"O Lord, How Manifold Are Your Works!": God and Biophilia
By Dr. William P. Brown
I read this and start to consider going. I'd like to hear him out, but more importantly, confront him. Usually there's a Q/A session afterward a lecture, right? I've been seeing so many of my favorite skeptics listen to these talks and ask dissenting questions that maybe I could give it a try.
Well, today is the day I remember what being profusely nervous is like. It's strange, because hours before, when I'm considering what the topic will be and what question to ask, I'm already getting on edge. It's mostly because I can imagine myself in the situation, in front of people, disagreeing with the guest. I do it so vividly that I very easily psyche myself out.
And so instead of trying to remember various questions to ask, I type them up. I find this to be reasonable, since the lecture topic is so broad that he could touch on or not touch on many issues. And surely it wouldn't be unreasonable to read a small bit for an initial statement.
Here's what I wrote down, with the topic of the book he's promoting in mind:
You've talked a bit today about how Biblical scripture coincides with the scientific concensus. I disagree.
Time and time again throughout history, I have seen rejection of scientific discoveries by religious institutions, ranging from Galileo's time to contemporary attempts to insert creation myths into biology classes. Only after evidence is completely, embarassingly overwhelming do the religious leaders concede.
The true test of whether the Bible has any scientific value is in its predictive capability, now or in the past. When has the Bible ever been used to make any scientific discovery, rather than used as post-hoc confirmation? Additionally, does the Bible hold any information concerning currently unknown (and testable) scientific facts?
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The Bible is a large book of multiple choice. There exist passages that more readily posit the world to be flat than accurately detail the Big Bang.
Islamic scholars make the same claims as yourself. The Quran apparently explains the Big Bang, expanding universe, the solar system, the round Earth, and atoms! How do you respond to this?
The second bits are considerations for follow-ups.
I try to write these down on a little notepad, but I think it will take too much time. Plus, I'm a little shaky, which is annoying. As I'm running low on time, I grab my flash drive to print it off before I get there, go eat, and scamper across campus.
As a humorous aside, when considering that it would cost my 4 cents to print this page in a place on the way, I remember that I have but 3 cents on my Buzzcard. What an unlucky circumstance! Of course, we have plenty of free prints in certain places, so I hit one up and get my lines.
I walk to the place, and I don't see many people there. I'm familiar with the building somewhat, but I have no idea where the talk will take place. A walk around, subtly peering in. Looks like the guest and a few people are inside, but no one in the front rows (which are pews). With this in consideration... I leave.
A lot of things are going through my head while I'm outside of there, and they culminated in my chickening out, yes. My primary thought was that I didn't want to be one of very, very few audience members, and then disagree with him on major issues. My ideal situation would have been one in which many people were attending, going in, and I could be one of the crowd. Instead, I wasn't even quite sure if I should knock or walk on in... Well, now I'm just making stupid excuses.
I guess I wanted to be anonymous. I didn't want a private conversation where the argument could shift and I could be schooled on Biblical knowledge, scholarly consensus, and the like.
So yeah, I chickened out, but I felt like the episode deserved some recognition since it's been the focus of my thoughts and actions for the past few days.
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