@Casper_Hesp has only been part of our community for several months, but already he has distinguished himself as one of its most thoughtful and gracious members. He’s also demonstrated an extraordinary breadth of knowledge about science and the Christian faith. Casper is currently studying astrophysics and neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam. You might have noticed that his first BioLogos article, on special relativity and young-earth creationism, was published today. The fact that we’ve asked him to write such a series, as a graduate student, shows how highly we think of him.
Casper will be assisting Christy and I in promoting (and enforcing) our standards and ideas in this community. As he’s just starting in this capacity, we ask that you continue to message myself and @Christy first if you have any issues, and Casper will assist as needed.
About my studies, you are right that these topics cannot be studied in a joined programme. That’s why I decided to do two full-time programmes, simultaneously .
My two undergraduate programs were in Astronomy and Psychology. My university at the time was quite flexible in terms of time allocation. As long as I passed the exams and all other course requirements, I could basically study as much as I wanted. It is a very stimulating combination of studies. Die-hard analytical thinking combined with more narrative approaches and development of soft skills. Also, my programming experience obtained in astronomy is very useful in psychology nowadays.
For a long time, I told myself I would finally choose between the two subjects after finishing my undergraduate degrees. But in the end, I felt the fruits of this “cross-fertilization” were so valuable that I couldn’t leave behind either of them. So I decided to follow them up with two full-time graduate programs: Astrophysics and Neuroscience.
As such, I picked up two specializations. It’s a very stimulating experience to live in these two separate “worlds” within the academia. Though it requires extra work of course, and some tricky customizations of course schedules.
@BradKramer , Thanks for the generous introduction .
For some unknown reason, the Netherlands (my country) has a neat system in which you can follow “two programs for the price of one” at any of the Dutch universities . That surely helped to get the financial part of the story to work out. This way they encourage people to make an extra effort.
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. That surely helped to get the financial part of the story to work out. This way they encourage people to make an extra effort.