As we anticipate summer rhythms, ESN wants to offer book suggestions from our readers. Our hope is that this will provide great conversation starters for ESN members as you engage with each other online and at events like the upcoming InterVarsity faculty retreats and the American Scientific Affiliation conference. We also hope you find some great summer reading. The format is simple: Give us the title, a quotation from the book if desired (150 words or less), and a paragraph on why this book is worth reading (for Christian scholars in general or for you individually). The book can be related to your academic work and life, or related to theology and living the Christian life, or recreational reading that helps you rest and enjoy the summer. Prior Summer Book Suggestions 2018: Spiritual Rhythm by Mark Buchanan and Every Job a Parable by John Van Sloten. Please send us your suggestions in a similar format. Thank you. [Read more…] about Summer Book Suggestion: Strange Survivors by Oné Pagán
evolutionary biology
Science Book Club: When Science & Christianity Meet Ch 11
When I chose When Science and Christianity Meet for our book discussion, I thought it would keep us away from current politics. I figured The War on Science had given us enough of that for a while. Yet as the historical narrative encroaches further on the present, the relevance becomes harder to deny. If politics applies truth to arrive at policies, and if science is a way of discovering truth, then the two will inevitably be intertwined. That was the case in the Scopes trial nearly a century ago, and it’s the case now.
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Science Book Club: The War on Science Ch 9-10
Reminder: we’re having another video chat tomorrow night (7/13 9pm EDT). Feel free to join even if you couldn’t come last time.
We’re in week 5 of discussing The War on Science and I have a confession/apology. I’m reading the book electronically and the table of contents has no page numbers, so I didn’t realize this week’s chapters were significantly longer than the others (Ch 1-2, Ch 3-4, Ch 5-6, Ch 7-8); Chapter 10 alone is nearly a quarter of the main content. In hindsight, it feels as though Otto primarily wanted to write a book on climate change denial and included the rest of the material to put it in a broader context. In general, I think the context is helpful, although having been teased for 8 chapters about the significance of the religious front to the overall war, I was pretty underwhelmed by Chapter 9. Maybe Otto had already scattered his best points about religion in the previous chapters, or maybe I’ve just spent more time thinking about the interaction of science and religion, but for its considerable length Chapter 9 felt light on substance.
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Science Reader Question: Evolutionary Project Management
A few months back, I received some questions here on the blog about evolutionary biology and its implications for Christian theology. They probed broadly and deeply, covering original sin, the problem of evil and many of the topics everyone asks about and indeed have been asking about since long before anyone conceived of a theory of evolution. These questions warrant more detailed answers than a few comments can provide, so I will be taking a look at them in some depth over the next few weeks. Looking ahead, I expect that will include some discussion of the upcoming film X-Men: Apocalypse, since Apocalypse is obsessed with survival of the fittest and since the film declared its theological ambitions already. I’ll start this series with the questions I received previously, but feel free to chime in with others as we go along.
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Science Corner: BioLogos Conference Recap, Pt 2
Earlier this summer, I had the privilege to attend BioLogos‘ Evolution & Christian Faith conference. Last week, I shared some of the talks from the conference, with an emphasis on theological topics. This week, I want to highlight some of the scientific topics. I had a hard time choosing, especially since these recordings allowed me to catch up with talks I wasn’t able to attend in person. There are even more talks available here, covering areas I haven’t even begun to address, like science education. [Read more…] about Science Corner: BioLogos Conference Recap, Pt 2