Re: [asa] Can God Love Darwin, Too?

I speak as an outsider as in Britain we do not have faith based colleges like those in the USA. Thus lecturers do not have restraints.

I see two types of restraints. One is the faith basis of the college and thus BJU and Cedarville etc have a YEC basis, and thus any non YEC wont get hired. The faith basis of colleges varies, and I remember an issue at Wheaton over an anthropologist who was totally evolutionary and had to quit.

The other restraint is more subtle and that is the faith positions of the parents who send their kids. Some don't want evilution taught and I know of examples where parents ask science staff if they teach creation. (of course I do says one of my acquaintance) Thus at Wheaton from my experience in 2001 half of the students go up as YECs and profs have to be circumspect or else they may lose students.

Combine both these with AIG's list of colleges which don't teach creation i.e those compromising colleges like Olivet, Calvin Messiah Wheaton etc, then for the survival of the college some kind of self-restraint may be necessary.

Charles gives a different interpretation which I think is right as opposed to the spin which is trying to make it to be serious conflict.

It is no worse than in my diocese where the diocesan bishop only ordains deacons and no priests and has one suffragan (assistant ) bishop to ordain women and men who don't oppose women and another who will not ordain women. This is a way of keeping both those who support the ordination of women and those who don't together in one diocese. In many ways I don't like it (my wife is a priest) but it keeps the diocese more or less together. This may be a fudge rather than principle but it seems to work.

Michael

PS I never trust the media!
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Charles Carrigan
  To: asa@calvin.edu ; <PvM ; <Ted Davis
  Cc: Kevin Brewer ; Priscilla Skalac
  Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:36 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Can God Love Darwin, Too?

  Dear Friends,

  This thread has gone away from the original topic of Rick Colling and the events that have been taking place here at ONU. I've copied the parts from Pim and Ted below that have to do with ONU and left out the parts about Gonzalez/ISU.

  First - to answer Pim - the Discovery Institute has not to my knowledge given any aid to Rick Colling because there is no association. Although Rick's book uses the word "Designer" in the title, it is nothing like the anti-evolution material that the DI is known for. I can't imagine the DI supporting someone like Rick who teaches the biological theory of evolutionary origins. It is silly to suggest that the DI is being hypocritical by not supporting him.

  Secondly - I would like to take this opportunity to shed some light on the events that have been occurring here at ONU regarding the removal of Rick Colling from teaching the general biology course here this year. Rick and the university have gotten some pressure from anti-evolutionists since the publication of "Random Designer" a few years ago. In the book, Rick basically tries to argue that evolution is compatible with Christianity. Although the majority of our constituents have no problem with our science here, there is a vocal minority that leans strongly toward Young-Earth Creationism. I believe that 2 members of the University's Board of Trustees are against evolution being taught at ONU, but most are not. The Nazarene Church has a tradition of a "big tent" approach to science from the theology standpoint, and so not many in leadership positions are so strongly opposed to evolution that they would ask for a professor teaching it to be removed. Dr. Bowling has written about this and made that case very strongly that Rick is not outside the bounds of Nazarene doctrine & tradition. When one YEC advocate asked Pres. Bowling if there were any YEC scientists here at ONU to 'provide balance', he stated that ONU doesn't have anyone like that, and that he doesn't think there is anyone like that in the entire Nazarene educational system. However, the pressure against Rick has been building. This past summer, President Bowling met with the natural science faculty and explained what he was asking from the Biology Department and why. It was clear to me that he was attempting to help the situation die down by removing Rick from the "bull's eye". In my opinion, he was doing his best that he thought necessary for the university and for Rick. I strongly support Pres. Bowling's decision here. The hope was and is that, after some time, the turmoil that is out there will subside; in Pres. Bowling's words, he was attempting to "make peace". However, I am not sure that Rick saw it this way, and the article in Newsweek has come since that meeting. I was very disappointed that the Newsweek article chose to state that Pres. Bowling "banned" the book from ONU courses. While I suppose that is technically true, the word carries with it too much baggage. Pres. Bowling stated that it was certainly possible that things could change in the future if the situation were to become less volatile. I was disappointed that the article was phrased in ways that made the good name of Pres. Bowling and ONU look bad, because it discredits the good science that is being taught here by many of our professors. In my opinion Pres. Bowling has been one of the greatest advocates for the science faculty here. He gave a message in Chapel in Jan. of 2006 where he discussed science & faith; I can send a copy of this to those who are interested.

  Here are a few important facts that were not mentioned in the Newsweek article:
  1) the science of an old Earth/Universe has been taught at ONU for at least 40 years that I know of - I'm sure it goes farther back than this but I'm not aware of who the faculty were before that time. ONU has been around for 100 years, but has not in all of those years offered college level science courses.
  2) Other faculty members here at ONU have taught these same scientific concepts for many decades, and there has never been this kind of reaction to any of them.
  3) Pres. Bowling made it very clear to us in the early Summer meeting that he was not in any way attempting to alter the content of the Gen. Biology course that he removed Colling from - Colling's removal from the course is not a content issue.
  4) None of the other books out there that talk about science and Christianity have similarly been "banned", such as those by Falk, Collins, Young, Polkinghorn, Murphy, Ramm, Miller, etc.etc.

  Best Regards,
  Charles

  _______________________________
  Charles W. Carrigan, Ph.D.
  Assistant Professor of Geology
  Olivet Nazarene Univ., Dept. of Physical Sciences
  One University Ave.
  Bourbonnais, IL 60914
  PH: (815) 939-5346
  FX: (815) 939-5071
  ccarriga@olivet.edu
  http://geology.olivet.edu/

  "To a naturalist nothing is indifferent;
  the humble moss that creeps upon the stone
  is equally interesting as the lofty pine which so beautifully adorns the valley or the mountain:
  but to a naturalist who is reading in the face of the rocks the annals of a former world,
  the mossy covering which obstructs his view,
  and renders indistinguishable the different species of stone,
  is no less than a serious subject of regret."
            - James Hutton
  _______________________________

>>> "Ted Davis" <tdavis@messiah.edu> 9/11/2007 8:55 AM >>>
  The story Pim links is important. The president of Olivet was in a tough
  spot, given the views of certain constituents (no school can survive if it
  just ignores its constituents), and I understand his decision in that light.
   Our president (not our current president) made a similar call many years
  ago, banning the use of the film, "The Last Temptation of Christ," in
  classes when important questions were raised over how it was being used in a
  couple of classes. I supported that decision. Obviously I am not close to
  the situation at Olivet, but I disturbed by the decision to remove Colling
  from teaching the general biology course. In the absence of further
  information (I stress that), this seems similar to what happened to Dean
  Kenyon, who was also moved out of teaching general biology when he became a
  critic of evolution. It's hard to know how to balance academic freedom with
  an institution's commitment to it's own understanding of truth.

  Ted

>>> PvM <pvm.pandas@gmail.com> 9/11/2007 12:14 AM >>>
  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20657204/site/newsweek/

  What happened to Collings after he wrote his book "Random Designer"?
  ... Well, it ain't pretty and I am surprised that the DI is not
  standing up to support Collings

  <quote>
  Anger over his work had been building for two years. When classes
  resumed in late August, things finally came to a head. Colling is
  prohibited from teaching the general biology class, a version of which
  he had taught since 1991, and college president John Bowling has
  banned professors from assigning his book. At least one local Nazarene
  church called for Colling to be fired and threatened to withhold
  financial support from the college. In a letter to Bowling, ministers
  in Caro, Mo., expressed "deep concern regarding the teaching of
  evolutionary theory as a scientifically proven fact," calling it "a
  philosophy that is godless, contrary to scripture and scientifically
  unverifiable."
  </quote>

  Of course, this case may not be politically expedient. Too bad.

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Received on Thu Sep 13 17:24:24 2007