ASA OK-TX Section E-Newsletter No. 61 June 8, 2007

ASA OK-TX Section E-Newsletter No. 61 June 8, 2007

Welcome to the 61st edition of the ASA Oklahoma-Texas Section E-Newsletter. God bless your service to Him and your appreciation of His world! (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.)

Please feel free to pass this on to a friend. And for the benefit of any friends who might see this, ASA is the American Scientific Affiliation, started in September 1941 by scientists who were Christians and who wanted to provide a place where believing scientists could discuss the relationship of science to Christian faith in a non-judgmental, respectful forum. Its website is: www.asa3.org.

Thanks to those who have contributed news to this edition – Dr. Ide Trotter, Dr. Gerald Cleaver, and RTB Houston. We can always use more 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
Some Comments on the Trotter Prize Winner Lecture, April 24, 2007 at Texas A&M
ELCA 2007 Summer Theological Institute Features OK-TX ASA-ers
Reasons to Believe Houston Teams with First Presbyterian Church to Present the "Majesty of the Maker"
ASA OK-TX Houston area group met Saturday, May 12th
ASA OK-TX Houston area group met Saturday, July 14th - Maybe
Address List


Upcoming Science-Faith Events in the OK-TX Area
June 3, 10, 17, 24 – First Presbyterian Church of Houston and RTB-Houston present Sunday School Class “Majesty of the Maker”, 9:30-10:30 on these Sundays (see more in article below).
July 9-13, 2007 – Summer Theological Institute 2007, Faith and Faithfulness: Christianity in an Age of Scientific Discovery (see more in article below).
Saturday, July 14th (maybe) – Our regularly-scheduled ASA OK-TX Houston-area meeting, at Star Pizza in the Heights, but it may be in August instead. Decision had not been made at “presstime”.


Some Comments on the Trotter Prize Winner Lecture, April 24, 2007 at Texas A&M
by Ide Trotter

Dr. Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Cambridge Univ., spoke Monday night April 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Texas A&M. He is this year's winner of the Trotter Prize for seminal contributions in the areas of information, complexity and inference helping science illuminate the wonders of nature. Dr. Morris is generally acknowledged as the world’s foremost expert on the Cambrian explosion.

He is both a Christian and a skeptic when it comes to the explanatory power of either the neo-Darwinian synthesis or Stephen J. Gould's punctuated
equilibrium. This led him to his theory of evolutionary convergence. Dr. Morris's lecture was titled "Darwin's Compass: How Evolution Discovers
the Song of Creation."

Asked his opinion of ID in his Brit accent basically said, "With apologies for being rude, it is rubbish." We had a follow-up meeting with him next morning involving Bill Dembski and Walter Bradley, both of ID fame. As I understood his position it is that some sort of "false structure," now not preserved in fossils, provided a path around "apparent" irreducible complexity points. When it comes to the issue of the origin of information required for life, e.g. DNA and its code, he really didn't seem to grasp the issue of specified vs. Shannon information. Not uncommon among paleontology/biology types in my experience… They can't grasp the unique requirements of specification vs. the random complexity produced "naturally" as in fractals, etc.

He is a committed Christian and approximates a theistic evolutionist, but not of the Darwinian variety. He believes there is something yet to be discovered in nature that forces evolutionary outcomes in the certain repetitive patterns that we see in species that have no taxonomic shared "common ancestor." Hence his "convergence" theory. His notions smack of Stuart Kaufman's search for a "4th law of thermo" to solve this problem, it seems to me [Stuart Kaufman of the Santa Fe Institute won the prize in 2005]. To me his views, and Kaufman's can be understood to be fully compatible with ID. An intelligent designer would only, could only, use designs that are workable in our environment.

[Editor’s note: As to the difference between Shannon and specified information, the following is an explanation by Ide, from an exchange Ide had with another scientist after that person had derided Hugh Ross's use of the improbability of specified information, The scientist claimed it was equivalent to the following example: There were three speakers on a panel. Each had a birthday. The chance of any specific BD is 1/365. The chance of all three BDs is 1/(365x365x365) which is a very, very small probability but meaningless since all had to have a BD.]

[Back to Ide:] What you may be missing is the profound difference between mere probability and probability combined with specified complexity. Think about it this way. What you say about the probability of panelists' birthdays is correct as you phrase it. However, were you to be invited to participate on a panel chosen by others and upon arrival you declared you would not take part unless the adjacent panelists, chosen only on the basis of their expertise and without regard to date of birth, had the same birthday you did, the odds of your participating are more like Ross described them. The seminal work on specified complexity is in the Cambridge University Stat Series book, “The Design Inference,” and it lies at the heart of many areas of cultural anthropology, forensic science and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

The Trotter Prize honors Ide’s father who when Dean of the Graduate School at A&M instituted a graduate lecture series which lapsed over the years. The prize, under the joint sponsorship of both the College of Science and College of Engineering (where info science is housed at A&M), is to recognize seminal contributions in the fields of information, complexity and inference illuminating the wonders of nature. Bill Dembski won the prize two years ago. The Trotter Prize is described at http://www.science.tamu.edu/articles/Trotter+Prize+Winner+to+Address+Predictability+of+Evolution


ELCA 2007 Summer Theological Institute Features OK-TX ASA-ers
by Gerald Cleaver

[Editor’s Note: Gerald Cleaver is a member of our OK-TX section and will be scientist in residence at this institute. Several ASA members from other sections will be speaking at it.]

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's 2007 Summer Theological Institute, "Faith and Faithfulness: Christianity in the Age of Scientific Discovery" will be held July 9-13 at Texas Lutheran Univeristy in Seguin, Texas. The STI is co-sponsored by the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest, Texas Lutheran University, and the Templeton-funded Baylor Society for Conversations in Religion, Ethics, and Science (BSCRES). Clergy and interested laypeople of all denominations are invited to attend.

ASA member Gerald Cleaver, head of the Early Universe Cosmology and String Theory division of Baylor University's Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics & Engineering research, and BSCRES co-chair, is the STI Scientist in Residence. Gerald is speaking on "Theological Implications of String Theory and the New Cosmology". Mark Ward, Pastor of Christ Lutheran of Cherry Spring, Texas and St. Peter Lutheran of Dross, Texas, and former geophysicist for Atlantic Richfield, is the STI Theologian in Residence. Mark is discussing the church’s vital role in enabling Christians to bear witness to God’s loving and creative nature in a world increasingly polarized by opposing views of science and faith.

Terence Fretheim, the Elva B. Lovell Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN, is speaking on "Creation in Community: Theological Reflections on Old Testament Creation Texts". Terence believes we're called not to be passive readers of scripture, but to be creative, imaginative readers. ASA member Deborah Haarsma, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Calvin College, is committed to helping the Christian community understand science, and the scientific community understand Christianity. Deborah is presenting lectures on "Science and Worldviews: An Astronomer Looks at Creation" and "God and the Big Bang: Speaking to Christians about Science". Deborah's husband and fellow ASA member, Loren Haarsma, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Calvin College, researches electrical properties of nerve cells. Loren is discussing "Creation or Curse? Entropy, Earthquakes, Mosquitoes, and Malaria" and "Evolution and Intelligent Design." ASA member George Murphy, pastoral associate at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio and adjunct faculty member at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, has been active for many years in helping churches see the relevance of science for faith and to deal with religious issues raised by science and technology. George is presenting an understanding of "The Universe in Light of the Cross"

More information on the STI, including tentative schedule, online registration, and suggested readings, is available at www.summertheologicalinstitute.org


Reasons to Believe Houston Teams with First Presbyterian Church to Present the "Majesty of the Maker"

Reasons to Believe’s Houston chapter has partnered with Houston’s First Presbyterian Church to present a Sunday School Class called "Majesty of the Maker Series" at 1st Presbyterian Church of Houston this month, from 9:30 – 10:30 AM. Topics and speakers for each Sunday are:
June 3 "Dual Revelation" - featuring a DVD presentation by Ken Samples, RTB Philosophy-Theology Scholar, with discussion led by Roy Masonheimer, RTB-Houston
June 10 “Genesis Miracles" - featuring a DVD presentation by Astronomer and RTB Founder & President, Dr. Hugh Ross, with discussion led by Fred Matlack, RTB-Houston
June 17 "Earth: A Great Place to Live" - featuring a DVD presentation by Dr. David Rogstad, RTB & NASA-JPL Physicist, with discussion led by Ivan Ramirez, RTB-Houston
June 24 "Hope Purpose & Destiny" - featuring a DVD presentation by Dr. Hugh Ross, RTB Founder & President, with discussion led by Steve Jepperson, RTB-Houston


ASA OK-TX Houston area group met Saturday, May 12th

The Houston-area ASA bunch met again at Star Pizza on Saturday, May 12th. We planned to discuss the 4th chapter of Hugh Ross’ latest book, Creation as Science, in which he says he lays out his entire Testable Creation Model in one place. We merely scratched the surface of the chapter, however, and chatted about several related issues.

We met at Star Pizza on the porch (does that make us stoics?) from 12:00 to 3:30.

Welcome to Christine Smith, who came for her first time to the May meeting. She and Scott talked briefly about ASA before Roger and Ed joined them. Everyone was glad to meet Christine. She gave us a new spark. Having her new views and experiences was invigorating. We spent our lunch time talking about cars and emissions control, since Christine works for the State of Texas in emissions prediction (she inputs data to the government’s emissions models for the Houston-Galveston area).

We set out to discuss Chapter 4 of Creation as Science a little later than usual, at about 2:00. The following is a summary of their thoughts in my words.

Ed: Objected to Ross’ inconsistent appeal to metaphor. “Stars as numerous as grains of sand” is called a metaphor. But Ross goes to great lengths in a later chapter to explain Noachian Flood as history.

Rog: You’re the first person I’ve met who called the Flood account a metaphor.

Ed: It doesn’t pose a problem for my faith if it is; like Joshua making the sun stand still. I doubt it stopped the earth. I think it just seemed to them like time stood still, because they moved so fast and accomplished so much.

Rog: But that’s just one sentence [in Joshua], whereas the Noachian Flood covers many chapters.

Christine: Ed asked Christine (who had taken a break and missed the start of the Flood topic) what she thought of Noah’s Flood. She sighed, took a deep breath, and said she’s inclined to think it was a regional, local flood. Roger and Scott agreed.

Ed: We’re all aware that there have been floods everywhere, including big, devastating floods, throughout history, so it’s no wonder that accounts of a colossal flood are common. They’re virtually everywhere.

Scott: I think there’s something more to the account of Noah’s flood. Christian missionaries have some interesting stories to report about the long, long ancestral memories of primitive tribes.

1. It is almost universal for people groups to have an account of some catastrophe (sometimes fire, most often water) in which the people group has displeased The God and is wiped out except for a very few survivors, enough to repopulate the earth.

2. Stories can go back a long way. A missionary we support was one of the pioneers in the 1990s who brought Christian Navajos to Mongolia because they were similar to the Mongols. Everyone was astonished to find out how similar. I recall him saying that they had the same ways of serving food at the big feast, same living structures (one of felt, the other of logs and adobe), many of the same “toasts” and other customs, and both herded sheep. The Mongols recalled that their early ancestors told a story that some of them once went East – way East – and never came back. Scott didn’t remember all the details (it was a missionary newsletter from the ‘90s) but it was somehow clear these Mongols went to America. The Navajo were not in the first wave of Asian immigrants to America, but a later wave – like 12,000 years ago.

Ed objected that Europeans brought sheep; they weren’t native to North America.

Scott still thought it suggestive that the culture found the same way to handle sheep, as if they had a cultural propensity for doing it the same way their ancestors had.

[I think Rick Leatherwood just wrote a book, Glory in Mongolia, about the spread of the church there since the fall of the Soviet Union, and it may mention these accounts. Otherwise I’d have to dig through my old newsletters to find the one about this. - SER]

3. In his book Eternity in Their Hearts (Regal Books, 1984), Dr. Don Richardson (missionary to Papua New Guinea) tells the stories of several Stone Age tribes in the mountains of what are now Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia, who have been there since before the “civilized” people invaded the lowlands. When these tribes were first contacted by Norwegian missionaries in the 1800s, they found they all had similar ancient stories about having come from far West across an enormous mountain range, and having angered The God by capitulating to the local spirits and worshiping them. However, The God said He would someday give them another chance. For generations they kept that memory alive and waited. A generation or two before the missionaries came, revelations came from The God to members of each tribe telling how to recognize the person He was sending. For example, for one tribe it was that the person who would bring them The God’s way back to Him would sit under such-and-such a tree, and would have white skin (none of them had that), and be reading a book printed on banana leaves. When Christian missionaries came, they fulfilled those visions and the peoples became Christian almost overnight. They are still there in Southeast Asia, but are treated like scum and persecuted by the “civilized” Buddhist or Muslim peoples that dominate those countries.

Oral societies can preserve history a long, long time. I have no doubt this is what the Hebrews did. The tribes we call “primitive” are full of intelligent, articulate people who just happen not to have technology. That doesn’t make them dumb. Their languages and culture are very sophisticated and complex, as much as any technological culture and even more. We’re very chauvinistic about other cultures’ intelligence because it doesn’t look like ours, isn’t expressed in what we value.

Ed: All this could just mean that we, as a race, like apocalyptic stories.

Scott: I know we can’t say for sure, but I think these accounts are highly suggestive that there’s more to Genesis history than most people imagine.

Scott: I have the Scriptures for Ross’ list on page 75. Maybe we could see if we think these Scriptures make those points. We’d better give some time for people to read that section. [Conversation pauses as some read the passage.]

Ed: I don’t need a literal exodus [from Egypt] to have faith.

Rog: Lots of peoples’ faith would be torn asunder if any of it is myth.

Ed: That’s OK. There are lots of rooms in the mansion.

Christine: There are lots of parallels between the symbolism of the O.T. and the fulfillments in the N.T. - Adam and Jesus, the serpent on the stake, etc. Something else must be going on besides just myth. Otherwise the entire N.T. history just happens to perfectly fulfill and complete the mythical accounts of the O.T.

Ed: Like the Iliad, the O.T. has a historical basis. I’ve read that in the mountains of Anatolia, farmers still retell the Iliad in Homeric fashion.

Rog: In this chapter [chapter 4], Ross addresses a question that’s been bothering me for months. He places the creation of Man at about 50,000 years ago. How could it take 47,000 years for writing to occur? Ross’ answer is that God is outside time, so in a sense it all passes in an eyeblink to Him. Time just doesn’t matter to Him because he’s outside it.

Scott: There was no need for writing before agriculture. We know that widespread agriculture started about 7,000 – 8,000 B.C. in the major river valleys. Mesopotamia has the oldest evidence of it. The surplus food gave those people the ability to specialize for the first time, to have crafts and trade and business. The earliest writing was to track mercantile accounts. Before that, writing was not needed.

Ed: That’s true for MesoAmerica. They had obsidian, didn’t need metal.

People had to go by this time (it was 3:30), so we broke up until we reconvene in July.


Some Things You Could Pray For

For us as members to reach out to our fellow-scientists with the gospel, and to our fellow Christians to help them think through the science-faith challenges of our day.

For our organization’s leaders to have wisdom and God’s direction as they lead us.

For our unsaved colleagues to come to Christ.

Prayers were answered for our Section Chair, Glenn Joy, who had a successful operation last month.

From Randy Isaac, ASA Executive Director:

“Yes, I would really appreciate prayer for the ASA and for me.

“We are in the process of submitting a proposal for funding a number of advertising initiatives that would be aimed at increasing our visibility in the church and in the scientific community as well as increasing membership. We need prayer to know how to construct the grant proposal, that it would be funded, and that we would be able to carry it out effectively.

“We also need prayer for unity within the faith as we encourage our fellowship in Christ while we respect our diversity of opinions.”


Address List

Thanks to those of you who have sent me your corrections to the address list. If anyone has more corrections to make, please send them! I appreciate your help.

My ISP won’t let me send this e-newsletter to everyone at the same time, so here's the address list of everyone this newsletter went to. I hope you find it useful – and thanks to those who have e-mailed me with corrections to it!

The list is tab-delimited, so it should copy-paste into Excel or other spreadsheets very nicely. (Excel has a “text to columns” option, which will parse tab-delimited files you paste into it. Other spreadsheets can no doubt do the same.) This list is also included as an attachment in Excel format for those who prefer to receive it that way.