{"id":432,"date":"2010-06-02T09:42:41","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T15:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raincitypastor.wordpress.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2010-06-02T09:42:41","modified_gmt":"2010-06-02T15:42:41","slug":"evolution-waltke-and-the-pandora-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/02\/evolution-waltke-and-the-pandora-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution, Waltke, and the Pandora Problem…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I love Pandora. \u00a0Not the goddess; the software. \u00a0I love creating ultra-personalized radio stations based entirely on my tastes. I love knowing that because my artists, and somethings like them, are all that will be played, I\u2019ll never be disappointed again while listening to music, and if I am, I can punish Pandora with a \u201cthumbs down\u201d rating on a song and rest assured that my tastes have been even further refined.<\/p>\n

As a result, though, I\u2019ve become way less tolerant of normal radio, which forces me to endure tastes other than my own, if only for a mile or two in the car. \u00a0I usually won\u2019t stand for it and start surfing for something, anything, even sports talk radio, instead of whoever it is who\u2019s style or singing is distasteful to me. \u00a0Pandora the goddess opened the jar because of curiosity and unleashed evil on the world. \u00a0Pandora the music software also unleashes evil, but for the opposite reason: it seems to shut down curiosity. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Our entire culture is infected with this fear based lack of curiosity because we\u2019re increasingly retreating into self-referential subcultures. \u00a0Are you liberal? \u00a0Read the Huffington Post. \u00a0Are you conservative? \u00a0Listen to Glenn Beck. \u00a0In either instance you\u2019ll find enough fodder to reinforce your world view and never be confronted with the untidy realities that might altar it. \u00a0Increasingly it appears that this closed-minded fragmentation occurs, not only in music and politics, but churches and theology, much to our shame and loss.<\/p>\n

A recent example was the resignation of Bruce Waltke<\/a>, a brilliant Old Testament scholar, from Reformed Theological Seminary. \u00a0He made some comments implying that we should be in dialogue with those who believe in evolution because, if there\u2019s evidence for it and we refuse to listen, \u201cto deny that reality will make us a cult\u201d.<\/p>\n

The event reminds me of an earlier time, written about here<\/a>, which includes this: \u00a0it strikes me how ignorant most Christians are of earlier battles from which we should have learned. The classic example is how the church handled Copernican theory and Galileo. The church had \u201cBiblical truth\u201d and evidence on her side against the \u201cgodless\u201d theory that the earth orbits the sun rather than vice versa. <\/em><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a post about creation\/evolution debates. \u00a0I have my beliefs and teach on Genesis regularly. \u00a0This is a post about listening. \u00a0This is a post wondering why the man who helped translate the NIV Bible, and the NASB, and who has served the church faithfully for decades with solid Old Testament scholarship should lose his teaching position because he suggested that maybe we should listen and dialogue, consider and if necessary, alter our views. \u00a0But somehow, the thought of listening and considering was too much for the school whose slogan is \u201cA Mind for Truth \u2013 A Heart for God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truth seeking, it seems, should make us fearless of new ideas because after all, we\u2019re committed to truth<\/strong><\/em>, not our current conceptions of truth. \u00a0Is there danger in listening? \u00a0Of course. \u00a0We need discernment, humility, and the courage to defend our convictions or altar them. \u00a0Fail at any point we run the risk of careening down the mountain, crashing in a heap of heresy.<\/p>\n

The problem, though, is that there are dangers in not listening as well. \u00a0The Pharisees didn\u2019t listen, and the killed Jesus, and later Stephen, and later tried to kill Paul. \u00a0They knew their Bibles, but weren\u2019t open to the possibility that their understanding was incomplete. \u00a0The flat earth society<\/a> stopped listening. \u00a0The church, justifying slavery for centuries, had stopped listening. \u00a0When we stop listening, we stop learning and are, as a result, no longer open to transformation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m convinced that Jesus is, as he said he was, \u201cthe truth\u201d and so I\u2019ll be astonished if my enquiries ever lead me to love him less. \u00a0But I\u2019ll keep enquiring, because the only other option is to declare that I\u2019ve already arrived, that my understanding God\u2019s Word and the World are perfect. \u00a0I don\u2019t have the presumption to go there. \u00a0That others do, and have stopped listening as a result, strikes me as self-referential Pandora theology, and makes me sad.<\/p>\n

I welcome your thoughts.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Pandora. \u00a0Not the goddess; the software. \u00a0I love creating ultra-personalized radio stations based entirely on my tastes. I love knowing that because my artists, and somethings like them, are all that will be played, I\u2019ll never be disappointed again while listening to music, and if I am, I can punish Pandora with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-creation","category-questions"],"yoast_head":"\nEvolution, Waltke, and the Pandora Problem...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I love Pandora. \u00a0Not the goddess; the software. \u00a0I love creating ultra-personalized radio stations based entirely on my tastes. 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