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ASA OK-TX Section E-Newsletter No. 58 March 10, 2007
Welcome to the 58th edition of the ASA Oklahoma-Texas Section E-Newsletter! (As always, if for any reason you ever want to be removed from the e-mailing list, simply reply to this note asking to be removed, and I’ll take care of it.)
I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the Reasons to Believe Regional Conference that our little Houston bunch attended last month. We could always use some other news to liven up these “digits,” especially from your part of the state. If you know of science-faith events anywhere in our bi-state area, please give me some details so I can tell our members. If you attend a science-faith event, your colleagues would be blessed if you write a summary of it for this newsletter, so they can benefit from what you've learned – and if you have pictures from an event (digital, preferably), they would be a welcome addition to liven up the “pages” of this newsletter!
Contents: Upcoming Science-Faith Events in the OK-TX Area Impressions of the Reasons to Believe Regional Conference Held at Houston’s Second Baptist Church Feb. 23-24
ASA OK-TX Houston area group met Saturday, March 10th Address List
Upcoming Science-Faith Events in the OK-TX Area
Saturday, March 10th – ASA OK-TX Houston-area meeting, at Star Pizza in the Heights.
Impressions of the Reasons to Believe Regional Conference Held at Houston’s Second Baptist Church Feb. 23-24
All five of us from the Houston-area section of the ASA made it to parts of the conference. Bruce Koons and Ed Nelson made it to the talk Friday night. Roger Rowe and I made it to the whole day Saturday, and Andy Coleman was there the whole time. Friday night was packed; someone estimated the sanctuary seats 3,000. On Saturday I estimate there were from 700-1200 people there. The conference had a big impact!
Impressions of the Conference from Ed Nelson
I am glad I was able to go to the Friday event. Dr. Ross spoke, and I was impressed that he is primarily a preacher and secondly a scientist. His testimony was interesting, telling his story of traveling from interest in the heavens to searching for the Maker of the heavens. His message on Friday seemed to me more of presenting Christ than science, which was just fine. I was possibly most impressed by how enthusiastic Dr. Ed Young was in his support of Dr. Ross. I am certain that his endorsement of Dr. Ross is a big step. In prior years Dr. Young was a confirmed YEC (Young Earth Creationism) literalist. [Editor’s note: Dr. Ed Young is the head pastor of Second Baptist Church, which has about 10,000 members. He wrote a very positive introductory note as a foreword to the notebook each participant received.]
The audience was supportive of Dr. Ross as well. His position on YEC is clear but it comes at a price. He is not willing to say something in the Bible is less than 100% literal. He instead uses a lot of verse parsing and jumping around from book-to-book to support explanations about the Noah flood not being the entire earth. I bought Ross's book on Creation as Science because he makes some interesting predictions that I hope we can discuss this at some length.
The cosmology seems good. The UFO stuff they should not touch. The efforts to disprove evolution seem to me to be misguided, but perhaps they are revolutionary. All in all, I was favorably impressed with the part of the event I saw. They may fail in their endeavor to prove via science that God is, but the effort is worth making. They are striving to show God, and RTB is sincere in their science. It is clear from visiting with a number of attendees, many of whom are professionally involved with science and engineering, that the assertions that believers cannot be good scientists or technical workers is simply silly.
Impressions of the Conference from Scott Robinson
I was impressed with the RTB staff’s integrity. They consistently brought the focus back to God’s glory and the importance of reaching people. They see themselves as a missions organization reaching scientists and those who are scientifically-influenced. (They have a very good track record in that regard. Dr. Richard Smalley, Nobel Prize winner for discovering Buckeyballs, attended Hugh Ross’ talk at Rice two years ago and became a Christian because of it. Before he died, he gave a fantastic testimony on his website.) They take a position that the earth is old and that life has changed over time, but also that what Scripture says about the Creation is true. This helps them reach scientists, but they’re also doing a great job reaching homeschoolers and other Christians with an alternative to Young Earth Creationism.
I was impressed with the caliber of the people who attended. Most were from Second Baptist, obviously, but there were attendees from many other denominations, and from all over the state and beyond. The questions in the breakout sessions showed real depth of understanding about physics, relativity, philosophy, biology, theology, and evangelism. God has a lot of intelligent, intellectual, deeply committed people in His Kingdom in the U.S.! That was so good to see – just as we see at the ASA annual meetings.
Argument Against Fine-Tuning: The Multiverse
I had two questions I wanted RTB to answer. The first was about statements I had read recently by some scientists that a multiverse (multiple universes) was now understood as a necessary consequence of inflation theories. If true, that would definitely puncture the argument for Design based on the incredible fine-tuning of our universe for life. Dr. Jeff Zweerink, an RTB staffer who is also on the research faculty at UCLA, answered my question very satisfactorily during a breakout session on the Anthropic Principle that he conducted. He said that every inflation theory has a multiverse and single-universe solution, but for the inflating “bubbles” to coalesce into a single universe gives the resultant universe more agitation than we observe in ours. He wasn’t daunted by that. Dr. Zweerink thinks there may be solutions to that problem which just aren’t being explored right now because multiverses are trendy.
He also noted that there’s a tendency for us to discover a way to explain the design at some level only to find it springing back up in larger form in the thing that “explained” the design. He gave the example of the universe’s flatness. It was observed to be so close to 1 that it required fine-tuning to one part in 1060. Inflation theory “explained” that fine-tuning away, but it illuminated the Dark Energy problem, which requires a mass-energy density fine-tuning of one part in 10120! Dr. Zweerink suggested that Design may keep popping up every time we explain it somewhere. That was intriguing!
Biblical Exegesis
My second question concerned how RTB exegetes the Bible. RTB is attempting to fashion a “testable” creation model based on data of the Bible and of nature – that is, God’s general revelation and special revelation, as several speakers said. As one example of their exegesis, they routinely cite Isaiah 42:5 as saying the universe is expanding, which harmonizes with the Big Bang. That makes me uneasy for two reasons: 1) I’m concerned that they may be hanging their Biblical interpretation on one view of science, which sounds good today but might backfire in the future if science changes its mind. 2) I think it’s really pushing the meaning of the verse to think that Isaiah had anything like an expanding universe in mind when he made that statement. Therefore, did God have that in mind – or would He have only given Isaiah what Isaiah and people in all times and places could understand?
I don’t have a full answer to that question, but I do have reason to believe that RTB will be flexible. They remain openminded, holding everything loosely, not stubbornly. They use God’s special revelation and general revelation to correct interpretations of each other, the way we use archaeology to refine our Scripture interpretation. At the conference, I heard that they’re proposing a framework which holds a family of models, not just one, so again they’re displaying flexibility by setting broad limits.
Still, their approach to Scriptural exegesis leads them to conclude, for example, that Adam and Eve must have been specially created, and if that doesn’t fit with paleoanthropology in the future, I would think it would cause them or their followers some problems. I’m still not sure what I think of this method of exegesis.
Fruit of YEC at Lunch
The biggest benefit of the Conference was its effect on homeschoolers, who until now have only had one source of science education curricula from Young Earth Creationist (YEC) authors. RTB is really filling a gaping hole here. At lunch, Roger Rowe and I ate with five homeschoolers who were attending the conference. We asked them why they had come and what their impressions were. One homeschooling father, who is technically trained, said he had never paid much attention to the young earth emphasis in the curriculum his children were being taught from. He assumed they would not be significantly influenced by it. His children now range in age from 5th grade to high school, and he was recently shocked to find out that they harbor doubts about his orthodoxy, because he believes in an old earth! He had heard of the conference the night before and just showed up. He was very encouraged by what he heard, and planned to get the RTB resource “Teaching Science from a Christian Worldview.” He learned that homeschoolers got a complimentary copy of this $20.00 resource, and he gladly accepted!
The married couple came because their son, now 19, had just declared himself an atheist and a disciple of Richard Dawkins. He grew up in a good Christian home and had been taught the typical young-earth view, as well as other conservative Christian positions, but now he was repudiating all of his parents’ values, and his parents had come in search of ways to reach him. I think they are representative of a lot of devout parents these days. They received tremendous encouragement from attendees at the conference and RTB staff, and gained a lot of resources they plan to put to use.
The fifth homeschooler, a mom, had heard of the conference from the couple and came to check it out. Her kids are high school age and younger, and she wanted to prepare them for college. She couldn’t follow the presentations very well, because they were a little technical, but she wanted to hear more. She also was happy to take home a copy of the “Teaching Science from a Christian Worldview” resource.
I was gratified to see homeschoolers being given a true perspective on science, and I’m grateful to RTB for helping set them and their children free.
ASA OK-TX Houston area group met Saturday, March 10th
By the time you read this, the Houston-area ASA bunch will probably have met at Star Pizza on Saturday and discussed several science-faith topics. We plan to discuss the first 2-3 chapters of Hugh Ross’ latest book, “Creation as Science”, in which he says he lays out his entire Testable Creation Model in one place for the first time (all previous books addressed different parts of the model in more detail).
In case you’re getting this early Saturday morning and want to join us at noon, here’s the directions:
Star Pizza in Houston Heights
77 Harvard Houston, TX 77007
Phone 713-869-1241
To get there from I-10 westbound, take the Heights exit, turn left (south) on Heights, go under the freeway, turn left (east) on Washington, and it’s on the left side of the road. If you're coming from I-10 eastbound, take the Studemont exit, U-turn under the freeway and double back on the frontage road to Heights Boulevard, and follow the directions above.
1 comment:
ASA OK-TX Section E-Newsletter No. 58 March 10, 2007
Welcome to the 58th edition of the ASA Oklahoma-Texas Section E-Newsletter! (As always, if for any reason you ever want to be removed from the e-mailing list, simply reply to this note asking to be removed, and I’ll take care of it.)
I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the Reasons to Believe Regional Conference that our little Houston bunch attended last month. We could always use some other news to liven up these “digits,” especially from your part of the state. If you know of science-faith events anywhere in our bi-state area, please give me some details so I can tell our members. If you attend a science-faith event, your colleagues would be blessed if you write a summary of it for this newsletter, so they can benefit from what you've learned – and if you have pictures from an event (digital, preferably), they would be a welcome addition to liven up the “pages” of this newsletter!
Contents:
Upcoming Science-Faith Events in the OK-TX Area
Impressions of the Reasons to Believe Regional Conference Held at Houston’s Second Baptist Church Feb. 23-24
ASA OK-TX Houston area group met Saturday, March 10th
Address List
Upcoming Science-Faith Events in the OK-TX Area
Saturday, March 10th – ASA OK-TX Houston-area meeting, at Star Pizza in the Heights.
Impressions of the Reasons to Believe Regional Conference Held at Houston’s Second Baptist Church Feb. 23-24
All five of us from the Houston-area section of the ASA made it to parts of the conference. Bruce Koons and Ed Nelson made it to the talk Friday night. Roger Rowe and I made it to the whole day Saturday, and Andy Coleman was there the whole time. Friday night was packed; someone estimated the sanctuary seats 3,000. On Saturday I estimate there were from 700-1200 people there. The conference had a big impact!
Impressions of the Conference from Ed Nelson
I am glad I was able to go to the Friday event. Dr. Ross spoke, and I was impressed that he is primarily a preacher and secondly a scientist. His testimony was interesting, telling his story of traveling from interest in the heavens to searching for the Maker of the heavens. His message on Friday seemed to me more of presenting Christ than science, which was just fine. I was possibly most impressed by how enthusiastic Dr. Ed Young was in his support of Dr. Ross. I am certain that his endorsement of Dr. Ross is a big step. In prior years Dr. Young was a confirmed YEC (Young Earth Creationism) literalist. [Editor’s note: Dr. Ed Young is the head pastor of Second Baptist Church, which has about 10,000 members. He wrote a very positive introductory note as a foreword to the notebook each participant received.]
The audience was supportive of Dr. Ross as well. His position on YEC is clear but it comes at a price. He is not willing to say something in the Bible is less than 100% literal. He instead uses a lot of verse parsing and jumping around from book-to-book to support explanations about the Noah flood not being the entire earth. I bought Ross's book on Creation as Science because he makes some interesting predictions that I hope we can discuss this at some length.
The cosmology seems good. The UFO stuff they should not touch. The efforts to disprove evolution seem to me to be misguided, but perhaps they are revolutionary. All in all, I was favorably impressed with the part of the event I saw. They may fail in their endeavor to prove via science that God is, but the effort is worth making. They are striving to show God, and RTB is sincere in their science. It is clear from visiting with a number of attendees, many of whom are professionally involved with science and engineering, that the assertions that believers cannot be good scientists or technical workers is simply silly.
Impressions of the Conference from Scott Robinson
I was impressed with the RTB staff’s integrity. They consistently brought the focus back to God’s glory and the importance of reaching people. They see themselves as a missions organization reaching scientists and those who are scientifically-influenced. (They have a very good track record in that regard. Dr. Richard Smalley, Nobel Prize winner for discovering Buckeyballs, attended Hugh Ross’ talk at Rice two years ago and became a Christian because of it. Before he died, he gave a fantastic testimony on his website.) They take a position that the earth is old and that life has changed over time, but also that what Scripture says about the Creation is true. This helps them reach scientists, but they’re also doing a great job reaching homeschoolers and other Christians with an alternative to Young Earth Creationism.
I was impressed with the caliber of the people who attended. Most were from Second Baptist, obviously, but there were attendees from many other denominations, and from all over the state and beyond. The questions in the breakout sessions showed real depth of understanding about physics, relativity, philosophy, biology, theology, and evangelism. God has a lot of intelligent, intellectual, deeply committed people in His Kingdom in the U.S.! That was so good to see – just as we see at the ASA annual meetings.
Argument Against Fine-Tuning: The Multiverse
I had two questions I wanted RTB to answer. The first was about statements I had read recently by some scientists that a multiverse (multiple universes) was now understood as a necessary consequence of inflation theories. If true, that would definitely puncture the argument for Design based on the incredible fine-tuning of our universe for life. Dr. Jeff Zweerink, an RTB staffer who is also on the research faculty at UCLA, answered my question very satisfactorily during a breakout session on the Anthropic Principle that he conducted. He said that every inflation theory has a multiverse and single-universe solution, but for the inflating “bubbles” to coalesce into a single universe gives the resultant universe more agitation than we observe in ours. He wasn’t daunted by that. Dr. Zweerink thinks there may be solutions to that problem which just aren’t being explored right now because multiverses are trendy.
He also noted that there’s a tendency for us to discover a way to explain the design at some level only to find it springing back up in larger form in the thing that “explained” the design. He gave the example of the universe’s flatness. It was observed to be so close to 1 that it required fine-tuning to one part in 1060. Inflation theory “explained” that fine-tuning away, but it illuminated the Dark Energy problem, which requires a mass-energy density fine-tuning of one part in 10120! Dr. Zweerink suggested that Design may keep popping up every time we explain it somewhere. That was intriguing!
Biblical Exegesis
My second question concerned how RTB exegetes the Bible. RTB is attempting to fashion a “testable” creation model based on data of the Bible and of nature – that is, God’s general revelation and special revelation, as several speakers said. As one example of their exegesis, they routinely cite Isaiah 42:5 as saying the universe is expanding, which harmonizes with the Big Bang. That makes me uneasy for two reasons: 1) I’m concerned that they may be hanging their Biblical interpretation on one view of science, which sounds good today but might backfire in the future if science changes its mind. 2) I think it’s really pushing the meaning of the verse to think that Isaiah had anything like an expanding universe in mind when he made that statement. Therefore, did God have that in mind – or would He have only given Isaiah what Isaiah and people in all times and places could understand?
I don’t have a full answer to that question, but I do have reason to believe that RTB will be flexible. They remain openminded, holding everything loosely, not stubbornly. They use God’s special revelation and general revelation to correct interpretations of each other, the way we use archaeology to refine our Scripture interpretation. At the conference, I heard that they’re proposing a framework which holds a family of models, not just one, so again they’re displaying flexibility by setting broad limits.
Still, their approach to Scriptural exegesis leads them to conclude, for example, that Adam and Eve must have been specially created, and if that doesn’t fit with paleoanthropology in the future, I would think it would cause them or their followers some problems. I’m still not sure what I think of this method of exegesis.
Fruit of YEC at Lunch
The biggest benefit of the Conference was its effect on homeschoolers, who until now have only had one source of science education curricula from Young Earth Creationist (YEC) authors. RTB is really filling a gaping hole here. At lunch, Roger Rowe and I ate with five homeschoolers who were attending the conference. We asked them why they had come and what their impressions were. One homeschooling father, who is technically trained, said he had never paid much attention to the young earth emphasis in the curriculum his children were being taught from. He assumed they would not be significantly influenced by it. His children now range in age from 5th grade to high school, and he was recently shocked to find out that they harbor doubts about his orthodoxy, because he believes in an old earth! He had heard of the conference the night before and just showed up. He was very encouraged by what he heard, and planned to get the RTB resource “Teaching Science from a Christian Worldview.” He learned that homeschoolers got a complimentary copy of this $20.00 resource, and he gladly accepted!
The married couple came because their son, now 19, had just declared himself an atheist and a disciple of Richard Dawkins. He grew up in a good Christian home and had been taught the typical young-earth view, as well as other conservative Christian positions, but now he was repudiating all of his parents’ values, and his parents had come in search of ways to reach him. I think they are representative of a lot of devout parents these days. They received tremendous encouragement from attendees at the conference and RTB staff, and gained a lot of resources they plan to put to use.
The fifth homeschooler, a mom, had heard of the conference from the couple and came to check it out. Her kids are high school age and younger, and she wanted to prepare them for college. She couldn’t follow the presentations very well, because they were a little technical, but she wanted to hear more. She also was happy to take home a copy of the “Teaching Science from a Christian Worldview” resource.
I was gratified to see homeschoolers being given a true perspective on science, and I’m grateful to RTB for helping set them and their children free.
ASA OK-TX Houston area group met Saturday, March 10th
By the time you read this, the Houston-area ASA bunch will probably have met at Star Pizza on Saturday and discussed several science-faith topics. We plan to discuss the first 2-3 chapters of Hugh Ross’ latest book, “Creation as Science”, in which he says he lays out his entire Testable Creation Model in one place for the first time (all previous books addressed different parts of the model in more detail).
In case you’re getting this early Saturday morning and want to join us at noon, here’s the directions:
Star Pizza in Houston Heights
77 Harvard
Houston, TX 77007
Phone 713-869-1241
To get there from I-10 westbound, take the Heights exit, turn left (south) on Heights, go under the freeway, turn left (east) on Washington, and it’s on the left side of the road. If you're coming from I-10 eastbound, take the Studemont exit, U-turn under the freeway and double back on the frontage road to Heights Boulevard, and follow the directions above.
We’ll be there from noon to 3:30.
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