Chat over coffee

Just came back from having coffee with Jodi (the professor with whom I travelled to the Philippines last July. She just came back from her annual trip - it was the dry season, typhoons just beginning to sweep the western Pacific region around now, so amazingly she doesn't have a set of spectacular leech bites this time. She says my bat comic was passed around at the WCSP meeting (Wildlife Conservation Society of the Philippines) and seemed popular, so I'm a happy kitty ^_^

She was on the opposite side of Mt. Isarog (we were on the side near Ocampo town last year) and apparently it wasn't as interesting as she'd hoped...oh well. They did catch 9 more of that funny Rhinolophus from last year (might be a new species...ooo) but no more Myotis rufopictus.

The Philippines is a biodiversity hotspot, but unfortunately, due to the brain drain, there are something like 5 Filipino wildlife biologists with PhD's in the country, according to Jodi. Kesian lah.

Some pictures from her trip here.

One of the other things I asked her about was a seminar at the big Methodist church in Appleton which was based on this book, "When Science Meets Religion : Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?" Apparently several Lawrence profs were involved in it - Jodi talked about evolution, a mathematician* talked about quantum physics, a psychologist talked about neuroscience, and a geologist talked about deep time.

Granted, the Methodist church in the US is inclined to liberal theology (to the point where my father, who's a Methodist pastor, was somewhat upset when I started attending one in college), but on the other hand the church I go to now is an Evangelical Free and the pastor had a UW ecology prof talk about climate change and the environment in a sermon about "The Future" a couple of weeks ago.

Churches, as organizations with the goal of bringing people closer to God, have to realize that for some, asking questions about God's creation is part of that. However, by no means is being knowledgeable about science an essential part of faith - it's a question of conscience, I think. If you feel that you need to know about a certain field or a certain idea in order to be at peace, then it's right to go out and learn about it. If you're fine not being an expert, that's okay too. In some ways simple faith is the purest kind. (Just try not to be too opinionated if you're not familiar with something.)

I'm thinking of the James Clerk Maxwell quote I had in my email sig for a long time:

Christians whose minds are scientific are bound to study science that their views of the glory of God may be as extensive as their beings are capable of.

*This person has a pet hedgehog, flying squirrel, and rabbit. They're all named after female mathematicians. I once had a dream that she was opening a zoo.

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Speaking of the rufopictus, tattoo update: 35 days post-inking.