17AR22-22

( - previous issue - / - next issue - )

AR 22:22 - A "delightfully readable" introduction to philosophy

In this issue:

ORIGINS - one man's "Journey through Fear in Higher Education"

PHILOSOPHY - this "small introduction to a vast topic is hard to beat"

Apologia Report 22:22 (1,342)

June 8, 2017

ORIGINS

In AR 22:5 <www.goo.gl/1io6dj> we asked if origins study has become an albatross for Christian higher education. Eli J. Knapp describes his frustrating struggles in "Intelligently Designed Discussion: My Journey through Fear in Higher Education" (Christian Scholar’s Review, 46:2 - 2017, pp145-153).

Knapp opens with a story about a Christian academic journal rejecting an article he wrote about the creation-evolution debate. They recommended that "you should not publish it for matters pertaining to your academic standing and that of your affiliated institution." He wrote the article early in his career merely "to open the doors of a conversation about a topic I felt I could no longer avoid. ... Why? Because to most of my colleagues in biology departments across the nation and the world, 'nothing in biology makes sense ... except in the light of evolution.'"

His quandary: "try as I might to dodge the issue deftly in class, there was always a gaggle of students who lingered after dismissal to ask me more. They insisted on walking me to my next appointment. They asked to dare a coffee or lunch. What they wanted - what they ultimately want - are my personal beliefs. It seems that more and more of today's students, this so-called Millennial generation, crave sincerity and long for discussion. They do not want the easy stuff; they want the controversial. Gray areas are attractive and intellectual honesty trumps all. The shrewder students noticed my evolutionary evasiveness in class. If they did not call me out on this in class, they called me out after it.

"At the core, I was struggling to discern the role of a professor in Christian higher education. ... [M]y purpose - my sole purpose - was to integrate faith and learning. ...

"Every day I walked into the classroom, it slowly dawned on me, was an opportunity to reveal to my students the key issues of the discipline. More than that, I had the precious opportunity to model how a Christian deals with difficult issues."

The abstract reads: "This essay chronicles how a freshly minted college professor navigated the many potential passageways one encounters when teaching biology at a Christian liberal arts college. It describes a journey of initial idea evasion that eventually led to academic engagement with students who collectively sought more than just textbook knowledge. In the process, the author discovered how to hold heavily contested ideas in tension without ducking hot-button issues or pushing ardent seekers away. On one level, it is a story about teaching sound biological concepts with earnest students. On another, it is about teleology, the purpose of a Christian College professor in an ever-changing and increasingly complex cultural milieu. To what extent, the author asks, should a professor divulge his own personal convictions and biases? And if he chooses to do so, how should he proceed? To answer these questions, the author examines recent assertions by renowned atheist Richard Dawkins and pits them against statements made a century-and-a-half earlier by Charles Darwin. The philosophical approach of both men is contrasted revealing a startling difference both in degree and in kind. Despite championing all things evolutionary, both men, Dawkins and Darwin, approached life very differently. Darwin did so hesitantly and carefully. Dawkins does so brashly and without remorse. Emulating Darwin's approach, the author suggests, is a good starting point for engaging today's students with this ever-absorbing topic."

However, the abstract fails to draw attention to the developing drama within the text: "The apologetic books I digested, however, may have ossified my faith more than than strengthened it. While at first comforting, the 'answers' I amassed made my belief system more brittle, weakest at its foundations. The end result of all those apologetics was a form of fundamentalism. ...

"At this point on my journey, I have grown weary of endlessly arming myself with apologetics. It is a static, fear-based, and defensive faith. ... Rather, I am grounding my faith in absolutes but intentionally maintaining them less defensively. And making sure it is receptive to new data and more importantly, the purveyors of such data. I grew up thinking there was one biblical worldview that must be constantly defended. As I have begun to engage evolution day to day, my students and colleagues have seemed to suggest otherwise. ...

"The best time and place, I have learned through experience, are the interstices of the academic day. After class, walking to chapel, office visits. This mosaic of important moments is the true value of a Christian liberal arts college. ...

"I made a point to deemphasize the first part of 1 Peter 3:15 'to always have an answer,' to focus on the second part I had historically ignored, 'to do this with gentleness and respect.'"

Knapp gives an example of how he might begin with a student: "Think of the incredible experiences you have had in your life ... and consider how difficult it sometimes seems to convey them to others. Experience is a pretty powerful way of knowing. Especially spiritual experience. It takes a lot of faith ... to assume that science is the only way of knowing."

Another example refers to a season in Darwin's life. "For eight years - eight years! - he devoted himself to the study of barnacles to see if they supported his developing theories of natural selection and descent with modification. Rather than settle with ideological barnacles that nowadays incrust his ideas, Darwin dissected real barnacles that filled up his cluttered office. Follow Darwin's lead, I subtly advised [my student], before you allow your convictions to crystallize.

"Despite championing Darwin's work, Richard Dawkins could not be any more different from the man about which he writes so earnestly. To Dawkins, people today are one of two things: They are a young-earth creationist with their head in the sand, or, they are like him, a superior-minded and enlightened atheist. ...

"I had intentionally pitted Darwin against Dawkins. ... In short, I wanted to enlarge the canvas [my student] was painting on and give him more space and more ideas to work with."

---

PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic, by Douglas Groothuis <www.goo.gl/XjtKl5> [1] -- this review by Donald T. Williams (Toccoa Falls College, Georgia) begins: "Philosophers are not known for their economy or their clarity with words.... So Denver Seminary philosopher and apologist Douglas Groothuis deserves marks for audacity if nothing else.... for a delightfully readable and often insightful introduction to what can be a horribly abstruse and off-putting field of study.

"Groothuis wants to get past the reputation academic philosophy has earned for ...'obscurity masquerading as profundity.'" Employing seven thought-provoking statements by renowned philosophers, Groothuis uses critical analysis "to get the reader started down a lifelong road of exploring their implications. Thus we come to glimpse the limitations of Protagoras' skepticism, the wisdom of Socrates' examination, the accuracy of Aristotle's observation, and the profundity of Augustine's longing. We see something of the relationship of Descartes' doubt to faith, and the richness of Pascal's insight into the human heart, and the necessity of Kierkegaard's passion for spiritual reality and authenticity.

"As a tour guide to [this] intellectual landscape ... Groothuis would be hard to beat." Touchstone, Mar/Apr '17, p51.

-------

SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Philosophy in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic, by Douglas Groothuis (IVP, 2016, paperback, 160 pages) <www.goo.gl/kMR2h2>

------

( - previous issue - / - next issue - )