After his lecture Dr. Miller then entertained questions from the audience. If you don't feel like reading my cliff notes version, feel free to head to the KCFS site and download the .mp3s yourself. I'm downloading them right now and plan to listen to them when I have the chance.
As far as the evening Q&A goes, there were a total of 7 questions asked. I'll put the (paraphrased) question in italics and the response (also paraphrased of course) in normal text.
1. Would you not agree that faith on Sunday and reason on Monday-Saturday requires a schizophrenic compartmentalization especially to scientist.
“No, I think a truly religious person believes that both faith and reason are gifts from god… should compliment one another. We shouldn’t use faith to test things in lab. These are questions of reason. Faith gives scientists a reason to pursue reason… Faith that nature can be understood and is worthwhile.”
2. From an evolutionary perspective, why are humans religious? Was it evolved or a side effect?
The religious impulse can fit with evolution. It helps people band. Some would argue that that’s atheistic, but if there is a God and He used evolution to fashion our physical bodies, he should be able to fashion or mental faculties as well. Thus, it can fit with both the evolutionary perspective and theological ones.
3. How does having a fused set of chromosomes affect meiosis?
Ultimately it doesn't. One telomere must be inactive, which is precisely what we see.
4. If god is the creator, what if an asteroid had never wiped out the dinosaurs? Then there would be no humans --> no God.
This is Gould’s argument. But what’s wrong with big brained dinosaurs? But who’s to say that God wanted hairless bipedal apes and not just some well developed species?
The bible does say that we were created in God’s image, but there's multiple ways to interpret this. One way is to assume that it meant in mental faculties and spiritually. Not in a literal sense that God is a hairless bipedal ape.
5. We know how science has contributed to the human condition. Has Faith? If so, how?
Science is the child of faith. Modern science developed in Eastern theological emphasis of humans being connected to nature and is thus not wholly objective. Western separates man and nature, making objective observer. Thus (Western) faith has contributed by helping to shape science.
6. You claimed that attacks on anti-theism (rather than attacking science) is the road to peace. But history contradicts this.
“Attack” is bad world. Anti-theism should just the target of dialog.
7. Are all faiths equal? Can science help choose one over another?
Glad you decided to end with an easy one. No one thinks all faiths are equal. Everyone thinks their own is best. Science is not much help. Everyone should be modest enough to recognize this. We should all respect choices of others.
That's the short version of the Q&A session. If you want to hear the responses for yourself, follow the link above and check it out. In my next post regarding Dr. Millers visit I'll post my notes on his morning discussion session and from there, will post my overall thoughts of the series. From looking at the blogsphere, it looks like there's a lot of different reactions, even within the same blog.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
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