My first couple classes at CSULA proved to be challenging. Many professors, and students too, made blatant statements opposing the existence of God, for the big bang theory, and against SO many of the values I have grown up with (things like alcohol usage, sexual promiscuity, and sexual orientation were only some of the issues I was challenged to rethink). This was one of the main reasons I wanted to transfer to a private Christian college that taught Godly values, as well as providing a professional education. However, God told me to stay at CSULA.
For a while, my upper division classes did not really discuss such controversial topics. Not until I took History & Systems in Psychology did these things come up again. That's right, I was surprised too...of all classes, it was this one that revived the controversy & struggle to reconcile what I was hearing, and what God's heart is for these things.
My professor started the first lecture by talking about how certain scholastic philosophers "Christianized" Aristotle's ideas. He elaborated further in his lecture about how religious authorities & "the church" endorsed a ethnocentric view that the earth was the center of the universe, to which he added, "We all know that's WRONG." He went on to draw a parallel between this earlier embarrassment and a present topic: evolution.
He boldly stated that "evolution is a proven fact." Bringing up evidence that one scholar once calculated from the Bible that the earth is only about 6,000 years old, but that carbon dating and fossils tell us that the earth is much older than that. From what it felt like, this guy was directly challenging religion. Later, a student asked him if he believed in God. His response was that he did not personally believe in God, and that it did not help him to believe, as it did for some others.
Needless to say, this shook me up a bit. Not only did he err more on the side of the religiously apathetic, but he didn't even give space for any other opinions or views. Here is a response I wrote to this experience...
If macro-evolution was true, it would equate humans as fellow organisms with animals. However, we have the capacity to reflect and learn from past experiences, as well as a higher moral standard than animals. We also have the power of choice to override our natural instincts. If we are in fact just the same as other animals, we would all have the same percentage of chance to dominate & civilize the world. However, looking at the huge discrepancy that exists in the progress of the world today, it is hard to believe chimpanzees could have achieved the same or more of what humans have.
And how could such complex structures as the flagellum motor have developed strictly from a lottery of chance? In such meager odds, how could such things happen in the big bang, or evolution from simple single-celled organisms to complex organisms like humans?
If the Bible was made up, that person, or people, would have had to be crazy. For Christians to have been around for so long, and for there to be such a diversity--in terms of occupation and personal background--in the makeup of believers & followers, a great hoax is in play, or a monumental movement is happening.
Why should so many people die for the sheer tenants of following Christ? And why would so many people hold to their claims that they saw Jesus Christ in a resurrected body--WITH the marks of crucifixion--even to death? Why would people hold to their own words even to death, unless they were absolutely certain of themselves?
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