When Tina Howard (spaghettipie and Blog Tour Spot) asked me to participate in a blog tour for Marla Alupoaicei, I happily agreed. I met Marla at Mt. Hermon, and we had a good conversation. She’s also a published poet.
That’s why I’m posting about her latest book, Generation Hex, written with Dillon Burroughs. I promised to post a review. I do have many concerns about the book, though. You can read an excellent summary of the book’s problems at John Morehead’s site. I share the concerns he raises, so I won’t rehash them here. But please, go read his post.
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Last week, I interviewed Michael Card when I was out at Laity Lodge. We’re looking to create a Laity Lodge podcast, and I’m exploring some tools here to see what that might look like for them. As a bonus, Sandy Wood of StarDate fame was also there, and she generously loaned us her voice for the intro/outro.
This one’s branded as Laity Lodge since it’s an experiment for them, but I’ll probably consolidate all of my other podcasts here over a set period of time.
Let me know what you think! If you’re interested in subscribing to this via iTunes, you’ll have to manually load the RSS feed (http://www.goodwordediting.com/?feed=podcast) in your advanced options. I’m not going to submit to iTunes for awhile until I have some more episodes to work with.
Laity Lodge 1 - Michael Card [13:28m]:
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First, a reminder of my standard disclaimer. The views expressed here do not necessarily express the views of my employer or the publications I help edit.
But I promised this post for Mark, who left a comment addressed to me and Eric over at the Radiolab blog.
Radiolab is the best audio show I have ever heard. Ever. My wife hates audio shows, but she loves Radiolab. I’m a heel for not having made a donation to them yet. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m still highly loyal to Escape Pod and the whole Escape Artist brand.)
Don’t believe me about Radiolab? Go listen to Emergence. Or Laughter. Or Deception. After I heard the episode on Deception, I had to sit in my car in a parking garage and collect myself before I could reenter the world. The show had a profound impact on me.
Radiolab airs on National Public Radio stations, but the Podcast version of Radiolab includes extra bits, like the speech they posted last week called Tell Me a Story. In that extra, Robert Krulwich delivers a fire and brimstone commencement address at CalTech encouraging scientists to fight for their stories. For better or worse, he also uses some pretty incendiary language about Creationists.
So I couldn’t resist. I popped over to the Radiolab site and left this comment:
Inspiring speech. Interesting comments. I noted the antagonism toward creationists, too, especially since I listened to this podcast on the way home from the evangelical retreat center where I work.
But I’m no creationist. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with folks like John Medina and Francis Collins through our retreat center. Both of them encouraged me to be much more vocal in defending science and evolution. I wouldn’t say I’m at war with creationists, but I’ve stopped sitting quietly when people assume I believe the world is 6000 years old.
I am not often out at the retreat center, so it’s a little misleading to say I “work there,” but I was trying to give a concise comment. As an editor for TheHighCalling.org and FaithInTheWorkplace.com, I defend the vision entrusted to me–without trying to insert my own opinion and philosophy. (Though that happens from time to time because I’m only human.)
At the time I wrote the comment, I thought about linking to my interviews with John Medina and Francis Collins, but I hesitate to link to my own stuff like that.
Still, I was thinking about what John Medina told me 2 years ago:
You see, science is just one way of knowing. It is actually a fairly small sandbox. Every Christian needs to memorize Emmanuel Kant. Over 200 years ago, he said that if something is physical in nature, you may utilize the tools of this great sandbox called natural philosophy—the scientific method.
The instant something is not physical in nature, those tools collapse because you have introduced an uncontrollable variable. Not an uncontrolled variable. An uncontrollable one. That’s key.
And what Francis Collins told me last year:
One of the great tragedies of our current era is that evolution is being portrayed as a threat to God. If science is God’s gift to us, along with the intelligence to explore his world, God could hardly be threatened by what we discover. It’s all his creation. The truth is the truth, and it’s all God’s truth. I reach out as much as I can to my Christian brothers and sisters and try to make a case that this is an unnecessary battle. We can embrace evolution as God’s plan and worship him in the process, without feeling anxious or apologetic.
So here I am posting this unapologetically. If you’re a regular here, it’s probably not much of a surprise. And don’t misunderstand. I’m not picking a fight or looking to have a point by point argument over various readings of Genesis.
What I am doing is trying to find a way to talk about this issue without people yelling and calling names. And inviting Mark and Eric (the commenters from Radiolab) to talk with me here if they want to.
(Mark and Eric, we can also have a private conversation if you like. Just email me at Marcus [at symbol] HighCallingBlogs.com.)
