Calculus and Evolution

I teach calculus.  I love it.  The concept of calculus changed society.  The ideas of Newton and Leibniz, applied by others like the Bernoullis and Euler, ushered in the scientific age and provided the  principles undergirding the industrial revolution.

The concepts of calculus also hit hard against old religious ideas.  Those who believed in the laws of calculus could use them to model the laws of physics and from there one could model the universe.  There was no longer a need for angels to push the planets around in their orbits.  Prayers could no longer change the path of the moon or the sun.

Indeed, after Newton, one could be an intellectual and not believe in a supernatural being at all.  It is an interesting story (but surely false) that when Laplace gave his great work on Celestial Mechanics to Napolean, Napolean said, "I see no mention of God in your work," to which Laplace replied, "I have no need of that hypothesis!"

Newton was a deist.  Although certainly not an orthodox Christian, he seemed to believe that the universe had been designed, with physical laws.  Euler, after Newton, was a fairly outspoken Christian.  Other scientists in the centuries after Newton held to a variety of religious beliefs.  Among the mathematicians in the last century, Bertrand Russell and mathematician G. H. Hardy were prominent atheists.

Bishop George Berkeley (for whom Berkeley, California -- and its famous campus -- is named) was an opponent of Newton's mechanical philosophy and struck an early warning about Newton's physical philosophy.  It was Berkeley who called Newton's fluxions, "ghosts of departed quantities", pointing out the illogic of keeping fluxions unequal to zero during parts of a computation and then making them equal to zero at the end.  Only the later "black magic" of limits (as precisely described by Cauchy) saved the principles of calculus.

In this philosophical battle between Newton and Berkeley, eventually Newton's viewpoint won.  Modern physics, based on the mathematics of calculus, assumes the universe is deterministic, at least above the quantum level.

Despite the deterministic view of modern math and science, Christianity has survived.  Yes, there are scientists who are proudly atheistic or agnostic, but there are quite a number of scientists whose worldview is Christian.  (And, of course, there are scientists who are devout Jews or Muslims.)  Newton's mathematics did not end belief in a Creator.  There are many of us who shrug and say, "So God created physical properties and principles that run the universe, without requiring routine intervention?  How is that a problem?"  Indeed, many Christians I know (in the sciences) find the details of the universe beautiful and attractive.  To echo Francis Collins, "God is an awesome mathematician and physicist!"

That has been the opinion of thousands of scientists since Newton's time.  Despite the philosophical underpinnings of calculus, it is not in conflict with orthodox Christianity (or Judaism or Islam.)  One may attempt to claim that modern physics, undergird by modern mathematics, removes God from the universe.  But that statement is a philosophical "leap of faith" that science neither supports nor denies.

So, as a Christian, I can teach calculus!

So what about evolution?   There is supposedly a conflict between Christianity and Evolution.  I don't get it.  I never have.  When I became a Christian, science formed a backdrop to my enthusiasm for learning about the Creator.  When I read Genesis, I thought, "Wow, this is awesome!  Big bang! ('Let there be light.')   Deliberate creation of fish, birds, animals, humans."  It made sense and encouraged investigation into this creation.

Yes, there are some people with innovative interpretations of Genesis, who play games with Hebrew grammar, who can make Genesis contrary to modern science.  And on the other side, there are scientists with a philosophical bias who make a leap to claiming that evolution has a philosophical component that requires that the universe be meaningless.  But in their basic unbiased forms, neither the first few chapters of Genesis nor the theory of evolution are in conflict.  (I recommend, for those interested in exploring Christianity and Biology, the BioLogos website.)

There is, within twentieth century Christianity, a pseudo-religious pseudoscience, Young Earth Creationism.  Young Earth Creationism not only violates every corner of modern science but (more importantly?) violates straightforward Bible hermeneutics as applied to Genesis 1-3.  It is both unscientific and unbiblical!   I'm sure I'll want to say more about Genesis at some other date.  (Yes, there are answers in Genesis -- but don't let Ken Ham tell you what to believe!  smile.)

A century from now, Christians may look back on the "Evolution" conflicts of the last century and shrug.  "So God created biological properties and principles that created life.  How is that a problem?"

Newton's philosophy was more of a threat to Christianity than Darwin's.

Now, back to grading those calculus papers....

Brother Jed and the Gospel of Grace

Friday afternoon I was catching up on grading, working in my office with the north window open.  As I graded, I could occasionally hear a loud voice, shouting at students from the mall in front of the student center (at Sam Houston State University.)

"Brother Jed" Smock is preaching.  (So says the student newspaper.  I did not go out to check that it was Smock.)

Jed Smock would preach from the quadrangle at the University of Illinois when I was a graduate student in the 70s.  (Yes, 70s!  Forty years ago!)  Brother Jed has followed me to every campus I've been on since then.  And less I think it has anything to do with me, he has been on hundreds (thousands?) of other campuses across fifty states over 40 years.  His mission, as he sees it, is to visit campuses and tell students that "hell is hot" and that they are headed there.  (See this Wikipedia article.)

When I was at the University of Illinois, in the 70s, he was not well received.  Students yelled back at him.  (He likes to be heckled.)  Others use his preaching as a chance to preach their opposition to his beliefs.  An agnostic or atheist could point to Smock as an example of the problems of religion.  (Sadly, there is some legitimacy to that argument.)  More constructively, a few Christian groups tried to gently say, "That is not the Good News of Jesus Christ.  If you are interested, can we talk over here more quietly?"

He has been to Sam Houston many times in the past.  He always gets everyone angry before he leaves and seems to be motivated by that.  (Here is an older campus story on Smock.)

Many see his appearance as a threat and so there have been attempts to crack down on his right to speak.  At Central Michigan University there were faculty who attempted to get him banned from campus.  Here at Sam Houston, the SGA passed a resolution calling his comments sexually harassing and opposing his speech.  Smock has a first amendment right to be obnoxious -- and he takes full advantage of that.

What does this mean to the gospel (Good News) of Christ?

Christian love requires caring for the individual person, for their distinctive aspects and characteristics.  It requires time.  Surely it hard to really care for individual students if one circulates rapidly from college to college, yelling at students and then moving on.  It is now February and "Brother Jed" is in the south, moving between Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A & M and other Texas campuses.  In the spring he will slowly migrate north.  Does he stay anywhere long enough to see the effects of his visit?  From the perspective of those who do stay on campus, he merely gives an opportunity for people to mock Christianity.

To see what Brother Jed thinks of his visit, check out his webpage.  (Yes, I was a little surprised to see he had one!)

What motivates Jed?  His preaching is motivated by Old Testament images of prophets speaking out against the hypocrisy and idolatry of Israel and Judah.  The closest New Testament example might be John, the Baptizer, who called the Jewish leaders, "brood of vipers."  (And Jesus had similar language for the religious leaders of his day.)  But it is a serious theological mistake to equate ancient Israel with modern society.  Whether it was Old Testament or New Testament prophets, the sharpest criticism was always against those who hypocritically claimed religious authority.  Jesus could accuse the Pharisees of hypocrisy but spoke gently with the adulteress that the leaders dragged before him.  Jesus cleared the moneychangers out of the temple but invited the despised tax collector to eat with him.

I am saddened by Smock's appearance.  His appearances have always been a bit depressing to me.

The gospel is "Good News."  It is not "hell is hot" and "you are a whore."  It is that there is grace and hope for each of us as broken people.

This morning in church I heard a different message from Jed's.  A local pastor described the life of Barnabus, as a steady encourager of others.  ("Bar-nabus" or "Son of Encouragement.")  The Encourager assisted the young church in Jerusalem in the first century and took Saul under his wing, after Saul's conversion.  After traveling with Saul across Cyprus and Asia Minor, he insisted on encouraging young John Mark and so had a falling out with the stubborn Saul/Paul who did not want John Mark to travel with them.  A question was asked towards the end of the sermon, "Where would the church be without the influence of Barnabas on Paul and Mark?" Paul wrote numerous New Testament letters ("epistles") and John Mark wrote the gospel of Mark, probably used as a guide for the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

When Jed leaves campus, people breathe a sigh of relief.
When Barnabas visited cities and towns, people grew in joy and faith.

I'd like to be a Barnabas.

Longing for a Better Country

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  People who say [admit] such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.  (Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV)

Longing for a better country

As Christians in the USA listen to political rhetoric prior to national elections, it is amazing to many of us that the "religious right" is viewed as somehow representing Christianity.  That followers of Jesus might have a genuine say in politics is a concept foreign to the New Testament and, in many ways, contradictory to the New Testament teachings.  

The New Testament attitude about politics is not surprising.  The New Testament was written during the powerful days of the Roman Empire.  There is no hint that that empire might someday call itself "Christian" and that, indeed, some nations might someday use the paradoxical term "Christian nation."  If there is any overriding New Testament view of the thrust of world politics, it shows up in apocalyptic view of Revelations, in which that nations of the earth all rise against the Creator of the Universe, who then sets up a new nation, a new heaven and a new earth, with a new Jerusalem at its center.  In that vision, no good attribute is given to any nation state; all nations are oppressive and in opposition to God's universal kingdom.

Without getting bogged down in the US politics of the 21st century, it would be beneficial for Christians in this country (my home, the USA) to step back and stay an objective look at the Christian view of politics and statehood as described in the New Testament.  In addition to the wild book of Revelations, there are a number of other places where "citizenship status" is discussed.  The Hebrews 11 chapter on faith (a portion give above) is permeated by the claim that followers of God are "strangers and aliens" on earth.  But the clearest political description of Christians, those who are followers of the Kingdom of God, is given by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian church.  There (in II Cor 5:16-21) the metaphor for Christian action is as a foreign ambassador, visiting one kingdom from another.

From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ambassador to an alien country

I find the ambassador metaphor the most useful and practical. Imagine that you are assigned by your government to be an ambassador to a foreign country.  Maybe you are an American assigned to be ambassador to Russia.  How would you behave in Moscow?  In many ways you might seek to integrate with and join in the local culture.  You would learn Russian. You might attend parties and receptions, make friends.  (There is even a "trick" to drinking vodka at Russian parties, so that you appear to be an enthusiastic member of the crowd while not drinking too much.  See this StackExchange discussion.)  But still, as ambassador from the USA to Russia, you would remember your roots and your loyalties.  You would always be seeking to promote the interests of your home country among the foreign host.  You might play soccer or ice hockey with locals.  Watch movies in Russian and shop at the local market.  But your heart is still back in your home country.  You would not serve in the Russian military or salute the Russian flag or betray the interests of your home country.  In all these ways you would hope to be a contagious influence, never threatening, never bullying, but also never forgetting your mission.

In the same way, the follower of Jesus seeks to be an ambassador for the "kingdom of God" (to use a term Jesus himself used.)  As an ambassador from that kingdom to the strange alien kingdom of earth (and yes, the very foreign kingdom of the USA), I should try to speak the local language, care for neighbors, make friends. (I have many good friends!)  But all along I am aware that this USA is a strange country and I shouldn't forget my allegiance. 

In that sense, as a Christian, I am no more American than the American ambassador to Moscow is Russian.  

The Robe and a Cosmic Cowboy

Sometime ago, after deciding I wanted to be a Christ-follower, I read The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas.  That novel is an exploration of what might have happened to the Roman centurion who crucified Jesus.  The main character, the centurion, Marcellus, traces Jesus's life story and so eventually become a follower of Jesus.  In that journey, he learns to deal with the tension between his new kingdom (one of love, compassion and peace) and the old kingdom, the Roman empire.  At the end, he and his young bride, Diana, refuse to worship Caligula and are sent off to execution.  Yes, it is a work of fiction -- but it captures (in my mind) the transcendence of culture, race and national boundaries, that is embedded in the teachings of Jesus.  (I've not seen the movie, starring Richard Burton.  The movie must lose a bit of the power of the original novel....)

Later in my journey as a Christ-follower, I had a casette tape with a Barry McGuire song about a cosmic cowboy.  It is a fitting place to end this post, quoting Barry McGuire:

"I met a Cosmic Cowboy, riding a starry range.

He's a supernatural plowboy.  He's dressed up kinda strange."

The narrator eventually gets to see all creation laid out before him.  In typical "cowboy" imagery,

"I was looking through his eyes, right into another land.

He said, 'This is my Father's ranch as far as you can see.

He made it out of nothing, every branch, every tree.

The stars, all the mountains, the rivers, the streams,

the oceans, the valley of your dreams.  

I know that place you're looking for, that place you long to be

Truth is, I'm the only door.  You're gonna have to pass through me.' "

Yes, I live in a beautiful country. I have many wonderful American friends.  
I hope, as an ambassador, I can help out a little in my neighborhood.
But American is not the place I'm longing for.  That is a different country.