From: John W Burgeson (jwburgeson@juno.com)
Date: Tue Aug 26 2003 - 12:32:15 EDT
Blake wrote, in part: " And, in fact, due to the concerns that the
secular university has, I think it is more likely than not that believers
of any stripe are rather quiet about their beliefs no matter what topic
they teach."
Having just spent three years auditing classes at Iliff, a "liberal"
Methodist seminary in Denver, I will point out that "good" professors,
whatever their own positions might be, generally encourage their students
to form and defend their own belief structures, at least on faith issues.
In the spring quarter of 2003, I audited a class taught by Dr. Bill Dean,
onetime assistant to Paul Tillich, and an intellectual who has published
about 200 theological papers, as well as several book. Dean is usually
described (by others) as a "religious naturalist." The course,
Theological Imagination and Construction, studied a number of
theologians, Migliore, Tillich, Cone, McFague and others. 80% of the
grade was on a 15 page term paper, the first page of which explained what
you believed, and pages 2-15 explained why you believed it.
AT NO TIME DID DEAN EVER PRESENT HIS OWN SET OF BELIEFS TO THE CLASS. He
made it plain that a student's grade would be based on the term paper,
and not on how closely he adhered to Dean's or anyone else's position.
In the class were liberals, conservatives, and at least two
fundamentalists. Methodists, Presbyterians, Orthodox, Jews and
Unitarians. Gays, lesbians and straights. Young kids (under 25) and
(mostly) older students seeking a second career. There was one
African-American man, very fundamental, who, having made some salient
point in class discussion, was invited to expound on his position for 15
minutes in one class session.
There are, no doubt, professors who attempt to proselytize their
students, into atheism, into some Christian position, into all sorts of
philosophical positions. I don't personally know any.
>>(please name a person in life sciences who has been a popularizer of
biology to a more successful degree
than Dawkins, for example).>>
Does Gould qualify?
>>please name some theistic science popularizers who actually include
their theism in their works? >>
Eddington and Sir James Jeans -- of course they were a generation ago.
Robert Jastrow. Polkinghorne. Ian Barbour. George Murphy. Steven
Goldberg. David Griffin. Howard Van Til. Peacock. Davis Young. The list
is very long.
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com
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