[From one of the Scientists in Congregations churches...]
Dear Pastor Mark,
Dear Pastor Mark,
I would like to let you know
how the weekend on Faithful Science has impacted my life. First, however, I need to give you a brief
background.
I was raised in a
Presbyterian church with “feel good” sermons which had little emphasis on the
Bible. As a young adult, I began seeking
for denominations that focused more on scripture and found myself for years in
more fundamental Christian denominations which elevated the scripture as
absolute truth. Two events happened in
my life that forced me to deal with some of the inconsistencies that I chose to
ignore. One was while my husband was
completing his PhD, he decided he could not deal with the inconsistencies in
scripture and chose to become agnostic.
This resulted in many angry and frustrating conversations as I tried to
defend the Bible but did not have the tools to refute his belief that there was
no absolute truth. For the sake of
family peace, we chose to agree to disagree, and we basically dropped
conversations about faith. And then,
many years later as our sons became adults, I again found myself trying to
defend my faith and some religious habits that did not make sense to them. Out of frustration of not being able to give
a reason for my faith, I began a quiet search to discover if this God I loved
was who I had believed all these years and was the Bible true. My academic background is in health sciences
and I began to question what would this mean to my faith if the scripture could
not withstand some of the conclusions of evolutionary sciences. I realize now, I was afraid and many of the
heated discussion that I had with my loved ones originated from that fear.
Space does not allow me the
opportunity to detail out this journey but I would like to highlight that my
attendance at the Faithful Science Conference placed my feet on stable ground
as I listened to the two scientists who presented that weekend. They confirmed what I had just begun to come
to terms with; I did not need to be afraid that my appreciation of science and
faith were incompatible. I began to
listen with an open mind and heart to how these well-respected scientists
worked out what had been previously noted as inconsistencies in Genesis. Whether we were talking about astronomy or
geology, these faithful scientists came back to scripture and tied in the
importance, the relevance of faith today in light of the new “revelations” of
science. Since that time, I have read
several books from other Christians who are scientists and I am a frequent
reader/listener to various websites.
But the most important piece
is that I have apologized to my husband and my son who both have chosen to be
agnostic. Because I no longer fear that
I will lose the faith that has been so vital to me all my life, I can freely
share my love of God and science. At
this point in my journey, I may not know how to intelligently carry on a
discussion like well-known apologists, but I can share from my personal
experience about the journey I am on, not only with non-believers but
believers. And the robin’s song this
spring morning was all the more sweet because of this journey.
With sincere appreciation,
Elizabeth
(The name has been changed for anonymity)
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