It was with great disappointment and dismay that we learned in mid-December that DisciplesWorld was ceasing publication both in print and on-line.

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The first question was how would that affect The Intersection, and with it, DÎSCÎ?  The Intersection, which was created and administered by Rebecca Woods, News and Website editor for DisciplesWorld, has been tied to the magazine, and was as much a labor of love for Rebecca as it has been part of her job.

The good news is that The Intersection is a Ning Network-based website, independent of DisciplesWorld’s, so the shutting down of the magazine’s site does not imperil its basic existence or ability to function.

Members of The Intersection are currently discussing strategies to perpetuate it according to its original purpose:

A community for members and friends of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and other people of faith to gather, share, and discuss.

It may take several months before all the issues can be worked out, such as who will be administrator(s), subscription fees to Ning, and other typical details.

DÎSCÎ: What’s next?

I created the Disciples’ Institute for Scientific and Cosmological Inquiry specifically to be a forum group on The Intersection.  Membership thus far has required an Intersection account.  At the same time, I had the desire for DÎSCÎ, as a forum on faith and science, to have a public face as well, so simultaneously, I set up the blog on WordPress.  That arrangement has worked quite well, not only from an exposure perspective, but also, Intersection members of DÎSCÎ (and even any Intersection member who requested to post a topic on the forum), could also post their topic or comments on the DÎSCÎ blogsite.

DÎSCÎ can stand on its own, either as a forum in The Intersection, or as an independent blog site.  Change begets change, however.  The decisions made regarding the continuation of The Intersection will have an impact on DÎSCÎ, but I am hopeful and prayerful that  both will go through this transition and flourish well into the future.

David C. Waggoner, PhD

DÎSCÎ Founder and Blogsite Owner.

The retirement clock on the STS Shuttle systems is counting down to zero. One big question has been, what kind of craft will be ready to continue to service the ISS, as well as other payloads that could benefit humans in thousands of ways? We Americans are not really ready for the next generation of space transport, in my opinion, of course, because we’ve spent a lot of time the past twenty years spending our money, well, let’s just say on other international projects.

Funny though, even though the Soviets “lost” the space race, the Russians, might end up winning it after all, with stuff they just have left lying around.

One of those happened to be named Buran. The Soviet space shuttle that had several glide test flights, but only one successful orbital mission. The most amazing aspect of Buran, however, was its one launch and landing was fully robotic.  No crew was aboard.  Watch this video from Prime Time Russia.  You’ll see some very familiar things…

Comments anyone?

Here is a video retrospective of the Buran program, also produced by Prime Time Russia:

Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. (Mt 2:2, NIV)

Star of Bethlehem: Has the Myth Been Decoded?

In the opening of Part 1, I suggested that this is a story that starts in the wrong place and the wrong time, but perhaps that contradiction contributed to both its lasting power and to its veracity.  In the previous post, we looked at two creation myths, the first from the Aztecs of Mesoamerica and the second from the Sumerians of Mesopotamia.  Both of these narratives, although created by peoples on opposite sides of the Earth and who never had any contact with each other, have unmistakable and remarkable similarities that suggest what Joseph Campbell wrote extensively about the archetypal human story. 

The Star of Bethlehem, recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, is an anomaly in the biblical narratives.  Other than the opening passages of Genesis, the Sun, a few references to the stars in Psalms and a couple of other places, the writers of the Bible have no interest in the sky, at least as we have been examining it in this discussion.  The Hebrews, however, did have an organized cosmology: 

Hebrew Cosmology Illustrated. Photo source: unknown

The remarkable contrast between this concept of the cosmos and those of the Aztec’s or Sumerian’s is, like in the Hebrew creation story, the complete lack of violence in the act of genesis itself.  Few other religions have a similar conceptual basis in which the Earth Mother God does not have to be destroyed and her various body parts used to make the earth, sky and humans.  The Egyptian cosmology illustrates the more common archetype: 

Egyptian Creation Myth Illustrated--This Picture is based on the "Heliopolis Cosmogony," one of several dominant myths in the Egyptian Pantheon.

In the previous post I also suggested that the study of the sky as distinct from the land and the oceans perhaps took place circa 6000 years ago, but admitted that was a guess.  Since writing that post, I was fortunate to acquire Gavin White’s new work titled, Babylonian Star-Lore. I was, as it turns out, far too conservative in my estimations.  White maintains that “Babylonian astrologers started to export to their neighbors as early as the 13th century BCE” (p. 7).  He goes on to contend that the development of natal horoscopes required a level of mathematics that was compiled in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, with the first modern equivalents finally appearing in the 5th century, or 7000 years ago.  It is this connection that reasonably ties planetary observations to the Matthew’s Magi, and the possibility that the Star of Bethlehem was based on their millennial old texts and maps of the constellations. 

Returning to another assertion I made in the Part 1, these were modern humans using very high level reasoning and historically sound observations of the skies.  These particular Magi were likely among the most highly educated individuals in the world, and familiar with astronomy from the known regions of the world.  That would include Greece, where we must take a brief trip to meet the man who changed the sky and the universe four hundred years before the birth of Jesus. 

I return to the question, “What is the sky?”  White shares my view that these ancient cosmologies are not crude or primitive: 

Today this “flat-earth” cosmology is generally belittled as being rather “primitive” and as far as it is given any attention it is relegated to the kindergarten of metaphysical speculation.   This is unfortunate, as the model is actually a rather elegant presentation of archaic man’s view of himself and the universe in which he acted and had his being.  It is a complex view of the world, one full of awe that utilizes the mysterious language of symbolism, where every element is a part of an interrelated network of forces.  This model also underpins the rationale of celestial divination and magic, mankind’s first attempts to foretell and forestall the shape of things to come. (p. 21) 

The tools of those attempts were constellations, the motion of the planets, comets, phases of the moons, and eclipses, lunar of course, but solar in particular, as they were tied to the seasons.  From China to India, Persia to the Mediterranean, Egypt across the great Sahara of North Africa, Asia Minor, Greece, the expanse of the Roman Empire all the way to Britannia, the night sky was a great celestial scroll unrolling from horizon to horizon, open to be examined, its mysteries to be plumbed, and the fate of humans read in its aetherial language. 

Sometime around the 7th century BCE, in Greece, the question of the sky rose once more, and a startlingly new answer was ventured.  What if, these renegade philosophers dared to suggest, as they studied their emerging expertise in mathematics and geometry, the sky was not the abode of the gods?  What if the sky was a place, just like the earth, that the Sun, Moon and stars, even the ones which wander, were places?  And if that were even possible, how far away were these places?  What caused them to move around the earth?  And if they moved, what if the Earth moved, too? 

The Greek Geocentric Cosmos. Photo: Source Courtesy, A.H., 1996.

These were dangerous questions, on the level of heresy, but we’ll come back to that in a moment. 

Aristarchus of Samos

Meet Aristarchus of Samos.  He was a mathematician/astronomer who lived circa 310-210 BCE.  Samos, a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, lies in the archipelago that separates modern Greece from Turkey.  Older, but contemporary with Archimedes, he was known among his contemporaries as “the Mathematician.”  According to Sir Thomas Heath, who published Aristarchus full text “On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon” into English (1913, 2004), “There is not the slightest doubt that Aristarchus was the first to put forward the heliocentric hypothesis.  Ancient testimony is unanimous on the point and the first witness is Archimedes, who was a younger contemporary of Aristarchus, so that there is no possibility of a mistake.  Copernicus, himself admitted that the theory  was attributed to Aristarchus, though this does not seem to be generally known” (p. 301).  Archimedes, to his discredit, did not accept Aristarchus’ heliocentric theory and campaigned against it.  Aristarchus’ idea was not theologically popular either in some circles.  One Cleanthes attempted to indict the Mathematician “on the charge of impiety for putting into motion the Hearth of the Universe… ” (Heath, p. 304).  What enraged Cleanthes was Aristarchus used geometry to prove his hypotheses: “by supposing the heaven to remain at rest and the earth to revolve around an oblique circle, while it rotates, at the same time, about its own axis (Ibid.).  Who knew how prescient this action would be nearly two thousand years later with another mathematician named Galileo? 

What is the connection to our Christmas Star?  Aristarchus used star charts and calculations developed by the Babylonians centuries earlier.  Sir Thomas presents a number of examples where Aristarchus used, what he called “Chaldean lunations,” basically books of tables that all mathematicians of the era would have as a standard in their libraries (p. 314). 

The Magi, it  is reasonable to infer, would have read Aristarchus.  Mathematically he was an “Einstein” of his age, his texts were in circulation, and even though they likely would not have accepted his heliocentric hypothesis, they would have studied his math proofs and geometry to predict lunar and solar eclipses, and to calculate “The Great Year,” “which is completed by the sun, the moon, and the five planets when they return together to the same sign in which they were once before simultaneously found” (quote from Censorinus AD 238; Ibid, p. 316).  That very high level of geometric expertise would have been invaluable in calculating planetary conjunctions, with a high degree of accuracy. And the ability to correctly forecast the birth of a king was the Gold Medal of astrology/astronomy.  Whoever they were, they were convinced they had got this one right, and with it a confidence so strong they were willing to travel from their homes somewhere east of Jerusalem, command an audience with King Herod and tell him right to his face! 

Saying that to a reigning monarch is the kind of thing that could get you beheaded in short order.  What stayed Herod’s hand?  Perhaps the sight of this from an east-facing palace balcony: 

Bethlehem Star 12Aug -03 Jerusalem 0210hrs. Star Chart by TheSky6 Serious Astronomer Edition.

The proof, as they say is in the pudding.  This is a natural sky view of the proposed Star of Bethlehem.  See if you can spot it without scrolling down to the annotated version.  Michael Bakich, a Senior Editor of Astronomy Magazine writes in the January 2010 issue: 

The biblical account says that the wise men spoke to Herod about the star.  Neither Herod nor his scholars knew what they were talking about.  No other Bible verse or secular writing mentions the star.  What was it?  Could it be Matthew, the only gospel writer who mentions the star, wanted to prove to his readers what he knew from reading the Old Testament? 

I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh; there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel… (Num. 24:17) 

Did the writer of Matthew invent a story to fulfill this prophecy from Moses? Most historians don’t think so.  (p.  37) 

The solution is most likely a planetary conjunction.  It is not, in the end, the definitive answer, nor does it subtract the mystery and miracle of that night.  It was the Star of Wonder.  And if this particular conjunction or cycle of conjunctions that occured in 3 BCE signaled the birth of the Savior, how we can rejoice what a clever God we worship! 

Bethlehem Star 12Aug -03 Jerusalem 0210hrs with Annotations. Star Chart by TheSky6 Serious Astronomer Edition

One can only imagine what was going through the minds of the Magi as they pointed this astronomical event out to Herod and his astrologers, going over their data and calculations.  We know what was going through Herod’s mind. 

The conjunction would have been very bright.  Jupiter was shining at a magnitude of -1.8 and was at 99.98% phase full (think full Moon), and Venus was at a shadow-producing magnitude by itself of -3.9 and 93.38% full phase!  Regulus by contrast would have almost seemed dim at its very bright -1.38 magnitude, and Sirius, the brightest star in the northern sky at -1.44 magnitude was glowing high in the SW sky. 

Star of Bethlehem with Magi Card

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. Matt 2:9.

 

Merry Christmas and may the Blessings of the Christ Child Come to You and Your Loved Ones.

 

Part 1

Star of Wonder--Yes. Astronomical Event--Just Maybe?

This is a story that starts in the wrong place.  They’re my favorite kind.  And the wrong time.  That’s even better.  A story that starts in the wrong place and the wrong time has to be interesting.  There’s something to be said for predictability, but it rarely makes for a good plot or an intriguing ending.

This story does not have those disadvantages.  Some people have believed it was true.  Others believed it was false.  Others, still, believed it was myth, of uncertain veracity, but a beautiful, even elegant narrative.  For two millennia, Christians have believed it was part of a miracle.  Others, of different faiths, may have acknowledged it as a lovely story, but of no spiritual significance.  For the past four hundred years, as men and women have studied nature in new and innovative ways, and expanded our understanding of the Earth and the sky into a cosmos unimaginably large and old, the story’s credibility declined, seemingly moving toward the status of a fairy tale.

All of this, while true, is not the start I to which I was alluding.

Lucy: Ancient Hominid, Australopithecus afarensus, est 3.2 million years old. Replica. Field Musum, Chicago. Your ancestor? Yes. Intellectual equal? Not even close! Photo: My Cell Phone.

Sometime around six thousand years ago, the human race, Homo sapiens sapiens discovered a problem.  The Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and the Cro Magnon (Arcahic Homo sapiens) were long extinct; one hominid now possessed all that was known to exist (the earliest dating for Homo florsiensis is currently 18K years). It might have been earlier, but the record left by humans before that gets harder and harder to read.  So, I’ll suggest six thousand years, with the caveat that date might need to be adjusted with the next archaeological blockbuster discovery.  The problem was the Earth.  More specifically, the ground.

I need to, at this point, dispel one very important, misconception.   That is the fallacy of modernity.  The individuals I to whom I am referring are modern humans.  Same body, same brain, same capacity for intelligence, problem solving, or IQ.   Just like Albert Einstein, your neighbor Justin, who wears only faded NASCAR t-shirts, your eccentric Aunt Lizzy, that beauty Angelica or hunk Chad (depending on your hormonal drivings) who in high school you never had the nerve to ask out, or even your cousin Zeke.  All right, maybe not cousin Zeke, but that is only because he hasn’t put down the game controller or said a single word since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 113 came out.  He may be more cyborg than human after all this time.

This is the paradigm I want you to remember: ancient ≠ primitive.  Got that?

Back to our discovery.  At some point in the ancient past, one of our ancestors had

Flores sapiens next to Homo Sapiens Skulls. Photo: National Geographic News & Peter Brown/Nature

the revolutionary thought that the ground was substantively different from the sky.  This was not a “well, duh,” moment.  It was a paradigm shift, perhaps capable only due to the superior huge frontal cerebral cortex of the Homo sapiens.  The shift was beyond the observation of a day/night cycle, although that would have been part of it.  This shift, like the differentiation between the sense of the boundary between my body and not-my-body, changed the human perception between earth and sky.

Stuff comes out of the sky.  Rain, snow, hail, clouds, wind, fog, as well as birds and bugs.  Some of those things are good, even edible.  Bad things like volcanic or range fire smoke and ash, dangerous wind blowing debris and biting things can come out of the sky, too.

The Milky Way Over Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Photo: Mauna Kea Observatory

Some things, most things actually, in the sky are beyond reach.  The Sun, the Moon, the stars, and the wandering stars.  Some stars appeared to streak across the sky; others appeared mysteriously out of nowhere glowing with a dim head and a long tail.  And rarely, a flash of a new star in the night that soon disappeared.  Or every once in a while there was a day in which the Sun seemed to be consumed by a black disk, turning the day to dusk and all the birds stopped singing, or the Moon, its regular phases interrupted, too, a dark shadow crossing its face, then glowing a blood red before being released from its captivity.

Lunar Eclipse, 27 Feb 2007, Photo: Astronomy.com

The regular cycles of those things in sky that are out of reach is what we are interested in.  We live on the ground.  We can’t fly like the bugs or the birds.  We can’t live under water, either, but that is not the focus of this discovery.  Living on the ground, as we do, we know a lot about the ground.  Most of what lives on the ground keeps us alive.  Some of the other things that live on the ground can also kill us, but that is secondary to our discussion, as well.

On that day that one very bright modern human looked at the ground, maybe sifting a handful of dirt through his or her fingers, and then looking up at the sky, squinting at the sun or  gazing at the bright swath of starlight of the Milky Way, and said the equivalent of  “Huh, now that’s interesting,” and human understanding shifted forever.

From that moment, the science of astronomy was born, as well as those of geology and biology.  The problem was, earth and life were tangible.  The sky, however, was a complete mystery.

What was the sky?

Flock of Geese Over Surf, Oregon Coast, 23 Sep 07. Photo: DCW

Yes, that was the question: What was the sky?  What were the lights in the sky?   The daytime sky and the nighttime sky were so different.  Why was that?  Why did all the lights in the sky appear in the East, move in an arc reaching a highest point that changed with the season and then always set in the West?  But what about the stars in the Northern sky that never rose nor set?  For some of our observers, however, not knowing they lived below that line we now call the equator, the lights in the sky looked quite different, still rising and setting East to West, but those stars that never rose nor set were to the south.

The Sun, the greater light to rule the day, its brightness so intense to dare a glance of

Total Solar Eclipse with Diamond Ring Effect

more than a fleeting moment brought pain, even blindness.  At the same time, it brought the warmth of the day, its risings and settings regular, though half of the time, the days would grow longer and half of the time shorter, and with it the corresponding warmth and seasons.  The earth tuned itself to this great annular cycle, of living and dying, growing and seeding, warming and cooling.

The Moon, the lesser light to rule the night, possessed a soft glow that one could study without risk; its phases regular following the seasons decreed by its daytime master, its face never changing. Yet at intervals beyond comprehension, it, like the Sun, would be covered with a shadow, at times in part, at others completely.

Of the night, though, what of the Wandering Stars?  The first a fleeting spark always near the Sun’s rise or setting. Next, brighter than the others, one of the mornings and one of the evenings at times so bright it cast a light that caused shadows. Another with a glow of angry red, appearing out of nowhere and growing into a dominant light.  A fourth, a great golden giant stately moving through the heavens night after night.  Also a fifth, whose trek seemed like that of an old one slowly working its way through the constellations.  And some, it is said, saw a sixth, dim grey-blue phantom only on the rarest of nights.  Against the apparent immutable backdrop of the other lights at night, why did these few shine without the twinkle of all others, and how, against all reason, did they change their direction in the sky and track back toward the East, then inexplicably again reverse and march toward the West?

Five planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - gather over the ancient Stonehenge monument in England. *Image Copyright*: Philip Perkins

What was the sky?  Why did some of the lights form patterns against the black velvet backdrop of night?  What was the swath of light that cut across the sky from horizon to horizon?  What was the force or cause of their motion?  What were the faintest clouds of light, while others seemed to cluster into groups distinct from the random spread of most of the stars?

One might say the ancients had plenty of time to work this all out.  Day after day and night after night, if they chose to pay attention, they could discover patterns and cycles.   On every continent where humans collected, they in fact did pay attention, and observed the patterns and cycles.  What they decided those observations meant and what caused them was another thing altogether.

To explain the sky, both day and night, these individuals drew upon the source of information they understood the best: the ground and the sea, and the abundant life that inhabited both.  Those were the things they would touch.  They made the very logical assumption that the sky was made from the same things the earth and oceans were.  They couldn’t have been more wrong.  At the same time they couldn’t have been more right.

I must again remind you of our one rule: ancient ≠ primitive.  The observers devised theories about how the earth, sea, and sky came into being, using the “materials” to which they had access.  We call these descriptions of the creation of the world, myths.  That is, if we are honest, modernocentric, even arrogant.  It can result in our overlooking key facts and observations, assigning to them to the status of fable rather than seeing myths for what they were: descriptions of the origin and  forces of nature and life.

The Aztecs provide a perfect example of a creation account that follows their observations of the natural world:

The dualistic gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, lightness and

Questalcoatl Aztec Lord of Morning Star & Wind

darkness, looked down from their dwelling in the sky at the water below. Floating on top of the water was an enormous Earth Monster goddess who devoured all things with her many mouths, for the goddess had gaping mouths at the knees, elbows and other joints.

Everything the twins created, the enormous, floating, terrible, insatiable goddess ate. The twin gods, normally implacable enemies, agreed she had to be stopped. They transformed themselves into two enormous, slithering snakes, and slid silently into the dark, cool water, their cold eyes and flicking tongues seeking her body.

Tezcatlipoca: Aztec Lord of Death, Creator of Fire, Night Sky, Warriors

One of the snakes wrapped itself around the goddess’s arms and the other snake coiled itself around her legs and together they tore the immense Earth Monster goddess in two. Her head and shoulders became the earth and her belly and legs became the sky. Some say Tezcatlipoca fought the Earth Monster goddess in his human form and the goddess ate one of his feet, therefore his one-legged appearance. Angered by what the dual gods had done, and to compensate for her dismemberment, the other gods decided to allow her to provide the people with the provisions they needed to survive.

From her hair were created the trees, the grass and flowers; from her eyes, caves, springs and wells; rivers flowed from her mouth; and hills and mountains grew from her nose and shoulders.

The goddess, however, was unhappy, and after the sun sank into the earth the people would often hear her crying. Her thirst for human blood made her weep, and the people knew the earth would not bear fruit until she drank. This is the reason she is given the gift of human hearts. In exchange for providing food for human lives, the goddess demanded human lives.  Source: James W. Salterio Torres

Though the price of human sacrifice causes us to shudder, the battle with the Earth Monster goddess, with her defeat and dismemberment is hauntingly similar to the Sumerian story of the defeat of Tiamat:

Tiamat possessed the Tablets of Destiny and in the primordial battle she gave them to Kingu, the god she had chosen as her lover and the leader of her host. The deities gathered in terror, but Anu, (replaced later, first by Enlil and, in the late version that has survived after the First Dynasty of Babylon, by Marduk, the son of Ea), first extracting a promise that he would be revered as “king of the gods”, overcame her, armed with the arrows of the winds, a net, a club, and an invincible spear.

And the lord stood upon Tiamat’s hinder parts,

And with his merciless club he smashed her skull.

He cut through the channels of her blood,

And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places.

Marduk Slaying Tiamat: Sumerian Creation Myth.

Slicing Tiamat in half, he made from her ribs the vault of heaven and earth. Her weeping eyes became the source of the Tigris and the Euphrates. With the approval of the elder deities, he took from Kingu the Tablets of Destiny, installing himself as the head of the Babylonian pantheon. Kingu was captured and later was slain: his red blood mixed with the red clay of the Earth would make the body of humankind, created to act as the servant of the younger Igigi deities.

Source: Wikipedia–Tiamat

Two creation stories, having so many parallels even though those who devised them lived on opposite sides of a planet they did not know as such, and who never had had contact with one another.

The ground, the sea, the sky were all the world.  Thousands of years would pass before the problem of the sky would again be addressed.  The untouchableness of the sky would create a new question, without which, this story could not continue in Part 2.

An exquisite look at black holes

This from Astronomy.com:

The Keck interferometer on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The interferometer consists of two telescopes each with a 10 meter reflecting mirror, made up of 36 hexagonal mirrors on computer controlled actuators for pinpoint accuracy (4 nano-meters), in separate domes, about 279 feet (85 meters) apart. Photo Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory.

Twin Keck Observatories at Sunset, Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Note the observing shutters have been opened and are facing east, so when the first targeted objects come up over the horizon, the telescopes will be able to track them immediately. Interferometry has two great observing advantages. First, using two telescopes twice the amount of light coming from the object is captured. Second, just like having two eyes, each image is that tiny bit from a different perspective, giving the telescopes a kind of stereo vision and that allows for the computer processing the image to add in a great more detail. The observatory to the left of the two Kecks is the Subaru 8.2 meter optical/infrared telescope operated by Japan.

Keck Observatory--Cutaway View of Domes and Astronomy Center

From the Astronomy.com article:

The Keck Interferometer directly resolves the accreting material around supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei. Provided by Max Planck Institute, Bonn, Germany.  December 8, 2009

“An international research team presents some of the first long-baseline interferometric measurements in the infrared towards nearby active galactic nuclei with the Keck Interferometric Telescope in Hawaii. The team, led by Makoto Kishimoto from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, found the measurements to indicate a ring-like emission from sublimating dust grains and its radius to yield insights into the morphology of the accreting material around the black hole in these nuclei.”

Cutaway view of the 30 Meter Keck Reflector Telescope

For more images of the Keck Observatories and their observations, click here.

Images Courtesy of W.M. Keck Observatory.

This from MSNBC.com:

Humans still evolving as our brains shrink
Decrease has been happening over last 5,000 years, researcher says

By Charles Q. Choi
LiveScience

updated 1:53 p.m. PT, Fri., Nov . 13, 2009

Evolution in humans is commonly thought to have essentially stopped in recent times. But there are plenty of examples that the human race is still evolving, including our brains, and there are even signs that our evolution may be accelerating.

Comprehensive scans of the human genome reveal that hundreds of our genes show evidence of changes during the past 10,000 years of human evolution.

“We know the brain has been evolving in human populations quite recently,” said paleoanthropologist John Hawks at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Surprisingly, based on skull measurements, the human brain appears to have been shrinking over the last 5,000 or so years.

To read the complete article here.

Image of the Human Brain:

The Human Brain. Image Courtesy: dreamstime/MSNBC.com

The Human Brain. Photo Credit Courtesy: dreamstime/MSNBC.com

Weighing in at an average of 2.7 pounds, the human brain packs a whopping 100 billion neurons. Every minute, about three soda cans’ worth of blood flow through the brain

Image Credit: Courtesy: dreamstime/MSNBC.com

This research opens two very thorny issues for the church:

1. Accepting evolution as an accurate description of biological change through time, at the level of speciation, not just genetic mutations as happens in viruses.
2. Once the mechanism of evolution is accepted, the issue that Homo sapiens sapiens is continuing to evolve on both a micro and macro-level requires a theological discussion that exceeds the level of uncertainty involved in the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

I would open the discussion with the assertion that we do not have the language or theological constructs needed to have a meaningful dialogue about the issue of ongoing evolution of the human species. We, however, need to begin developing both very quickly.

To assist us in initiating this conversation, I have attached a lecture “Faith and the Human Genome” by Dr. Francis Collins, MD, who was the director of the Human Genome Project, and earlier this year was appointed director the National Institutes of Health by Pres. Obama. Collins, a devout Christian, is author of the book The Language of God, in which he described his journey as an agnostic medical doctor and researcher to having a conversion experience that radically transformed his life. Dr. Collins believes the time has long past for the Church to accept evolution:

…The past century has not been a good one in terms of the polarization between the more evangelical wing of the church and the
scientific community. We seem to be engaged in contentious,
destructive, and wholly unnecessary debate about evolution and creation. From my perspective as a scientist working on the genome, the evidence in favor of evolution is overwhelming.

His lecture provides a clear snapshot of how he came to his conclusions and how Christians should respond. Dr. Collins’ work has had a profound affect on my own journey in faith and science:

Faith and the Human Genome

Casina Pio IV, Home of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican. Image Courtesy: Panaramio by "silver2412"

From the Washington Post, dated 8 Nov 2009 by Marc Kaufman:

“This week the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding its first major conference on astrobiology, the new science that seeks to find life elsewhere in the cosmos and to understand how it began on Earth. Convened on private Vatican grounds in the elegant Casina Pio IV, formerly the pope’s villa, the unlikely gathering of prominent scientists and religious leaders shows that some of the most tradition-bound faiths are seriously contemplating the possibility that life exists in myriad forms beyond this planet. Astrobiology has arrived, and religious and social institutions — even the Vatican — are taking note.”

For the full Washington Post article, click here.

It’s good to know that we are so contemporary in our questions about astrobiology. The article gives a nice overview of what the Vatican is discussing. Comments, anyone?

DÎSCÎ Guest Post: Rev. Bob Cornwall

Rev. Bob Cornwall is a Disciples’ minister and pastor to the Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Troy, Michigan, a church historian by training, and editor of Sharing the Practice (Academy of Parish Clergy).  He writes the blog: Ponderings on a Faith Journey and is a member of the Intersection

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Bob’s post is a disussion of Transforming Theology blogging project: Episode 2 Harvey Cox, Future of Faith, (HarperOne, 2009)

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When matters of religion and science are discussed, Albert Einstein is sure to be brought into the conversation. Einstein often spoke in spiritual/religious terms, but whatever the nature of his spirituality it wasn’t conventional. However, there is a spirituality present, one focused on awe and wonder at the nature of the universe. He spoke of himself as being a “devoutly religious man,” but he didn’t believe in a personal God in conventional Christian terms (p. 22).Harvey Cox brings Einstein into the conversation because the great scientist understood the relationship between faith and awe, and in Cox’s estimation “faith starts with awe” (p. 22). Awe begins with mystery, but becomes faith only when meaning is ascribed to this mystery. Unfortunately this sense of awe and wonder, indeed faith, has been eroded by “cool, objective science and a religion too wedded to a human-centered view of the universe.” There is a need, perhaps of a bit of “re-enchantment” that some theologians have talked about. Thus, a place to look for help in our conversation may be Rudolph Otto and his concept of the holy, or as Cox puts it “the primal experience of awe or wonder, not any ideas about them” (p. 23). Einstein spoke of people who never experienced awe or wonder as “snuffed-out candles” (p. 23).

Religion and spirituality, at their best, help us give meaning to that which we experience. Thus, the mystery of death raises questions about the meaning of life. Consideration of the meaning and purpose of life is what gave rise to philosophy, religion, culture. Religion emerged within human evolution – in all of its forms – to answer the questions of why and what, not how or when. If we expect religion to answer scientific questions then we are going to get distorted answers. That doesn’t mean they don’t or can’t interact, but we should make sure we’re understanding what is expected.

Our dilemma today is rooted in the fact that religion has lost its meaning-giving power. It has become “morally and intellectually confusing,” in large part because religious leaders have cheapened our myths and stories by reducing them to doctrines and propositions.

But the result of the “literalization of the symbolic” is that something essential has been lost in translation. The ill-advised transmuting of symbols into a curious kind of “facts” has created an immense obstacle to faith for many thoughtful people. Instead of helping them confront the great mystery, it has effectively prevented them from doing so.” (p. 27).

As we read this, one wonders how the Enlightenment, which emphasizes rationalism, has influenced the approach to faith on the part of persons on both right and left. Both want facts, when maybe we must move in another direction. Indeed, Cox notes the emergence of a modernist approach that led to reductionism – the paring down of necessary items required for belief. This approach is as misguided as the more conservative attempt to determine essentials. The answer, Cox believes, is to be found in appreciating the “dazzling array of myths, rituals, and stories as an invaluable legacy of the human race” (p. 28). But, one wonders how this will work in a faith tradition that values history.

Cox goes into some detail about how faith and mystery have been understood, from Teresa of Avila to Reinhold Niebuhr. The key point he wants to make is that objective/scientific knowledge is not the only kind available to us. And faith is an expression of these other forms of knowledge and understanding.

Note: page numbers are to proofs.

Rev. Rebecca Woods

Rev. Rebecca Woods is the creator of The Intersection, which is the home site for DÎSCÎ and also a member of the group.  She is the News and Website Editor for DisciplesWorld and is an ordained Disciples minister.

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I posted this article from Religion News Service today on DisciplesWorld’s website and immediately thought of DISCI. Here’s the lead paragraph:

WASHINGTON (ENI/RNS, 10/19/09) — The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will open a new permanent exhibit on the “discovery and understanding of human origins” in March and convene a panel of experts to bridge the gap between religion and science.

The Smithsonian currently has a temporary exhibit called Since Darwin: The evolution of evolution in its Museum of Natural History. When they open the permanent exhibit, they’ll also host a dialogue with a panel of experts to “bridge the gap.”

My first thought is, I’d love to see the exhibit and hear the dialogue (although I probably won’t be able to do the latter). But while I have a lot to learn about evolution, I’m also convinced. For me, there’s no “gap” to bridge.

What about for people who are conflicted though? What do you think? Do you see this as potentially helpful?

The first post is coming soon.

In the mean time, check out:

My blog: www.extremethinkover.com

The Intersection: www.faithmeetslife.org

DisciplesWorld: www.disciplesworld.com

DisciplesWorld Blog “The News Muse:” www.disciplesworld.wordpress.com

Dr. David Waggoner

Galileo's first telecope & the Hubble Space Telescope. 400 years of astronomy in one photo!

This just published:

Designated QSO, this is the most distant and largest galaxy with a black hole ever detected. 12.8 bn light years from Earth. Photo: Univ. of Hawaii

DÎSCΖ

The Disciples’ Institute for Scientific and Cosmological Inquiry.

This site is under construction. Check back often for updates and content.

Rainbows in the Crashing Surf, Yachats, Oregon, January 2008

DÎSCÎ is pronounced “dye-sigh.”

DÎSCÎ will be a forum for discussing issues that the Church confronts in the ongoing conversation and debate between religion and science.

Sue, the tyranasaurus rex, the largest & most complete fossil of a t-rex ever found. On display at the Field Museum in Chicago. Photo taken with my cell phone.

DÎSCÎ contributors will be members and friends of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), usually called “Disciples” for short.  They will include clergy and lay people, scholars, scientists, and those with an insatiable drive for learning.

Peking Man Homo Erectus by Russell Ciochon UIowa

The goal of DÎSCÎ will be to confront head-on the most difficult controversies between the church and science, but to discuss those controversies in a manner that is respectful and tolerant.

Sagittarius A*, the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Source: Spitzer Space Telescope

DÎSCÎ will be a virtual institute for those who have the spiritual gift of terminal curiosity about God’s universe, life, biology, astronomy, quantum physics, geology, exobiology, paleontology, meteorology, and any other “ology” that might merit discussion and scholarly reflection.

Here, from a PBS interview, in this statement by Dr. Francis Collins (former director of the Human Genome Project, and just last month sworn in as the Director of the National Institutes for Health), is a perfect example of one way to illustrate of the kind of dialogue that DÎSCÎ will hope to conduct :

Actually, I don’t see that any of the issues that people raise as points of contention between science and faith are all that difficult to resolve. Many people get hung up on the whole evolution versus creation argument — one of the great tragedies of the last 100 years is the way in which this has been polarized. On the one hand, we have scientists who basically adopt evolution as their faith, and think there’s no need for God to explain why life exists. On the other hand, we have people who are believers who are so completely sold on the literal interpretation of the first book of the Bible that they are rejecting very compelling scientific data about the age of the earth and the relatedness of living beings. It’s unnecessary. I think God gave us an opportunity through the use of science to understand the natural world. The idea that some are asking people to disbelieve our scientific data in order to prove that they believe in God is so unnecessary.

If God chose to create you and me as natural and spiritual beings, and decided to use the mechanism of evolution to accomplish that goal, I think that’s incredibly elegant. And because God is outside of space and time, He knew what the outcome was going to be right at the beginning. It’s not as if there was a chance it wouldn’t work. So where, then, is the discordancy that causes so many people to see these views of science and of spirit as being incompatible? In me, they both exist. They both exist at the same moment in the day. They’re not compartmentalized. They are entirely compatible. And they’re part of who I am.

The fading infrared afterglow of GRB 090423 appears in the centre of this false-colour image taken with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii. The burst is the farthest cosmic explosion yet seen (Image: Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA/D Fox/A Cucchiara/Penn State U/E Berger/Harvard U)

DÎSCÎ will be based on the following scientific and theological assumptions:

• God created the universe, and as such, what we are able to observe, both on the largest and smallest scales is real.
• It is assumed that God would not create an observable universe that is not real in order to deceive  the observer because those observations do not match what is described in certain passages in Scripture.
• Science is based on a process that involves hypotheses, observation, testing, and theories built on the results of that process.
• Doing science is a dynamic process that changes over time as new hypotheses are developed based on new observations.
• Science is always an interpretive process, and the hypotheses may be proven wrong.  They may also lead to new hypotheses that are confirmed by observation and experimentation that results in a theory that accurately describes what was observed.
• Scientists change their minds as needed when new observations require new hypotheses.
• Disciples accept God as creator of the universe, and as such, seek to understand what is the role and meaning of humans, as a part of that creation.
• Disciples, as a rule, believe that the Bible contains God’s revelation to humans regarding that relationship, and that the Word of God was made flesh and walked among us.
• As stated in the Preamble to the Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada: “We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and we confess him as Lord and Savior of the world.

Resurrected Christ by Mattias Grunewald, Isenheim Altar Piece, 16th Century

The DÎSCÎ Perspective:

Although Disciples’ views vary regarding the historicity of what is written in the Bible, DÎSCÎ, as an institute for scientific and cosmological inquiry, will assume that the Bible is the divine guide to faith, but is not a scientific treatise, was not intended to be such, and that in particular the two creation stories in the text of the book of Genesis are not historical or literal descriptions of the creation of the universe, and with it, humanity.

Single Molecule Pentacene. First Molecule Photographed in History. Source: IBM

DÎSCÎ is moderated by Rev. David Waggoner, PhD, a Disciple’s minister for over 30 years.  His personal blog, www.extremethinkover, can be read by clicking here.

© 2009, David C. Waggoner, PhD

Day and night. The most important cycle that governs our lives. Our bodies are finely attuned to the light of day and the dark of night.  It is as natural as breathing.  We think of that 24 hour cycle as very simple.  The earth spins on its axis; part of its surface is always in light and part is always in dark.  It has been this way since the creation of the world.  Both of the creation stories in the Bible, in Genesis 1 and 2 use the word “day” to describe God’s creative activity.

There is, however, nothing simple about it at all.  The complex set of forces that keep us safely spinning around the life-giving warmth of the Sun are only now beginning to be understood.

Yet, because of its constancy, we take it for granted.

Let me ask you a question.  When was the last time, when you left your home after dark, that you actually looked up at the sky?  Not just a glance, but looked up with intention to see what, well, what you could see?

I’ll venture a guess: Probably only rarely.  If you live in an urban setting, the combination of light pollution and air pollution might make it nearly impossible to see much of anything.  If your home is in a rural part of the country, you may very well be able to see the starry arc of the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon.  And if you are fortunate enough to live or visit well away from a population center, the night sky can be so bright you hardly need a flashlight to move around safely.

Whatever you can see, though, when you look up into the sky is not the present but the past.  The photons hitting the retina in your eyes are all different ages even though every one of those photons is traveling at exactly the same speed–the famous speed of light, which is about 186,000 miles per second, or 300,000 km per second.  Astronomers call this “look back time.”

The light reflected from the moon takes just a tick over one second to reach Earth.  The Sun, some 93 million miles away, takes around 8 minutes. The farther the object is from me, the older the light is when it reaches my eyes.  When Earth passes by Mars (which is the fourth rock from the sun), the light takes anywhere between three and about six minutes to reach us, because both orbits of Earth and Mars are elliptical, just slightly egg-shaped.

If I point my telescope at the Andromeda Galaxy (also called M31), which even in my suburban backyard I can easily see, I am looking at light that is over 2.5 million years old!  And Andromeda is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way.  In fact, Andromeda and the Milky Way are moving toward each other and some billions of years into the future, they will collide and merge.  Astronomers call it, somewhat tongue in cheek, “Milkomeda.”

Milky Way with Annotations. Generated from Spitzer Space Telescope Images. Our Solar System lives in the Orion Arm.

You get the idea.  The farther away the object is, the older the light is when it reaches Earth.

The other key concept is that everything in the universe is moving, and not just moving haphazardly, but expanding away from each other (the trajectories of some galaxies, like the Milky Way and Andromeda, will cause them to collide).  That’s what Edwin Hubble proved in 1925, using the Hooker 100 inch Telescope on Mt Wilson just up the hill from Pasadena, California, that was threatened by the huge “Station Fire” just last week.  This discovery led to the realization that the universe was expanding from a beginning point in space and time, which we now call the Big Bang.  And just a few years ago, astronomers discovered that the universe is not just expanding, it is accelerating.

What we’re interested in, though, is the Beginning, not the End.  Astrophysicists have wound the cosmic clock backward and come up with an age that the Universe is about 13.7 billion years old.  That’s old. Really old.  Can we see anything that old in the sky?  No, we can’t.  But modern telescopes have gotten so powerful that we can see a long way away and therefore back in time.  On September 2, 2009,  Prof. Tomatsugu Goto of the University of Hawaii released this photo of the most distant galaxy with a central black hole, and therefore oldest object ever observed.  It is 12.8  billion light years from us and the mass of the black hole is estimated to be  a billion times that of our sun.

QSO (Quasi-Stellar Object) The Largest and Most Distant Black Hole Galaxy Ever Imaged. 12.8 Bn LY Distant. Photo: T. Goto, University of Hawaii.

Ponder this image for a few moments, as pixelated as it is.  This is the image of a real galaxy with a real black hole at its center (just like our galaxy has, by the way) that existed  billion years ago.

Here on Earth, which by comparison is only 4.5 billion years old, we humans–in particular we humans of the Judeo-Christian heritage–have viewed our universe as being, well, kind of cozy.  As the old saying goes, “God’s in his (sic) heaven and all’s right with the world.”  And although about 500 years ago that coziness began to be challenged and started unravelling when Copernicus published his “On the Revolutions” in 1543, we have been mostly content to think and talk about God in the way we always have.

Enter the dawn of the 21st Century. We are struck by the enormity of what  astrophysics has revealed to us; new discoveries make the news every week.  The universe is not cozy.  It is huge, old, complex, colder than we can imagine and hotter than we can imagine.  The very molecules that make up our bodies were born out of forces we can barely describe when stars blew themselves apart.

How do we talk about God in this kind of reality?  And life? Life on one planet in a universe that stretches 46.5 billion lights years in every direction?  How do you talk about God in this reality?

This is where we will start.  The Disciples’ Institute for Scientific and Cosmological Inquiry is officially open for discussion.

Before you answer, if you can, go outside and look up into the sky for a while, and ponder what is out there, as ancient photons hit your retina, and your brain translates them into the points of light we call stars.

That’s a big question.  Many would say an essential one, with the answer being to quote an old refrigerator magnet, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”  So should we invest any of our time trying to reconcile what the Bible says about creation and the world in general with what Science (capital “S”) is telling us about the nature of the universe and the world in general?

What difference does it really make in my daily life if scientists insist the cosmos is vast, old, and that life began as some little squiggly that somehow turned into me?  As long as I have the Word of God that I can read daily (kind of, daily), wonder at God’s miraculous works, and know that Jesus died on the cross for me, do I need any of that other scientific stuff?  Okay, I do need the stuff that makes my cell phone and iPod work, and my debit card, and my cable or satellite TV signal for my new HDTV, my computer, and, oh yeah, the microwave, but that’s about it.  And yeah, I prefer my showers hot, and the stuff in the fridge to be cold; and the car, ’cause if I didn’t have the car I couldn’t go to church.  And it’s good to have the lights turn on when I flip the switch; I can admit that.  Well, and food–the good stuff, not the stuff that makes you get all emetic because it’s got blue hair growing on it in the refrigerator.  Oh, my triple shot white skinny chocolate latte with non-fat whipped cream and a double pump of sugar-free crème de menthe.  Venti.  Oh, I forgot about clothes…

We live in an age in which we take for granted the most powerful forces generated in the universe harnessed by scientists to make our lives easier; our toys work miracles from the perspective of any other generation; our work is the most productive in the history of the world; we repair our bodies and heal our illnesses with the equivalent of magic; we possess the ability to move about on the planet in ways believed only accessible to the gods by our ancestors.

Yet we regard science as an enemy of the faith.

What am I missing here?  Is it because we know how to unleash those same forces in ways that could wipe all life from the earth?  I don’t think so, because this question was hotly debated centuries before we unlocked the secrets of the atom.

We Disciples love the word reconciliation. Can faith and science ever be reconciled?

C. Edward Weisheimer

C. Edward Weisheimer is a member of DÎSCÎ.  He lives in Ohio.

Hello Friends, I just finished reading Mortimer Adler’s little book, “How To Think About God.” It is an interesting book. A question arises for me out of his discussions. Do you think that the creation mythos in Genesis is necessarily the beginning of the physical world, or may it be something different, i.e. God giving order to the universe? This would be a creative act in and of itself, but it means that the material universe existed prior to God’s action of giving order through God’s “Word.” So, God and the material universe could co-exist eternally. What think ye of this proposition?

I work in a hospital, and a surprising number of my scientifically-trained medical colleagues have more superstitions about the full moon than we we have bed pans (which, by the way, now come in plastic and designer colors (why????), so you literally won’t freeze…well, you know.)

Back to the full moon. If you are addicted to nature shows like I am, you know that lunar cycles affect a lot of things, like when turtles come onto beaches and lay their eggs. Many other marine invertebrates and vertebrates (like the California grunion) also time spawning, mating, and egg-laying to lunar cycles, although not all during a full moon.

Lunar Phases Illustration. Credit: University of Nebraska, Lincoln

However, in a British study published this year by Dr. Rachel Grant, a biologist specializing in amphibians, she documented over a ten year period that newts, frogs, and salamanders synchronize their mating activity to the full moon. Lucky them. Although the thought of spending ten years crawling through the damp marshy underbrush of the English countryside at night, full moon or not, to confirm the amorous activities of newts, frogs, and salamanders, falls far from my idea of fun. I tip my hat to Dr. Grant for her tenacity. Maybe it’s a British thing. For the full BBC article, click here.

English Newt. Credit: Adur Valley Wildlife, West Sussex, England; http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Town2004.htm

But when it comes to we humans, we just plain got the short shrift on the whole lunar cycle thing. Maybe God was thinking, “I’m going to give my humans that big brain, with all the fancy frontal lobe options, so I’ll just scratch the full moon thing I gave the amphibians off the list.” Except he seems to have left the “Fascination with the Full Moon” switch in the on position, so with the big frontal lobe we made up a whole bunch of stuff to fill in the gap. It’s just that none of it is true, even though we really, really want it to be.

Why I am thinking about this? (Don’t ask my wife; she’ll have a completely different answer.) For one thing, the existence of water on the moon was confirmed this week by NASA spacecraft, and that is a critically important resource if we ever go back to the moon. Send people, that is. With water, you can make, well, water to drink, you can make air by splitting the 2 H’s from the 1 O, and, you can make rocket fuel, by combining the H’s and the O’s and lighting them.

The other reason is MSNBC.com published an article on moon myths, titled, “Moon myths: How real are lunar health effects?” And since it is a good idea to keep lunar myths about health out of the Health Care Reform Legislation–They do not need another distraction–I thought I would offer you the chance to read the MSNBC piece: Click here, and then share your favorite myth, or if you’ve heard one they don’t list, it would be fun to add it. More fun than crawling through the muck looking for newts in the process of propagating their species.

Oh, and if you can find any scriptural references to the moon, by all means, include it. I just didn’t take the time to look.

Incidentally, the next full moon occurs on October 3, at 23:12 PDT. It is typically called the “Hunter’s Moon” but also is known from older sources as the “Blood Moon.” So, if you have clear skies and go out to moon at the full moon, please give the amphibians their privacy.

UPDATE and CORRECTION: According to Spaceweather.com, the full moon on October 3 is called the Harvest Moon, because it occurs after the Fall Equinox, regardless of whether it falls in September or October.   The hunters apparently get the lunar short shrift this year.  The next full moon is November 2, and the one after that December 1, but also December 31 (New Year’s Eve by the Full Moon! There’s got to be a myth about that, even if we have to make one up.)  So the whole moon name thing doesn’t always line up really well.

Full Moon taken from the International Space Station. This is what the moon looks like without having to view it through earth's atmosphere. Credit: Nasa.gov.

Next time: Is the dark side of the moon really dark?

Blessings,

David

Rev. Brian Morse

Brian Morse is a hospital chaplain.  He is a member of DÎSCÎ and lives in Independence, Missouri.

Disclaimer: Growing up I “struggled” with math and science in school. Therefore I never really studied it. Recently I’ve been enjoying Science Channel and what-not. As an adult there is no stress of being judged as “getting it” or not.

I am most interested in this notion of a multiverse, or parallel universes. The ramifications for, well, everything is exciting. The part that really opens my mind to new ways of thinking is that every possibility already exists simultaneously.

However, since I’m getting this info on cable TV, I’m curious if the mainstream of the scientific community sees these theories as legit possibilities.

I posted this article from Religion News Service today on DisciplesWorld’s website and immediately thought of DISCI. Here’s the lead paragraph:

WASHINGTON (ENI/RNS, 10/19/09) — The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will open a new permanent exhibit on the “discovery and understanding of human origins” in March and convene a panel of experts to bridge the gap between religion and science.

The Smithsonian currently has a temporary exhibit called “Since Darwin: The evolution of evolution” in its Museum of Natural History. When they open the permanent exhibit, they’ll also host a dialogue with a panel of experts to “bridge the gap.”

My first thought is, I’d love to see the exhibit and hear the dialogue (although I probably won’t be able to do the latter). But while I have a lot to learn about evolution, I’m also convinced. For me, there’s no “gap” to bridge. What about for people who are conflicted though?

What do you think? Do you see this as potentially helpful?

Rebecca Bowman Woods is news and website editor of DisciplesWorld, a magazine and website affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).