Would you like to dance around the world with me?

Childhood memories and the Language of God

I went home last weekend for a conference, and Saturday I spent almost the whole day cleaning out my room, which hasn't changed much since high school. It was a monumental task considering I'm a pack rat, but it went surprisingly well. Luckily, I had Lindsay there to help me through it, and nag me about silly things I was saving. It's amazing that we had about 10 trash bags full of things to give to Goodwill, and probably still too many boxes to take with me once I move to California. It was a good trip down memory lane, but I tried to keep things moving from my hands to either the Goodwill pile, the trash, or my boxes to take with me. Every once in a while my mom also broke from her throw-everything-away tendency to one of reminiscing and wanting to save some of my items from childhood. So I guess we're more alike in that area than we admit.

On a completely different note, there were some interesting talks at MIT about faith and science. These particularly appeal to me because I first became agnostic because I didn't think that I could believe in science and religion. However, many people (including me now) believe you can.

Francis Collins gave a talk about the Human Genome and truly believing in the Bible, God, and fundamental science principles. He didn't grow up a Christian and was a strong atheist, only to realize that there is something more out there. He also mentions that understanding more about the complex human body has actually made him a stronger believer, and I agree. There really are a lot of parallels between Dr. Collins and myself, so it was a really good talk. He presented the kind of evidence that helps me build my faith.

Here are some quotes that I liked from the talks:

Saint Augustine:
"In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision, even in such as we may find treated in Holy Scripture, different Interpretations are sometimes possible without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such a case, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. "

Francis Bacon
"To conclude therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain, that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works."

Both of these quotes point to the fact that you CAN question religion, God, science, and everything that surrounds them. God wants us to understand and believe in religion from all aspects.

And now I really should get back to my thesis...

Labels: family, religion

posted by Biff @ 2:52 PM