draw out more info, listen some more. I’d spend most of my time doing that. Then, as @jpm suggested, offer to send her/signpost her to some good resources.
So to be clear there is a student who is going to college and her university reached out to you to help her share her faith on campus concerning other students who are asking her questions about the overlap of science and faith?
I guess as stated the first obvious thing is to find out what her faith is and what she believers about science and religion. Then help direct her toward material and communities that can guide her towards learning more and carrying out the great commission. Find out if she even wants help. She may as far as I know disagree completely with evolution and so on.
Is the college trying to help her spread the gospel on campus or do they disagree with her scientific beliefs and want you to show her how she’s wrong so she can spread a gospel and scientific worldview that matches that colleges.
I have always understood ICR to have real tensions with ID due to its predominant group being old-universe and old earth. Some YECs do affiliate with the Discovery Institute however.
