Some Philosophical Thoughts...

I'm taking a required philosophy class this summer (gotta love a liberal arts education!), called "Belief, Morality, and the Modern Mind." It's an intense four-week course, in which we are covering hard topics, such as creation vs. evolution, the problem of evil, determinism vs. universalism, miracles, etc. So, here are some interesting thoughts:

Theistic Evolution
That's right, I've finally taken a stance on the evolution debate, and I believe that I am a theistic evolutionist. Huh? In a nut shell: Theistic evolution is the proposition that God is in charge of the biological process called evolution. God directs and guides the unfolding of life forms over millions of years. Theistic evolution contends that there is no conflict between science and the Biblical book of Genesis.


Dualism vs. Physicalism
Dualism is the belief that human beings have immaterial souls, while physicalists don't believe in an immaterial soul. One thing that I have learned and I am really mulling over is the fact that the belief that humans have a soul that immediatley goes to heaven upon death is not Biblical. Biblical teachings align with the belief that once we die, our souls rest in an intermediary state, where we wait until the Final Judgement. Once Christ returns, we experience a bodily resurrection (hence why some churches were/are against cremation), in which we go to heaven to spend eternity. Until then, we are in a "sleeplike state" (hence the saying "rest in peace"). Many scholars believe that this intermediary state could be like sleeping, but as God transcends time, so does this state; i.e., we may not necessarily be conscious of the amount of time we "sleeping" until Christ returns. Paul hints at this state in 2 Cor. 5, and the majority of Jewish theologians and first century believers held fast to this belief, as well. Our present belief that our soul rise to heaven upon death taken from Greek philosophy - mainly Plato - and it is also just assumed. And yes, professing Christians can be physicalists :)

The Resurrection
We discussed the Resurrection briefly one day in class, and my friend Erica brought up the point that many well-known theologians - N.T. Wright, for example - believe that it's possible to be a Christian and not believe in the Resurrection. It's not a popular belief among evangelical churches, but is becoming more popular among some main line churches. I don't buy into it, since I believe that God is alive, and I don't see how God could be alive if God died and didn't overcome death. I am going to look into it some more, though. Erica said to google "the Jesus Seminar" and that I should come up with some more writings on it. Anyone else hear of this belief?

We're beginning to discuss the problem of evil this week. Tomorrow we are watching Hotel Rwanda in class, and discussing it some at the end. I've been wanting to see this movie, and look forward to some good discussion.

On another note, I'm onto another book from my summer reading list! I'm now reading Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies, and I love it so far. It's short, so I should be done with it by this weekend, I hope.