Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

origins

Science Corner: Family Reunion in Botswana?

Sunset over the savannah
Apologies if this is not representative of Botswana; I have to rely on image tagging here. (Photo by hbieser)

Perhaps you saw the headlines last week about a research paper that claimed to locate the origins of modern humans in a region of what is now Botswana. Many outlets reported the conclusions as stated in the paper. Some coverage, like this BBC article, acknowledges skepticism but not necessarily in great detail. More specifically, the claim is that our collective ancestors first became Homo sapiens in an area centered in modern Botswana from around 200,000 years ago until 130,000 years ago when they began migrating outward. This conclusion is based on analysis of mitochondrial sequence data, linguistics and simulations of the climate in the region over the past few hundred millenia. The biggest challenge to the claim is fossil evidence of anatomically modern humans in eastern Africa but there are other questions as well.
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Science Corner: It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It

Artistic rendering of the Curiosity Rover on Mars
Wait, who took this photo? (Photo by NASA on The Commons)

In a week when some pretty high profile stories got some less notable corrections (no, cell phones are not giving young people skull horns and no, we have not convincingly transmitted autism to mice via microbiome transplants), I thought it might be a good idea to try to get ahead of the curve on a new story. This one involves a topic likely to be of greater interest to the science & faith community: life on Mars. Last week, the Curiosity rover detected a plume of methane on Mars in a higher concentration than previously observed. If you had a chance to watch and/or listen to the BioLogos Conference presentation on origin of life and life on other planets (which is now free to view), you have some context for this news. If not, let me try to get you up to speed so you can understand what this observation does (and does not) mean.
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Faith and Reason, Part 5: Hume

david hume photo
Photo by stephengg

Frequent ESN contributor and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA Graduate & Faculty Ministries Staff Mark Hansard explores David Hume’s ideas in Part 5 of his series on faith and reason. As you may remember, Part 1 took a brief look at a Scriptural basis for using reason and logic, Part 2 discussed St. Augustine’s ideas about faith and reason, Part 3 engaged with the thought of Aquinas, and Part 4 addressed John Locke. Image: Sculpture of David Hume. [Read more…] about Faith and Reason, Part 5: Hume

How did God Create? Different Views Christians Hold (STEAM Grant Series)

Image: Threshold, a sculpture that looks different from different angles, by James Hopkins. Photo courtesy of Jan Polák at Wikimedia Commons page for sculpture. You can see this sculpture as the numeral 1, 2, or 3 depending on which angle you view it from. Christians often see the same creation story in Genesis from different angles. 

ESN is currently creating a Faith/Science curriculum for young adult small groups. We’ve partnered with InterVarsity graduate student discussion groups to identify faith/science questions that are important to emerging scholars, and we’re commissioning thoughtful Christians in science or theology/philosophy to explore those questions in this series at the ESN blog. We will publish these posts as a booklet curriculum for campus groups.

Debates over evolution and origins are a challenging area for many Christians as they engage with modern science. To discern how to address these issues in this curriculum, we talked with graduate students, InterVarsity grad staffers, and professors. Based on their feedback, we commissioned two pieces that articulate the major views held by Christians on evolution generally and human evolution in particular. These particular pieces are not designed to argue for a specific position, but to help readers explore the range of positions fellow believers hold on an issue and to increase the ability of Christians to build thoughtful conversations about the theology and science of origins. These posts include discussion questions to help believers better understand each other’s positions on both theology and science. Today, we’re privileged to welcome Gerald Rau, ESN contributor and author of Mapping the Origins Debate (InterVarsity Press 2013). 

This project was made possible through the support of an award from the Science and Theology for Emerging Adult Ministries project at Fuller Theological Seminary. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fuller or the STEAM project. [Read more…] about How did God Create? Different Views Christians Hold (STEAM Grant Series)

STEAM Grant Series: How can we engage origins questions well?

earth photoESN is currently creating a Faith/Science curriculum for young adult small groups. We’ve partnered with InterVarsity graduate student discussion groups to identify faith/science questions that are important to emerging scholars, and we’re commissioning thoughtful Christians in science or theology/philosophy/history of science to explore those questions in this series at the ESN blog. We will then publish these posts as a booklet curriculum for campus groups. You can find previous posts in the series and related posts here. Today, we are delighted to feature chemistry professor and friend of ESN Dave Vosburg. 

This project was made possible through the support of an award from the Science and Theology for Emerging Adult Ministries project at Fuller Theological Seminary. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fuller or the STEAM project. [Read more…] about STEAM Grant Series: How can we engage origins questions well?