Yesterday, our crew of 9 trekked down to the marina on the island and "hunted" for different sub-tidal organisms. We used nets, knives, rubber boots and our hands to scrape, pick, and catch different organisms we found around the sides of the marina docks as well as the shoreline.
We were to collect as many different sea creatures (such as some adrift seaweed, a thatched barnacle (with limpits attached to it) and a sail jelly (we heard a sizzling noise one of us could come down...) as we could so that we could do experiments on them tomorrow. (This is why I'm a theologian not a bio major)...
Honestly, though, I've been thinking a lot about the "intro"/foundational work of this course - that of plate tectonics and continental drift. See what I mean?:
My textbook's intro to biology - specifically, plate tectonics (and the theory of evolution, but I've sort of already dealt with that question a bit this summer...) - has really gotten me thinking about God's plan vs. the effects of sin and man's role in all of this. For example, did God DESIGN the earth to have moving parts? I can see their benefit (their facilitation of ocean currents which indirectly contribute to the mixing around of nutrients in the ocean, etc.) and the fact that they cause beautiful things (like the pictured-below view from the boat we took out here on Monday) but I can also see the seemingly undeserved horror they wreak upon, among other things, humankind in the form of earthquakes and tsunamis, volcanoes and other devastating effects of large masses of land moving and diving and heightening about. If God did not design the planet that way, then the theory of plate tectonics really adds a whole new dimension to "cursed be the ground because of you." It also makes me wonder how much of what we see, though it does, as Paul says, reveal the eternal nature and divine power of God, really is God's intended creation, and how much of it is tainted by/because of sin.
And, for that matter, just HOW does creation reveal those two otherwise completely invisible (to my knowledge) divine attributes? Further more, what exactly is man's role in all of this? How much freedom do we really have - or, rather, how much does our freedom really matter - in continental drift? Given Jesus' teaching of "What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven...", what is there possibly to be done about/in/around the Ring of Fire even if our free will was absolutely effective (which I have to argue that it's not if for no other reason that the fact of sin-caused depravity, but that's an *almost* entirely separate issue...)? What do you "bind up" in the Pacific Rim? The tectonic plate itself? Seems like too obvious an answer not to have unforeseen consequences on the other side of the globe or something...Ok, maybe THAT'S why I'm a theologian and not a bio major...
We were to collect as many different sea creatures (such as some adrift seaweed, a thatched barnacle (with limpits attached to it) and a sail jelly (we heard a sizzling noise one of us could come down...) as we could so that we could do experiments on them tomorrow. (This is why I'm a theologian not a bio major)...
Honestly, though, I've been thinking a lot about the "intro"/foundational work of this course - that of plate tectonics and continental drift. See what I mean?:My textbook's intro to biology - specifically, plate tectonics (and the theory of evolution, but I've sort of already dealt with that question a bit this summer...) - has really gotten me thinking about God's plan vs. the effects of sin and man's role in all of this. For example, did God DESIGN the earth to have moving parts? I can see their benefit (their facilitation of ocean currents which indirectly contribute to the mixing around of nutrients in the ocean, etc.) and the fact that they cause beautiful things (like the pictured-below view from the boat we took out here on Monday) but I can also see the seemingly undeserved horror they wreak upon, among other things, humankind in the form of earthquakes and tsunamis, volcanoes and other devastating effects of large masses of land moving and diving and heightening about. If God did not design the planet that way, then the theory of plate tectonics really adds a whole new dimension to "cursed be the ground because of you." It also makes me wonder how much of what we see, though it does, as Paul says, reveal the eternal nature and divine power of God, really is God's intended creation, and how much of it is tainted by/because of sin.
And, for that matter, just HOW does creation reveal those two otherwise completely invisible (to my knowledge) divine attributes? Further more, what exactly is man's role in all of this? How much freedom do we really have - or, rather, how much does our freedom really matter - in continental drift? Given Jesus' teaching of "What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven...", what is there possibly to be done about/in/around the Ring of Fire even if our free will was absolutely effective (which I have to argue that it's not if for no other reason that the fact of sin-caused depravity, but that's an *almost* entirely separate issue...)? What do you "bind up" in the Pacific Rim? The tectonic plate itself? Seems like too obvious an answer not to have unforeseen consequences on the other side of the globe or something...Ok, maybe THAT'S why I'm a theologian and not a bio major...
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