Can I, a Scientific Student, Believe?

By Daan van Schalkwijk

A science student’s intellectual battle to unite himself to his religious parents.

When his Jewish family invites Nicodemus to move with them to Jerusalem, he asks a religious scientist how faith and science can combine; but when fast answers are in short supply, he must both learn that faith requires serious study and that there is more to faith than knowledge alone, or his family’s convictions will remain beyond his reach forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daan van Schalkwijk
• Release date: Aug 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311635068

Daan van Schalkwijk

Daan van Schalkwijk studied theoretical biology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; this is a combination of biology, mathematics and statistics. He completed his PhD in medical biology and systems biology at the research institute TNO and the University of Leiden, on the topic of mathematical modeling of cholesterol metabolism. Currently he teaches and advises academically at Amsterdam University College. The courses he teaches include "Big Questions in Science", "Introduction to Health and Wellbeing", and "Basic Research Methods and Statistics". He is also the director of Leidenhoven College, a small-scale collegiate hall of residence in Amsterdam. He regularly writes poetry for Omega magazine, as well as occasionally writing non-fiction with a fictional slant for popular websites like Mercatornet.

Book preview

Can I, a scientific student, believe?

By Daan van Schalkwijk

A science student’s intellectual battle to unite himself to his religious parents.

When his Jewish family invites Nicodemus to move with them to Jerusalem, he asks a religious scientist how faith and science can combine; but when fast answers are in short supply, he must both learn that faith requires serious study and that there is more to faith than knowledge alone, or his family’s convictions will remain beyond his reach forever.

© Daan van Schalkwijk 2015.

This document may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided it remains in its complete original form.

ISBN: 9781311635068

Cover design courtesy of Ados Publicidad: http://www.adospublicidad.com/.

Are you interested in more where this came from?

You can find my past and future popular writings on http://scienceandbeyond.blogspot.com/.

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Thanks for your interest and happy reading,

Daan.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE - Introducing Nicodemus

CHAPTER TWO - When We Met

CHAPTER THREE - But What About Evolution?

CHAPTER FOUR - Dawkin's Challenge

CHAPTER FIVE - Worries, Worries

CHAPTER SIX - Another Nicodemus?

CHAPTER SEVEN - Rejecting Testimony

CHAPTER EIGHT - What Next?

CHAPTER NINE - How Does It All End?

PREFACE

In my first semester as a teacher at Amsterdam University College (AUC), one of my students found out that I was both a biologist and a believer. He found this an interesting combination, and asked me to give a lecture about the topic of faith and science in AUC´s ´Who´s in Town´ lecture series. I acceded and gave the lecture at the Artis Library in November 2011.

Perhaps to my student´s disappointment, I chose to approach the subject in a rather unconventional way. Rather than giving an overview of the key conflict areas, and how the discussion has developed and stands today, I chose to tell a story about a fictional tutee (a student whom I advice academically) who is interested in this topic. In this story, I show how he wrestles with this topic, and the sorts of questions and answers he encounters.

The reactions to this lecture were mostly positive, some even exuberant (a happy student saying radiantly: I agree with everything you said!). For some, the approach was too 'vague', whereas others had difficulty with the concrete view of evolution