Kristina grew up in Hovind-brand YEC and as an adult, finally regained the curiosity to ask questions.
Thanks for sharing your story with us, K!
3 Likes
Beautiful story. Hopefully, it will touch the hearts of many who have turned from Christianity and allow them to see the way creation and scripture can be compatible.
4 Likes
The website needs a little work. Some of the text is covered up. oh⌠managed a work around by changing the text size (ctrl wheel).
Even if it is difficult to empathize because of our opposite backgrounds, it is still gratifying to see someone coming from the opposite direction as I had to from my extremely liberal background. It just goes to show that we can all learn if we make ourselves open to it. Of course, I got the better deal from my journey, so to speak, since I still think Christianity is more important than science, even though I will not compromise on the epistemological superiority of science and reject the idea that any Christianity is better than no Christianity.
But I will say this. There is nothing whatsoever to regret is our own very unique journey in discovering all kinds of truth. It is those differences which enable us to contribute something valuable to the world and our fellow travelers. ALSO⌠the fear of leaping without care into science is not completely without any basis whatsoever, especially when we are talking about making it ones career. When we are less experienced and less wiser joining a community which is admittedly a higher proportion of disbelievers is not without danger to a personâs faith. Is this not why we trust in God to give us what we need, when we need it?
For example⌠here is a an experience I had which I look back on with considerable amusement. When it came up in a discussion in the physics department that I was a Christian, one of the postdocs actually said, âwell then you must not be a very good physicist.â My response was to laugh and say, âwell, I am not a very good physicist.â This is largely because I was at that point where I was finding my limitations⌠something that is likely to happen with most of us in an academic pursuit â most of us eventually discover that we are not the smartest person in the world after all.
2 Likes
it did that for me, too, when i opened it this morning, but opening it a second and third time I had no problemsâŚweird, huh!
Great story, and one I can relate to a lot as well, especially in learning about vaccines becoming a gateway to questioning what science even is.
I loved how systematic and unbiased data was. Even more, I loved how it made me feel smart, not in an arrogant way like before (when I memorized all of the facts of YEC just to spew them out onto my unsuspecting opponent), but smart in a way that I actually understood how scientists got their information, their methodology, and that I could even replicate these same experiments at home and get the same results as Einstein and the like. This was science.
The difference is very stark between the âparrot back memorized responsesâ and the work of science that has to look at a body of data rather than cherry-picking convenient pieces and ignoring others. The more I learn about it the less I realize I know about anything â itâs humbling but also amazing to finally be able to open up and not feel the need to pre-select information based on whether or not I already agree with it.
This whole experience has given me an exercise in critical thinking and being accepting of people who think differently, just like Mr. Hall was towards me when I pelted him with my âright answers.â Itâs the grace and patience that I remember most, not the exact words that he said
This is such an important observation. How easy it can be to just fall back into that old pattern of trying to âtruth bombâ people, just with different information. Working on this myself!
3 Likes
From the article:
Unbeknownst to me then, his [Hovind] method was presenting the false dichotomy of you canât be a Christian and believe the Big Bang or evolution.
Did Hovind really promoted that?
I doubt that Hovind or other YEC speakers would have phrased it exactly like that. Most would at least admit that you can âbelieve in evolutionâ and still be technically saved. But there was absolutely a false dichotomy presented. He did say or imply that if you didnât see the universe as young, you pretty much had to throw out the entire Bible, which is pretty close to saying that an old universe is incompatible with Christianity. Anything related to evolution was viewed as an âattackâ on Christianity, so it didnât take me too long to see that I couldnât really be a Christian if I accepted something that was supposedly anti-Christian or anti-biblical.
In todayâs new podcast episode, April Cordero speaks to the same idea. In her classrooms in 2019, still over half the kids have been taught in some way or another that you cannot be a Christian and believe in evolution, and that you have to choose.
3 Likes
Yes, I remember his strong dislike of evolution. I think thatâs ok. To make a connection with salvation is absurd. Sorry to hear you have been exposed to this line of thought, must have been hard.
2 Likes
Yeah, I can respect a difference of opinion on evolution, just as I would with baptism, gifts of the Spirit, and many other things Christians disagree on, but would agree that portraying it as incompatible with Christianity is a different thing. Itâs something Ken Ham gets very defensive about and heâll say heâs never said EC believers are not saved. Which may be technically true, but that doesnât mean he (and others) hasnât implied that by making the validity of the entire Christian faith dependent on the age of the earth.
2 Likes
Krestina, Welcome! Thank you for sharing.
Yours is an interesting story, complete with a strong reference to the Ukraine which is much in the news today. It is a sad story that after all the people of the Ukraine have gone through before WW2, during that disastrous war, and after it, Putin is still seeking to annex it by force deceit
It is also ironic that the Communists tried to use the lie that science/evolution was opposed to Christianity to attack it, Christians in NA, who should know better continued that lie . Christianity is based on truth, love and faith, not anger and fear. Too much of âChristianityâ in todayâs world is based on anger and fear.
I am glad that you found out the truth about evolution. I am glad that your Christian science teacher witnessed to you That is what we all need to do to share the truth that God has revealed to us.
Concerning that I want to explain a misunderstanding in how evolution works that was evident in you story. This is not a rebuke, but information that we all need to know, even BioLogos because God loves the truth and good science.
ââA change in allele frequencies of a population,â is the basic underlying force of evolution. These genetic changes accumulate in a population so that, over time, the organisms in question will have changed enough that they may not even be able to breed with other members of their species. Letâs take walking for an example, say that you can walk from your room to the kitchen in 20 steps. Given enough time and resources, there is nothing stopping you from walking to the park, across town, or even across the country.â
Okay, the problem with that explanation is that it is not complete. Hominids and their ancestors lived in trees, but humans saw that the advantages of living on the ground out weighed living in trees, so they had to learn how to walk. This was not an accident but a part of the evolutionary process that Gods created to make humans in Godâs Own Image.
People developed from tree dwellers to ground dwellers not by random changes, but by using the gifts God gave us and sharing those gifts so humans could develop into the Image of God.
People did not develop brains by chance, but because developed brains were evolutionary advantageous, and they are evolutionarily and ecologically beneficial because that is the way God created the universe.
1 Like
Thank you for the feedback! My explanation is simple because I didnât want to get too science-y. The walking example was a parallel to evolution. It shows that steps accumulate, which result in a distance being traveled, with no known mechanism preventing the accumulation of steps. I appreciate you pointing out that God indeed is behind the whole process!
I recently participated in a comment section about YEC vs OEC and oh my goodness, I got bullied by the two men who run the channel. They went as far as telling me Iâm worse than an atheist for not believing the Bible âas writtenâ. This kind of rhetoric is SO harmful and disgusting.
2 Likes
Thanks Phil! Iâm hoping for the same!