It has come to my attention that the open forum has no introductions thread, and that people look for such a thing.
So here it is!
Feel free to tell us a little about yourself (even if you are not that new to BioLogos) and how you found your way here.
Hi, I was directed to this forum from the Theologyforum.com. I am married but not blessed with Children. I am a Lay preacher of nearly 40 years with an interest and some education in all sciences, but Biology in particular. I do not consider Genesis 1-11 to be actual history, but otherwise my Biblical acceptance is fairly orthodox.
I am not 100% certain I fulfill all criteria for the Homeschool forum but would hope to conform to the general guidelines of the Forum as a whole.
I guess we will see if I fit in or not, but I was looking for some sort of introduction thread and this seemed to be the only one.
Richard
I made a new open forum intro thread, just for you! Welcome, and hope you find some good discussions.
I am Vance, a long-time Christian, a father and grandfather and husband to my first wife for more than 45 years.
I am an electrical engineer by training and a financial and mathematical modeler by preference. I am a retired business executive. My wife and I love to travel. I do more than she does, but she is a good sport.
I spend my time traveling, taking care of grandchildren, leading a small group at church (North Point Community Church), stock trading.
I posted my own thread for an introduction because of this lack. Here is a rewrite of the first paragraph from the OP:
I was not raised Christian, but in circumstances so liberal that I can generally critique the Christian establishment better than most atheists. Science has always been my fundamental outlook on the world, and it is on that basis which I explored philosophy and religion. In philosophy I found much of value in existentialism (especially Camus) and much later in pragmatism (especially C.S. Pierce) and Aristotle. I particularly did not like Plato, Whitehead, and Kuhn. In religion I read both the Bible and something about Buddha, but since they came to me, it was the pseudo-Christian groups, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, and moonies who I studied first before finding my home in evangelical Christianity (though in the more liberal end of its spectrum to be sure).
Another good link to understand me is where I list my reasons for believing. On that same link I expand upon these reasons a bit and link to another place where I explain more.
I found BioLogos from the book āControversy of the Agesā by Theodore J. Cabal and Peter J. Rasor II. Which in the book in the talk about the debate of evolution and creation they mentioned this site as a place for Evolutionary Creationism and around this time when I was still YEC I was having thoughts in my head on issues with the age of the earth, dinosaur fossils in the layers of the earth and the Flood. Came to the website and it helped me out with the issues I had and I was able to return to EC with confidence that the Bible is true and science doesnāt pose a threat to it. I am a Bible college graduate with a certificate in Missions and I plan this January to return to secular college and get my degree in Liberal Arts in teaching Secondary Education, I plan on teaching American and World History, American Civil Goverment and Social Studies.
In the spirit of welcoming new friends to the forums Iāll add some basic bio here. Iām 66, retired from 25 years of teaching middle school math at the end of my working life and live in Berkeley, California. I was born the second of seven navy brats and attended a Methodist church but stopped attending before starting school. Now Iām spiritually feral with no belief in anything supernatural but a keen interest in the origins and significance of god belief. I greatly admire believers who are respectful even to those outside their group and who are epistemically humble. I married the right woman on only my second try 36 years ago. I Earned a BA in philosophy at Cal In my mid thirties. Iām devoted to our two furry kids, my forty something stepson, my niece and nephew and to my garden. I read nonfiction almost exclusively until I retired. Now Iāve moved on to fiction.
Thanks for sharing!
If the proper thread arises, I can tell some stories of supernatural events in my own family that may help in your continuing development.
Hi 
This is our second year of homeschool, which is for a first grader, pre-k, and a toddler on the side/in the middle of everything. I found BioLogos a few years ago, and have been a consistent listener/reader for a year and a half. Since I began questioning my faith after learning about the discrepancies between historical evidence and the interpretation of Scripture that my church taught in high school, Iāve read authors and listened to speakers from YEC, ID, and EC. Last year, I remembered BioLogos and gave their new podcast a listen, and it was like God threw me the line. I love research, and Iāve rediscovered how much I love pretty much every area of science, and it is wonderfully fulfilling to not be afraid of what we learn about Godās world, or to not have to wear armor while reading about anything regarding scientific data. The best part is finding so many correlations to Godās character, much like Romans 1 describes. The world doesnāt just LOOK beautiful, it operates in the beautiful ways that display Godās character!
Iām thankful for the opportunity to homeschool our kids, and my goal is to pass on a love of learning, and the mental foundation of being able to have peace, wisdom, and trust (God has always been faithful to hold me through my many questions) while exploring new and/or challenging ideas and data. Another goal is that my family is familiar with the discomforts of questions and the gray areas between bipartisan issues and among real life experiences, in order to love God and people without regard with where on the religious or political spectrum our obedience to Christ lies. I hope my kids can be a part of taking care of Godās creation- all of it. And Iām not just projecting this on my kids, this what I want them to join me in, if thatās their path, and on the way, I want them to find theirs. I believe the best way to do this is to show them how to interpret Godās Word humbly and faithfully, and to discover as much as possible about how to take care of Godās world by studying and understanding it.
Hello. Just got here! Found you guys having a ātalkā with Google āAIā. Surprised it sent me to ya! AbacusAI (my actual subscribed tool will not Iād bet $10) Nothing āout of the mainstreamā when race or religion is brought up. Impressed with what I see so far for the most part.
Who am I? Iām a 62yo Marine Corps veteran and ACOA survivor. I hail from central Indiana. Born and mostly raised here. Iāve also lived in Missouri for a bit many years ago in the SW MO Ozarks. Beautiful! Iāve been a Believer since my early teens. Iāve come here hoping to find HONEST discussion about non-PC topics that are very much alive in todayās world imo
Origins. Curses. Covenants. Fire. Rewards. Much, much more!
I would like to say (and this is going to sound very stand-offish for a FIRST TIME POST I know.. but please bear with me) that Iām not here for you allās OPINIONS! /grin
I KNOW Iām going to read them and learn them. Unavoidable. I have them too. Obviously.
Iām LOOKING FOR.. honest and painful-if-needs-be conversation with fellow Believers who are driven by LOGIC and REASON
Not interested in āstuff my pastor taught us when I was growing upā. Heard that! OVER IT
Letās read between the Lines and connect the Dots of Scripture
He didnāt tell us everything! He told us what we needed to hear to discern the TRUTH of His Word. Period. It is the glory of kings to uncover truth. (huge paraphrase as I know thatās not even close to what it says but the spirit is close)
Let us emulate good kings and DIG DEEP and keep on digging no matter where the Truth leads us.
THAT IS MY HOPE. That is why Iām here. There are FEW people I personally know that I can do this with. My younger brother being one of them and at times heās the only one!
Iām eager to āget to know you guysā
A couple of you already stick out as likely āfast friendsā perhaps
Iām thankful that you have this forum! 
-donald
Hi Donald!
I think you will like it here. Feel free to start a thread on whatever is most niggling you at the moment. We have lots of opinions. And also many facts, because this is a place where smart people with actual expertise hang out, which can be very informative at times. And people here still read books sometimes instead of doomscrolling. So nice to know the robots recommended our company.
Welcome, @qendiil . I am sure we can learn a lot from your earnest search, too.
Iām an adult missionary kid, interested in science and medicine. I have 3 teenage kids and am married to a missionary kid (both of us lived in Africa). I find this place refreshing, too.
I live in Michigan; but we have relatives in Indiana.
Thank you.
Randy
I learned about Biologos years ago when I use to listen to their podcasts. I heard about the podcasts by looking up Francis Collins from him being named a lot in animal rights group. Some mentioned him as someone trying to improve it and others mentioned him as someone contributing to the abuse and suffering of millions of Aninalās through the practices he allowed in the NIH. It seems at least Jane Goodall was able to get him to stop contributing to biomedical testing on chimpanzees. But it also caused many within the animal rights movement to view her as someone who was betraying the movement because of her sometimes high regard for him. He managed to have her on in a podcast episode. Some who knew her like Ingrid Newkirk hinted that while Jane Goodall praised him and was thankful for what he did with chimps she was great horrified by his continuation of abuse almost all other species. Horrific exploitation of pain
And suffering under the guise of protecting humans. But Francis also said thisā¦
But despite saying that it seemed only the chimp stuff really stopped.
Anyways that lead me to the podcast which lead me to listening to it which lead me to others who were Christians that accepted scientific consensus on things like evolution. At that time I was still confused over fine tuning. Though it sounded great. Made my faith not sound stupid and taught me more about science. The term evolutionary creationist was a term I used for myself for a while.
Met a man named Klax here before he was booted. He is probably the single most influential person on my faith. Helped me become more at peace with my faith than anything. Helped allowed me to truly understand the depth of accomondationism throughout the entire Bible, not just Genesis 1-11. I would have abandoned the faith with hatred if not for him. I still sometimes search his dialogue back years ago. His stance is ā the only thing that matters is faith expressed as loveā is the way the Bible makes sense to me now as a book of myths.
So for me I believe in god. I donāt believe in a supernatural god. I donāt believe in an all powerful all knowing god. I believe in the Bible. I donāt believe itās a book that was written by the Holy Ghost possessing various men to dictate his magical message to mankind. So what do I think god is? I think it god as essentially some sort of emergent god within the cosmos. A Matrioshka Brain that is able to connect to us through sending signals to us. This cosmic entirety that is able to use quantum entanglement or something. Something beyond what I know or probably ever will know. There are so many concepts out there within the theoretical arguments like neutrino beams, or sterile neutrinos moving between the ābranesā of the universe. To much we donāt know. Which is where all the faith comes in and to be honest Iām not worried about exploring it further. I just canāt buy into some supernatural reality and so what makes sense to me is just simple viewing it as another universe, or another dimension of our universe and as a being that evolved naturally within it and for whatever reason is able to extend itself throughout all of it and into other universes and that the Holy Spirit is simply the term we give to however it communicates.
I think for whatever reason it reached humanity by merging or hikacking the human that was Jesus. I prefer to think of it as just Jesus was super in tune with this world soul. I donāt think Jesus had a magical birth. I think he was 100% human with a mom and a dad that was fully human and he was simply lifted up in honor and power.
So when it comes to the stories in the Bible like the resurrection it Lazarusā¦ maybe itās true. Maybe not. It seems that John has far more supernatural stuff associated with it than the other gospels. I donāt think Jesus really walked on water but it was a myth tied into the chaotic waters. I tend to default towards myths or naturalistic explanations for everything in the Bible. I donāt care if there is or is not a resurrection of the body m. I hope we can have some sort of conscious and sentience and individuality in the afterlife and thatās mostly just because I want to spend an eternity with my pets. If not then I cling to a different type of hope. The hope that the energy that makes me up and the energy that makes up my loved ones will be absorbed back into the earth, because the fruits, the caterpillars Nd so on until this planet is destroyed and become other planets and stars, until the great freeze and I hope on that great freeze me and my loved ones are little particles drifting that given enough time and space just happens to cross paths and maybe even be pulled into one another and maybe overtime it starts all over again.
So Iām an omnist because I think I the same god that created Christianity is the same god that created all faiths and that this inspiration spreads even to books, films, music, art and so on. Thst the living word comes to everyone in many forms to accommodate them and help make them better happier more loving people. I think God works through Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, wiccans, and that the Bible is just as inspired as a book like the hobbit. Itās all one big story of love and justice conquering all insuring it in people. Blah blah.
Hi, My given Name is Alfred (73yrs) and my family members call me Alfie. I went to Public Schools and pledged Allegiance to The US Flag. Made Communion and Confirmation in Catholic Church, My Mom wanted me to, but not an attender of the Services very often.
A song that rang in my Ear is " Whatās it all About Alfie?", it made me to be Curious about life. I liked Math and Science for they seemed to be of Truth. Iāve seen a lot of the artist stores and all their situation creations. Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma, Mission Impossible Series, Ten Commandments, to name a few. I heard a lot of music from my Parents and then the classic popular songs on the Radio in the sixties 50ās, 60ās, 70ās.
Served in The US Navy 4yrs. as a first generation Transistorized 8-Bit computer technician and did some traveling then. After then worked in a IC Based Computer Company till 1990. Got laid off for the Intel 1-Chip processor came along. This is when I realized I had to figure out Religion. I was upset and wanted to find the Meaning if This Life.
Itās been 30 Yrs. or so, and now Iāve found the most important to me the Meaning. Being Re-Baptized as an Adult, like Jesus, I became now a Child of āOur Fatherā. I realize now Iām back to being a Child and my(Our Father) does not want me to participate in certain Adult Behaviors. I know this is Controversial but, I donāt Drink Alcohol, I donāt Smoke, I donāt do Mind altering Drugs, I donāt own any Firearms, I donāt Gamble, I donāt own Stocks, Bonds, Crypto, I do own Gold and Silver. Take the letter L out of GOLD and You get GOD, for God made these rare metals to be used as value.
I then was giving a proof of āOur Fatherāsā existence for He gave Us a communication tool as the ability to Pray. Why would We have this ability unless We were given it to Pray to God, therefore God Exists to Pray to God.
My last noteworthy wonder is How is God Sovereign and How does God Have the Whole Wide World in His Hands. The Bible in Rev 1:4 indicates the Seven
Spirits of God. I now see them as Hindu the center of Godās Planet. The 3 to the West are Judaism, Islam, Christianity. The 3 to The East Bhuddism, Taoism in China, and Shinto in Japan. These are Godās commandable Spirits and are kind of Territorial.
I know these words may be Un-Aggreable, but itās what I think itās all about.
Iāll give him your greeting when I see him soon.
āLet your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.ā -Colossians 4:6
This is a place for gracious dialogue about science and faith. Please read our FAQ/Guidelines before posting.