Aaron Tabor, a fourth year medical student at Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois had always dreamed of being a doctor. One thing he discovered during his studies prior to entering medical school was that the scientific facts didn't agree with his YEC views. Unfortunately, given the pernicious either-or mindset that fundamentalists (of all persuasions) maintain, it created a crisis of faith within him:
I graduated summa cum laude from a liberal arts college where I had begun to hone my skills as a scientist, confirming my passion for learning in biology, chemistry, and medicine. I had entered convinced that I would believe in young earth creationism until the day I died, and I had prepared for the “lies” that I would encounter in college, where professors would try to “brainwash” me with ideas of evolution and atheism. Instead, my limited views expanded, and surprisingly I didn’t feel as if anyone had even tried to brainwash me. I actually admired my professors because they presented solid research and data, and encouraged me to come to my own conclusions. After years of studies, there was just too much about evolution that made sense to me. But what about my faith? What about God? The Bible? Jesus? What about creation?
Thankfully, Tabor discovered Francis Collins' "The Language of God" and discovered that the dichotomy existed only in the minds of fundamentalists:
If Collins had found a way, then just maybe there was a chance for me. The statement Collins made that resounded deepest in me was, “I do not believe that the God who created all the universe, and who communes with His people through prayer and spiritual insight, would expect us to deny the obvious truths of the natural world that science has revealed to us, in order to prove our love for him” (p.210). A whirlwind of emotions started inside of me as a glimpse of hope shimmered. This was the answer I needed to hear. Collins also quoted Galileo, who said, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use” (p.158). Two great men of science who had found a way—and all at once I had found them.
Full article is here. Recommended reading for fundamentalists of all persuasions.
