Monday, February 11, 2008

On Monday

Tidbits on a chilly Monday:

-Today's/tonight's weather calls for snow/freezing rain. This means Bill Meck and his MaxTrack dopplar radar will be in full effect. I would recommend tuning in to Bill's up-to-the-minute weather updates, because honestly, is there really anyhting better on TV these days?

-Speaking of TV, rumor has it that the Hollywood writer's strike could end this week. That would be great news for me, cause I'm gonna need some new episodes of The Office here real soon or I might go crazy.

-A month or so ago Morgan and I went to see Juno at the Kentucky Theater. I would strongly recommend that you see this movie for two reasons. First, it is a great movie. It is clever, well-written, and Ellen Page is a star in the making. Plus, two cast members from Arrested Development are in it, so you know it must be good. Second, it conveys a great message to parents who might be dealing with their teenager becoming pregnant. By no means are the parents in the movie Christians, nor do they claim to be, but instead of chastising and alienating their child when they find out that their 16-year old is pregnant, they handle the situation in a loving and caring way that is quite refreshing. I also deals with such issues as abortion in a way that I think is interesting to watch. Go see it or rent it on DVD when it comes out.

-Question: Can you believe in Creationism and Evolution? This was the question that I presented to my 6th grade discipleship class yesterday afternoon. We are going through a book called The Top 13 Questions About God, which deals with many questions such as this. Of course, the 6th graders emphatically answered no at first, but then when we talked about what evolution really meant, and what the difference was between evolution and adaptation, they seemed to change their minds. Kids that age are funny because they still categorize everything as black or white. Most, I would assume, have been taught that evolution is bad/wrong, but they have never actually been taught what evolution is really all about, causing them to overgeneralize subjects such as this, or science as a whole. The reason I bring this up is that it's important that children be educated on both sides of the story, in any subject. It will only allow them to be more prepared for the future. Hiding them from things such as evolution doesn't make those things go away; they will have to confront them sometime. Wouldn't you rather them be prepared for it so that they will be more likely to handle the situation better?

-Prediction for tomorrow night's game: Cats 71, 'Dores67.

posted by Wes @ 9:51 AM

10 Comments:

At 2/11/2008 11:53:00 AM, Blogger Justin said...

It is always refreshing to see a good post from you.

I agree with you on The Office. The only "live" TV Rach and I watch now is Lost. Besides that we are working our way through Scrubs and The Wire, both on DVD.

We recently saw Juno as well. I think it was most of all "a polemic against the cool", as one reviewer said. Great writing, acting, and the music was sweet.

Good thoughts on the evolution and creation.

 
At 2/11/2008 09:42:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

as justin said, wes, it is always good to read your thoughts. my wife and i are dying as well from a lack of The Office! we're hoping we'll get some new episodes soon.

haven't seen Juno, but it looks great. probably see it soon.

on the evolution issue, i guess i'm a little more guarded in that area. i totally agree that we don't need to ignore the issues, but in making it sound as if it's 'not so bad,' i think we set them up for trying to make it jive with Scripture, when it clearly does not. if you're speaking in terms of species merely adapting to their environment for survival, that's one thing. and i agree with you that in it's truest sense, this is probably what evolution is. but, 'evolution' in today's world means one thing - the evolution of the human race from apes to what we are today. i think we must be clear about that when we are speaking to students about evolution. this type of evolution is anti-Biblical and must be taught as such, particularly within the church.

just some thoughts.

timmorrison.org

 
At 2/11/2008 10:52:00 PM, Blogger d blake said...

Bill Meck and MaxTrack doppler radar are overrated.

 
At 2/11/2008 11:32:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with Tim on the issue of evolution. Yes, adaptation occurs on a small scale but you do not see species changing from other species in Scripture. Here are two observations from the Genesis acount. First, evolution requires death, lots of death, for species to evolve. Death is a result of the fall, which renders evolution impossible. Second, evolution, and more specifically, Darwinism is making philosophical assertions that are juxtaposed to what we read in Scripture. The driving force behind evolution is random chance, it is completely unguided, Scripture clearly asserts that the creative process was extremely guided, by a Sovereign God.

One of the dangers in trying to explain Scripture in terms of science is that Genesis is not intended to serve as a scientific manual it is a book of revealed history. The creation account revealed there uses specific historical language and orrured literally as it is described. Often this desire to harmonize Scripture and Science is to make its claims seem more normal, a hermeneutic that would rob Scripture of its supernatural nature if applied across the spectrum.

 
At 2/12/2008 10:42:00 AM, Blogger Wes said...

Thank you for the input. My point was simply that i feel that we as Christians put small-scale adaptation, as Keith put it, under the umbrella of evolution, or we just use both terms as though they are the same. Part of the lesson to the kids was, as Tim put it, a clarification of what evoultioon is, and how we have to be careful not to confuse it with adaptation.

Darwin's Theory of Evolution, as a whole, is as you both said, directly contradictory to Scripture, and it is important that we as a church, especially the youth, understand this. However another point that I felt needed to be made to the kids was that as they get older and move into high school and college, they are inevitably going to be confronted with a situation where evolution is persented to them from an authority figure as fact. My question to them was "How will you handle that?". Not only does this quesiton apply to guarding our hearts against the theory of evolution, but it also is a challenge to how we treat the lost who truly believe evolution as fact. We are not to reject them with the attitude of "Well you're wrong and I hope someday you figure out the right thing or else you're going to Hell." (This seems to be a pretty prevalent attitiude among many that I have encountered, and I think we are all guilty of this from time to time). Instead we are to love them with the understanding that they believe these things because they are lost, and that if it had not been for the grace of God, you and I could very well be in the same position as they are.

In my opinion I feel that we do our children a disservice by keeping them uneducated about topics such as this. They are going to have to face these tough subjects some day...as parents and teachers I beleive it is our job to prepare them early on to handle these situations in the most Christ-like manner as possible.

 
At 2/12/2008 06:26:00 PM, Blogger TaylorW said...

yes! that class with the 6th grade guys sounds great...

True, we should not shelter kids from both sides of an issue. However, we should clearly articulate the truth (scripture) and encourage them to see WHY scripture makes sense.

what are some of the other questions from that book?

 
At 2/12/2008 08:28:00 PM, Blogger Wes said...

Some other questions are "How can I know that God exists?" and "What makes Jesus different from Muhammed or Buddah?". It's pretty good.

 
At 2/13/2008 04:51:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great thoughts, Wes. I totally agree with you.

The sad thing is that now, it's not just the "lost" that we have to worry about teaching these issues to our students. There are a number of prevalent pastors and teachers who try to reconcile science with Genesis. Slippery slope, I think.

 
At 2/13/2008 08:38:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Instead we are to love them with the understanding that they believe these things because they are lost, and that if it had not been for the grace of God, you and I could very well be in the same position as they are."

I concur. And I too think there is a lot of things that parents are trying to shelter their kids from when in reality that just means their kids are learning it somewhere else. Homosexuality and just sex in general would be two of the biggest ones.

 
At 2/13/2008 10:34:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So who else thinks Keith is a complete stud in his little picture thingy?

 

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