by Disillusioned JW 86 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
TD there are lots of serious scientists, as opposed to the funny kind , who are Christians.
I have mentioned before a chap called Hugh Ross who is a Canadian Astrophysicist. He has written several books including ' The Improbable Planet ' which gives a VERY detailed account of how the earth came to be . He and many others have no problem marrying faith and science together.
One of the lay readers in my church is a retired research scientist in the chemical industry .
Jan
jhine, I've been aware of Hugh Ross for a number of years. Hugh Ross doesn't accept biological macroevolution. He is an old Earth progressive creationist who accepts an old biosphere and much of science, but not evolution. His ideas are much better than those of most non-evolutionary creationist apologists, but he nonetheless does not believe in evolution. I do wish that the WT's form of non-evolutionary creation had been the kind of Hugh Ross, and that the WT had not sharply criticized evolution so much. Ross has a very good knowledge of modern science. If the WT had used Ross' approach I would not have been scared to study evolution during my grade school, high school, and college years and thus possibly would have accepted evolution much sooner than I did.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Ross_(astrophysicist) which says the following. "Hugh Norman Ross (born July 24, 1945) is a Canadian astrophysicist, Christian apologist, and old-Earth creationist. ... He established his own ministry in 1986, called Reasons to Believe, which promotes progressive and day-age forms of old-Earth creationism, by developing what the ministry calls a "testable creation model".[5]
Ross rejects both abiogenesis and evolution as explanations for the origin and history of life, contrary to the scientific consensus.[6] "
Jane Goodall, (one of the Trimates aka Leaky's angels) is a devout Christian.
Jane would be surprised to learn that. She is definitely not a "devote Christian". She does feel a need for a supernatural intelligence that can be experienced in nature and somehow guided evolution. Her feelings in this regard are not arrived at scientifically but instinctively, (she has said her Congregational upbringing shaped her in profound way.) She was a good choice for the assignments with primates because she was able to patiently endure hardship and carefully record what she saw. She took real risks that some would regard as foolhardy but made it through. She's a wonderful woman and activist who has and continues to do good things for people and animals but anyone is free to disagree with her feelings about supernaturalism.
Yes there are scientists who are Christians, Hindus, Muslims, racists, ghost hunters, bigfoot believers etc. The issue is not whether such folks are involved in some type of science, but are their personal conclusions scientifically drawn. I know a medical doctor who believes in reincarnation. I would consult her for advise about a rash but not put much weight to her religious upbringing regarding what happens after death.
Well it does show that science and a knowledge of doesn't have to clash with faith. It's not a case of either or as creationists believe.
Jan
Though Jane Goodall believes in some kind of a Supreme Being, I think she no longer believes in the God of the NT Bible. I think that because of the following which is posted at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall , since she said the Creator is unknown and unknowable.
'In her foreword to the 2017 book The Intelligence of the Cosmos by Ervin Laszlo, a philosopher of science who advocates quantum consciousness theory, Goodall wrote: "we must accept that there is an Intelligence driving the process [of evolution], that the Universe and life on Earth are inspired and in-formed by an unknown and unknowable Creator, a Supreme Being, a Great Spiritual Power."[79] '
Since she said the above she probably doesn't believe in Jesus Christ as a means of salvation nor as the son of God, for if she believed in such she probably would believe that she knows much about Jesus Christ and of one whom the NT says is his Father, and she would believe that the Father (and possibly also the Christ) is God.
jhine, what would it take, if anything, for you to give up belief in a personal God and in all alleged spirit beings, and to become a scientific naturalist?
