Recovering Evangelicals

We’ve all seen images of the storming of the US Capitol.  Among those many images, did you notice the pictures of people carrying Bibles or crosses? Signs with Christian slogans?  A flag with the words: “Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my president”? What was the connection between Christianity and the insurrectionists at the Capitol? In this episode, we take a deep dive down into the rabbit hole known as QAnon, and find a community and a worldview that looks very much like a vocal and politically active segment of Evangelical Christianity. Which explains the resonance and the synergy between them when they started to listen to and collaborate with a small band of armed revolutionaries. As always, tell us what you think. Leave a comment here (below) or at our new Recovering Evangelicals Facebook Group page (you’ll need to join the group first). If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

After a hiatus of a couple months that stretched out to eight, we’re back! Here, we re-connect with our audience, look back at Season 1, and give a preview of what’s coming in Season 2. As always, tell us what you think. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

View the autosave [This is a re-posting of an episode with a broken link] There’s never been a shortage of reasons to think that the Apocalypse was right around the corner.  But Covid-19 and worldwide socio-political-economic unrest have recently ratcheted that fear to a whole new level.  It takes some effort to not get caught up in the hysteria while at the same time not willfully choosing blissful ignorance. R.E.M. not only gave us one of the greatest rock anthems ever, it also inspired the most impenetrable abbreviation that only their fans would recognize: ITEOTWAWKI.  YouTube it if you can’t figure it out. In this episode, we look at how we humans all through the ages have too quickly identified an existential threat, too quickly acted irrationally and impulsively, and too quickly forgot the lesson(s) we should have learned from our mistakes. And then too quickly repeated the cycle all over again.  We could all benefit from reading Daniel Kahneman’s book: “Thinking, fast and slow.” Psychologists give us some insight into the reasons we do this.  The internet and social media only act like gasoline on a fire. We’ll also look at how this basic human trait is amplified by religious beliefs, and how Christians have put a unique spin on it. Selective and faulty interpretation of Biblical passages (especially the uniquely Apocalyptic Books of Daniel and Revelation) gives some of us a false sense of authority … or even authorization … to start shouting about End Times, the Anti-Christ, four horsemen and plagues. And too many others of us buy completely into their alarmism. And finally, we take a few steps back, take a few cleansing breaths, and offer a few suggestions for how to make it through this latest Apocalyptic reprise. As always, tell us what you think. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

. Looking back at the comments and responses which have accumulated at this WordPress site, at Facebook, and sent to us by email, we thought it was time to respond to a few of them in more detail. We noticed a couple recurring themes, one of which related to the Bible itself: how to read/interpret it; why certain books are “in” and others not; why Paul in particular is given such authority; whether the theology of some is a petrified version of the snapshot we have from 1st century writings, and has not been allowed to grow as humans expanded their library of knowledge and experience over the two millennia since then (a theological version of arrested development?); the extent to which we can allow our Biblical interpretation to be influenced by other books (even modern ones), other disciplines (science), or other philosophies. All great questions. Here’s some of our thoughts on them. Tell us what you think, and share this with a friend. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

“I found my way out of Young Earth Creationism because I tried to prove Young Earth Creationism … and failed.” These are the words of our guest today. But it’s a well-worn confession, made by many before him who walked the same beaten path. Renowned historian Dr. Ronald Numbers identifies a recurring theme in the story of the Young Earth Creationist movement. For over a century, that movement has struggled to identify a champion with solid scientific credentials combined with the empassioned conviction to champion the YECist cause. Over and over again, young men would go to university vowing to get the degree that would qualify them to disprove the theories of evolution and the Big Bang, and defend a six-day Creation and Noah’s Flood. Over and over again, they would come back a few years later, much less sure of their convictions, often questioning the foundation of their Fundamentalist belief system, many even having given up Christian faith entirely. Another one bites the dust. Our guest today fits that pattern completely. As a teen, David MacMillan interacted closely with the “scientists” at Answers-in-Genesis, consulting them about scientific questions he was pursuing, learning how they developed their arguments, publishing a few articles of his own, becoming familiarized with “how the sausage is made” at AiG. Then he went to university to get the scientific degree that would catapult him into the YECist Big League. The end result is predictable … and entirely consistent with that theme that Ron Numbers described. Just the same, David gives a rare insider’s look into the poster child organization that is synonymous with Young Earth Creationism. He sheds valuable light on their motives, strategies, qualifications, and claims. He also tells a great story of finding a new form of Christian faith, one which is far deeper, and textured, and colorful … and convincing … than the veneer of belief he grew up with and gave up. Tell us what you think, and share this with a friend. Ronald Numbers. “The Creationists: from Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design.” Harvard University Press, 2006. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

When we read a paper1 published a couple years ago by last week’s guest — Dr. Chris Barrigar — we felt his idea was a perfect book-end to our recent discussions about Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design. We’ve often referred to an image of God rolling certain ingredients — thermodynamics; entropy; quantum mechanics; biological evolution — into a cosmic egg and setting that on the stage of the pre-universe … and watched with delight as that exploded into the universe we see now in front of us. Our guest now adds more detail to that image: those ingredients might have also included randomness, probability, order, predictability, determinism, massively large numbers, dynamic complexity, and chaos theory. And in the process, he tells us he’s found the meaning and purpose of the universe itself: it’s been front-end loaded (the cosmic egg above) to create agape-capable beings like ourselves. We’ll warn the listeners in advance though: this could be the most intellectually challenging episode we’ve done so far. We’ll be putting some of the most recent advances in science, philosophy, and theology on the table. We still believe you’ll be able to keep up with the discussion, but you’ll need to stay focused! Let us know what you think, and share this with a friend. Barrigar, C., “God’s Agape/Probability design for the universe.” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 70(3):161-174, 2018. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

After exploring one end of the spectrum of Creationist beliefs (Young Earth; Intelligent Design), we now move to the other end. This week, we talk to Dr. Chris Barrigar an Anglican pastor from Montreal, Quebec, who’s proposed an idea by which God might have front-loaded the intrinsic properties of the primal cosmic egg in such a way that it would not only explode into the universe we now inhabit, but would inevitably produce “agape-capable beings”. But in setting the stage for his scientific idea, we heard him tell a personal story that was equally worth exploring. He became a Christian in his teen years, when his parents brought home their born-again experience. In university, he pursued a very broad liberal arts degree and a couple career paths before submitting to a call to full-time Christian ministry. But after several years in Bible seminary and time spent in India, he found he had to reject his previous Christian faith. It wasn’t science that did him in: it was encounters with the Christian church itself, and with other world religions and philosophies. His journey took him from Fundamentalist Christianity, to liberal Christianity, to other world religions, and finally even atheism, but none of these seemed to satisfy him. They weren’t “intellectually and emotionally honest”. Yet he still felt there was something more. (Anything you might be able to relate to?) He wondered whether there was something else … something he might have missed the first time around through all those different corners of the theological/philosophical maze. In finding that answer inside the broad Christian tradition, he also discovered the meaning of the universe. Again, as with all of our previous guests, we believe there’s much to learn from his experiences. So we decided to first present his journey through faith and worldview (this week) before hearing about his provocative new idea on Emergent Creationism (next week). If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

Right now, Covid-19 is turning the world up-side-down. Our social systems … education systems … industries … economies … everything has been shut down. Healthcare is straining. And we’re scrambling for answers to how to deal with this thing. Many don’t know that we actually ran into Covid’s brother just less than 20 years ago, and it showed us the Covid family playbook. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome — or SARS — would have done tremendous damage if it didn’t burn itself out so quickly. But Covid-19 is now coming out with the exact same playbook and weaponry. And humanity put that information in a box in the attic and forgot about it! We’ll see that medical scientists found the cave where SARS and its brothers came from … living in fruit bats until they can springboard onto humans … and also learned that they’re evolving there … preparing new disguises and a couple other offensive strategies. And those scientists warned us, two years ago, that SARS Round #2 was getting ready. And now we have Covid-19! We’ll also talk about how humans are helping Covid-19. Through science denial, and rejection of calls from authorities to simply wear face-masks and physically distance, socially isolate, submit to contact-tracing, all in the name of privacy and personal freedoms. We’ll talk about how this naturally leads to the next level of lunacy: conspiracy theories (that Covid-19 is a Franken-bug created in a government lab, or that doctors are using ventilators to kill people) and xenophobia (blaming people of other races, nationalities, or demographic groups). And we’ll look at the faith spin on this. We’ll learn that, contrary to what people of various faiths might want to believe, one large statistical study of 44,000 Covid-related deaths found atheists are least likely to die of Covid! And that this may be a result of people prioritizing religious meetings/practices over government policies and personal safety, or putting too much faith in claiming “promises.” As always, tell us what you think. The conversation is only beginning, and we’re going to start discussing listener’s comments sent to our Facebook and WordPress sites. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

We all do this: we dismiss verifiable scientific fact because we think we know better, or because we think we’re an outlier case. For some, this looks fairly innocuous. Resorting to medicinal herbs and Gwyneth Paltrow to treat health problems. Thinking that cell phones cause brain cancer … wind turbines cause leukemia … 5G networks cause Covid-19. Believing in the Law of Attraction. For others, it becomes a bit more serious. Seeing gambling as an investment strategy … even as a means to cover large debts … knowing full well that “the house always wins,” but believing that “this time it’ll be different.” Or indulging in unhealthy lifestyles which are known to have negative health consequences, but, again, thinking that we’ll be the exception to the rule. Denying global warming, or the ozone holes at Earth’s poles. The belief that vaccinations cause autism. For yet others, this takes on bizarre dimensions: believing that the earth is flat … or that NASA never put humans on the moon (it was all an elaborate Hollywood stunt). But we Christians put our own unique spin on this deeply human trait. Young Earth Creationism. Denying human evolution, or the genetic basis of homosexuality. And then there’s the well-worn (and quite misunderstood) claim that “Science is always changing, but God’s word remains the same” (we’ll look in detail at that). What’s behind science denial? We’ll look at confirmation bias, pattern recognition, the Dunning-Kruger effect, Ostrich syndrome, intentionally looking for answers where we know they shouldn’t be, and Big Business as driving forces. Why do we do this? To gain control over our lives … peace of mind … simplify our world. Or, in the case of Christians, misunderstand what the Bible is, misinterpret what it says, and unnecessarily exclude other sources of information, insight, and wisdom (science, other Christian traditions, or even other world religions). We’ll also look at how science denial almost inevitably leads to something more serious: conspiracy theories. The belief that medical doctors are agents of government control (again, vaccinations) … that the CIA took down the Twin Towers at 9/11 … that a wide variety of people and governments are the anti-Christ … that there’s a secret society bent on discarding Biblical values. Tell us what you think. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page

Christianity has always existed alongside of science. Some of the greatest Biblical characters were highly educated people (Moses; Daniel; Solomon; Saul of Tarsus). Most of the early Church Fathers were fully schooled in the highest forms of Greek thinking (Irenaeus; Clement; Origen; Augustine). Many leading scientists from the past (Sir Isaac Newton; William Buckland) and the present (Francis Collins; John Lennox; John Polkinghorne) fully embrace their Christian faith. This week, we talk to Dr. Joel Duff, a geneticist, a professor, and an active researcher, who grew up in a Christian home (his father is an Orthodox Presbyterian minister) that always encouraged open inquiry to science. He didn’t sense these two parts of his world to be in conflict. He was fully able to read certain Biblical passages … especially those in Genesis … as metaphor, allegory, and ancient poetry. Instead, it was an encounter with YECism when he was in his twenties that really rocked his theological boat. In fact, his story is a mirror opposite to the one we looked at last week … both were committed believers for more than twenty years, but Paul’s YECist faith was severely challenged by an encounter with science, while Joel’s science-embracing faith was severely challenged by YECism. And the outcome of those encounters are also mirror images: Paul found he had to give up faith because of science, while Joel still found he could harmonize faith with science. In fact, he’s an active blogger who writes on that arena where science and theology overlap: often topics where science denial and Young Earth Creationism run rampant. Once again, we feel there is much to learn from his experience, his example, and his insight. If you want to play this episode later on your device, look for Recovering Evangelicals in the iTunes Store, Podbean, Spotify, GooglePodcasts, or GooglePlayMusic. If you want to help grow this pod-cast, please like and share with a friend. Subscribe here to get updates each time a new episode is posted, and find me on Twitter or Facebook. Back to Recovering Evangelicals home-page