krista

If you listen to podcasts, I highly recommend Radio Lab...I just finished listening to an episode on the theory of emergence. This may not be new to most of you, but I must have slept through this part of science class.

Basically from my limited understanding, emergence is the study of how simple, unintelligible things can somehow accomplish incredible, brilliant tasks when they come together, or emerge.....how out of nothing, something intricate and awe-inspiring emerges.

There are a couple things that this podcast left me thinking about. When we look at a beautiful rainbow, examine a small leaf, colony of ants, or a bustling city street, and wonder how such order and detail is formed, a question is raised: Where did this order come from?

Not everyone comes up with the same answer. Is this where faith enters? Or is there more evidence to support the existence of an "author"? Christians (I'm making a generalization, bear with me) tend to quickly put the "God" stamp on the explanation and the conversation ends there. This really saddens me.

Listening to other points of view does not mean we are compromising our own. And we need to be teachable, right? Who's got it all figured out? So many more questions are raised with this theory. Like, how does God interact with the world? Is it more of a hands-off approach? This is such a sticky controversial topic, but I'd love to have conversations with people about this without our defenses being raised.

Another thought this podcast left me pondering was how much do I underestimate the power of a group? As difficult as it is to work and live side by side, I need people. I guess this also proves meetings are more productive than we admit, right?

The jury is still out on that one. =)