Re: [asa] The ASA and the Soft Sciences (ASA focus for the future)

I agree we need to include this in our scope for very practical reasons. And as how Obama bested McCain when he took time off the campaign trail to go back to Washington to try to focus on the bailouts, he said a presidential candidate should be able to do more than one thing at a time. We should likewise be able to focus on more than just evolution as well.

I have also come to appreciate the wisdom of point #2 below as well. I have suggested that TE is crucial to saving the intellectual relevance of Christianity but David is right that there are many in the faith that are satisified without having this level of understanding or knowledge. Also even though ID gets a tough welcome on this list I suspect for many of the above it is quite sufficient.

In fact worldwide the economic issues may even eclipse evolution.

Thanks

John

--- On Thu, 1/1/09, David Opderbeck <dopderbeck@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Opderbeck <dopderbeck@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [asa] The ASA and the Soft Sciences (ASA focus for the future)
> To: "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>
> Cc: "asa" <asa@calvin.edu>
> Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 4:27 PM
> 1 -- yes, there are a variety of religious / Christian
> distinctives on
> economics. There is an enormous body of Catholic social
> teaching on
> economic justice; there's another strand of vigorous
> social critique running
> from the early anabaptists to Bonheoffer to MLK to Yoder to
> Hauerwas; there
> is the neo-Calvinist tradition which largely undergirds
> many current
> evangelical approaches; and so on. If you don't care
> about this from a
> theological / spiritual perspective before it hits your
> 401K directly, then
> your theology and spirituality probably need some work.
>
> 2 -- I'm so tired of hearing that the Church is in
> crisis because of
> evolution. The Church of Jesus Christ in many ways has
> never been more
> robust in all the history of Christianity. The gospel is
> exploding in Asia,
> Africa and South America; the average Christian has never
> been more educated
> and literate (at least in North America); there is wealth,
> aid, and support
> being transferred to needy people in the name of Jesus in
> greater volume
> than ever; and so on. Crisis-talk is myopic and is usually
> mediated by our
> own personal sense of crisis.
>
> The science of evolution is presenting a painful challenge
> to one small
> segment of the Church at present -- educated Western
> evangelicals. This is
> an important segment of the Church, arguably, because it is
> so wealthy and
> influential. And it is important to those of us who live
> and minister in
> well-educated Western contexts. But it's hardly a
> "crisis" in the Church
> universal.
>
> David W. Opderbeck
> Associate Professor of Law
> Seton Hall University Law School
> Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 2:09 PM, Dehler, Bernie
> <bernie.dehler@intel.com>wrote:
>
> > One of the problems with economics is that no one
> cares about it until
> > there is a crisis or meltdown. I also don't see
> how religion plays a part
> > in the economy- does an atheist, Mormon, Baptist, or
> Catholic have any
> > faith-based issues or distinctives?
> >
> >
> >
> > In addition, Christianity is in a *crisis* right now,
> over the issue of
> > evolution and how to deal with it (is it atheist and
> ungodly, or God's way
> > of design?). I'd suggest that the ASA put more
> effort into resolving this
> > conflict for the churches and scientists. It is easy
> and tempting to avoid
> > the conflict, but I think this conflict is what gives
> the ASA its prime
> > directive. Some people are on the forefront of this
> evolution battle, like
> > Denis Lamoureux and Francis Collins… and they are
> persecuted by the church
> > for it. Will the ASA help and offer discernment? I
> know the ASA has done a
> > lot- just saying it should be a prime focus and even
> more focused. I'd *
> > love* to see some ASA sponsored debates over YEC, OEC,
> TE, etc. Has the
> > ASA done this yet? If not, that's my suggestion.
> >
> >
> >
> > …Bernie
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > *From:* asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] *On
> > Behalf Of *Rich Blinne
> > *Sent:* Wednesday, December 31, 2008 11:03 AM
> > *To:* asa
> > *Cc:* Randy Isaac
> > *Subject:* [asa] The ASA and the Soft Sciences
> >
> >
> >
> > The Washington Post just did a massive three-part
> series on what happened
> > with AIG. I found it very fascinating. Since this is
> off topic please direct
> > all comments off list. The issue of economics does
> bring to mind a comment
> > Randy made in the Jan/Feb newsletter:
> >
> >
> >
> > We have few economists in the ASA, and we have no
> particular expertise or
> > mission to critique economic policy.
> >
> >
> >
> > What are we doing to attract people in the so-called
> "soft sciences" into
> > the ASA? Many areas of interest of the ASA does
> intersect economics and
> > sociology and in my opinion we should do better here.
> >
> >
> >
> > Rich Blinne
> >
> > Member ASA
> >

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Received on Thu Jan 1 21:32:59 2009