Andrews University’s Price Hall opened its doors on Friday evening and Sabbath, October 27 and 28, to welcome students, staff, and members of the religion and science group, The Colossian Forum, to discuss matters of the Christian faith and modern views of biology at the annual Andrews Autumn Conference. Organized and led by Dean of Research Dr. Gary Burdick, this year’s topic was “Neither Fools nor Heretics: Celebrating 10 Years of Friendship Between a Young Earth Creationist and an Evolutionary Creationist.”
This title refers to the conference’s highlighted speakers, Dr. Rob Barrett, Dr. Todd Wood, and Dr. Darrel Falk, and Wood and Falk’s book entitled, “The Fool and the Heretic.” In the book, which was available for signings and giveaways during the event, the discussion by both authors is centered around the contemporary debate on Creationism. Two Andrews professors, Dr. Martin Hanna and Dr. Burdick, also gave presentations during the conference. One side of the debate contains young Earth creationists who believe in a literal six-day creation by God and the Earth existing somewhere between 6,000 to no more than 10,000 years in its entire history. They are put in opposition with evolutionary creationists who theorize that God may have used evolution and processes theorized by mainstream science to create the world in a non-literal six-day process. With Wood being in the traditional creationist camp and Falk being in evolutionary creationism, the two have been tied together throughout their careers as intellectual opponents. However, through various discussions and reconciliation, the dynamic between the two religious scientists has gone from rocky and testy to having mutual respect and cooperation, all while agreeing on relatively little.
At 7 pm on Friday, Dr. Barrett began the session with a presentation entitled “How to do what’s right? Making space for virtue”, discussing the various issues of interacting and respecting the rest of humanity. Through various social experiments and research he presented, Barrett asserted that as humans, our “moral behavior is often sensitive to the environment around [us],” making human reactions to arguments or other social situations dependent on conforming to the status quo a lot of the time.
Following Sabbath’s breakfast at 8 am, Dr. Hanna presented the reconciliation that needs to happen between science and theology. He cited 2 Corinthians 5:18, which states, “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” calling for much less polarization than what we currently see today in public spheres. Dr. Hanna stated that although some fear theology would interfere with the scientific method and others think science would interfere with theological ideology, reflecting both would be most helpful in coming to sound conclusions. The great outcomes that can be seen from theological principles and human knowledge are seen in the Bible story of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who grew up with Hebrew religious values but also were able to use their human skills and intelligence in Babylon. Dr. Hanna ended his presentation by citing Jesus’ call for removing negative discourse when He states, “Agree with thine adversary quickly” in Matthew 5:25, a very relevant call in a modern context.
Dr. Wood’s presentation helped to illustrate the creationist and evolutionary creationism debate clearly. Entitled “How do You Know?”, Dr. Wood’s presentation continued to emphasize the need for peaceful discussion between the two conflicting ideologies. As a young-Earth creationist, Dr. Wood pointed out how evolutionists often depict creationists as “ignorant” and creationists view evolutionists as “brainwashed.” With many creationists believing there is no evidence for evolution and vice versa, intelligent conversations cannot be had if everyone involved does not respect each other as being intelligent. The main point of contention between the creationists and evolutionary creationists is how to interpret the Bible. When there are so many questions about taking the Bible literally in certain areas and not in others, the question of “Why should we trust the Bible?” can be difficult to answer for both sides. Although most view it as a chief authority, the confrontation of knowledge from religious authority versus knowledge from human experience can be difficult to traverse.
Dr. Falk’s presentation entitled, “Thinking about the evolutionary creation of our species in light of the Creator whose essence is love”, further examined the evolutionary creationist perspective. He pointed out that the theories of human evolution, as well as the evolution of other organisms, may not conflict with the Bible. This theory is not popular with many Christians since it is new and can be perceived to be contrary to the majority of Christian theology. Still, Dr. Falk echoed the earlier presentations by encouraging reflection of beliefs and more respectful dialogue to be had in order to form intelligent perspectives. At the end, he also cited James 3:17, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (KJV), meaning that only God can give full perspective to the world he has created.
Dr. Burdick gave the final lecture before lunch that was entitled, “Living without having all the answers.” He pointed out all the assumptions and unanswered questions that we live with. Dr. Burdick pointed out that in history, the founders of modern science were religious, giving credibility to Creationism as a whole. Just as religion is seen to have conflict, science is abundant with conflict. With the internal conflicts of both religion and science, it makes sense that our limited human perspectives would presume there would be plenty of conflicts between the both of them.
After returning from lunch, attendees could participate in asking the presenters questions during a panel discussion before Wood and Falk’s book signing. Everyone in attendance had the opportunity to leave with new perspectives and ideologies to contemplate, ultimately being thankful for such a unique planet.
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