An Interview with Confessing Scientists

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@Wenlok

Hi. Ive recently started to accept atheism as i left Islam, but im very intrigued with the small community of Christian evolutionists, especially Dr. Swamidass.

Welcome @Wenlok. It is a pleasure to meet you. You have some great questions. The most important one, of course, is…

Considering Vs. :

@Wenlok

-Which is stronger, A titanium horned unicorn, or a elastic/plastic like gorilla?

As a scientist, I’d request that you produce them, and we test them to find out. My hypothesis is that it depends how we define “stronger,” which is a far more nuanced term than one might expect. By some definitions, the unicorn will win, by others the gorilla will.

Not a Theistic Evolutionist

Next, I want to emphasize that I am not a theistic evolutionist. I am a Christian that affirms evolutionary science, which is a mouthful. So you can just call me a confessing scientist if you like. As I’ve explained before:

I still affirm evolutionary science, but I no longer am a theistic evolutionist . Since I first became public in my work, I have never been intent on evangelizing evolution. For this reason, I am not well defined as an “ evolutionist .” My worldview does not rest on evolution; it rests on Jesus, the one who rose from the dead. I am not well defined as a “ theist ” either, because I see great evil in this world justified by generic (and specific) theism; and I follow Jesus, who is much greater than theism.
The Confessing Scientist

I Respect Your Path

You write:

@Wenlok

Hi. Ive recently started to accept atheism as i left Islam, but im very intrigued with the small community of Christian evolutionists, especially Dr. @Swamidass.

In addition to me, take a moment to talk to @sygarte too. He was a scientist with this happened to him:

Finding My Faith – Update

Any how, the step you are taking to move away from a man-made faith is risky, brave and honorable. I wrote recently to a high schooler:

@swamidass

What I respect about the journey of many atheists is that they did not settle for a manmade religion. They recognized that the religion in which they were raised was manmade, and they left it in search of something better. That is a brave step that I respect. Of course, I hope that atheism is only on step in their journey, and they might find the Truth of Jesus. It is a mistake however, to think they are farther from God than when they were in a false religion.

An example of this is the story of @rcohlers who was raised a Christian Scientist. He came to realize it was a false religion, and the became an atheist. Later. he encountered Jesus, and follows him now. So was atheism a step forward or backwards? In my view, it was a step towards the truth.

That is the beauty we find in many atheists. They are rightly rejecting manmade religion. Moreover, they are often kind and moral people. They might be, as we understand it, wrong about God. But there can be many things they do have right. And they also are usually much different than Dawkins.

I do not know where your journey will lead you, but I have great respect for those that leave the religion of their parents. It is a difficult thing to do, and in some parts of the world comes with severe consequences.

With those key preliminaries stated, I’ll try and hit some (or all?) of your questions in the next post.