After receiving his PhD at Brown, he taught 34 years of teaching anatomy at Wash U Medical School before retiring. Still you feel certain he has nothing to add to your knowledge of anything having to do with anatomy? You can’t make the time, but you have time to spend discussing the subject with me in this thread? You know, don’t worry about. I respect it is your call to make on this, and you made it.
“Is a student at Liberty, or even a Wheaton or a Baylor, going to have significantly less opportunity to participate in undergrad research opportunities like this one, because they just don’t get the funding?”
What kind of research does your kid want to do? There’s lots of good research that can be done on a tight budget. And even when an institution is crawling with labs and money, there is no sure guarantee that your kid will be able to get into one of those labs - although I would expect Baylor (or just about any big state U) to have a wider variety of opportunities available. Arguments also can be made for and against the presence of grad students and/or post docs in the lab that an undergrad might work in - some would say that the larger team is a better thing for the student to experience, others would say that working intensively with a principal investigator whose primary focus is on undergrad education is better for the student. Again this is stuff that most kids wouldn’t think of, but that you as a parent might have some thoughts about.
That’s right. If someone is a “young earth” believer, I have no desire to hear what he has to say. Because frankly, he is delusional. It is the same as being a “flat earth” believer. I would not be interested in hearing what such a person had to say about what happens “at the edge”.
"In terms of what I am advocating to my son, what I really appreciate is an environment where both views, warts and all, can be rigorously defended, challenged and explored. I am finding that to be hard to come by. "
Likewise, you’ll have a hard time finding any environment where both the view of the theory of gravity and the theory of intelligent falling will be challenged and explored.
"After receiving his PhD at Brown, he taught 34 years of teaching anatomy at Wash U Medical School before retiring. Still you feel certain he has nothing to add to your knowledge of anything having to do with anatomy? You can’t make the time, but you have time to spend discussing the subject with me in this thread? "
You can always find a few people in any discipline who will espouse theories, most of which will be whack-job. But the wisest approach is to go with the settled science in an area. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t match with your religious beliefs, but maybe you can find a way to reconcile the two.
I think medicine is a poor choice of a career (although I realize we are putting the cart before the horse here- your son is what 17?) for someone who does not want his or her religious beliefs challenged. Stem cell research, IVF, genetic testing and counseling, prenatal discovery of serious birth defects, a patient insisting on selective reduction during a pregnancy of multiples, use of umbilical cord cells for various reasons, palliative care for someone with an advanced diagnosis (but no treatment)- these are all issues which will need to be dealt with on a daily basis during your son’s training.
Evolution is the least of it- and frankly, going to be irrelevant as a practicing MD. But your son will need to treat the drug addicts who have already compromised a donated liver, and the teenage girl who doesn’t want Norplant even after her third unplanned pregnancy, and help two men conceive a baby via donated sperm according to medical protocols-- not according to his personal religious beliefs.
If evolution is going to rock the boat- your son should consider civil engineering. Doctors treat all comer’s according to accepted standards of care, not according to their own beliefs about when life begins and how it should end.
Loukydad, as a believing and practicing Christian, I sympathize with you and your son, but I have to say many of the points raised by the posters here are good ones. If your son cannot accept evolutionary science, it’s going to be very difficult for him to accept the teachings of human biology. Since he has such an interest in medical fields, could he direct himself to fields such as x-Ray technician or some other worthy job that doesn’t diagnose or treat patients?
I have to share a story: I am a member of a conservative congregation and several members got into a really heated argument about creationism. Some believed in evolution but most insisted that you couldn’t be a good Christian unless you believed in creation and the literal truth of the Bible. They appealed to our pastor. He told them to spend more time on how life is lived, and less time on how it began!
hayden, I like your pastor 
Wouldn’t two men have plenty of sperm and need a donated egg and a surrogate instead?
I assumed blossom meant THEIR donated sperm.
I’m not a believer myself, but there are plenty of practicing evangelicals who are medical doctors. If that’s what the kid wants to do, so be it. He’s 17 or 18 now; who’s to say studying medicine won’t alter his religious beliefs some?
The Carnegie Foundation has classified Baylor University a “research university” with “high research activity,” so it might be a good fit for him, @LOUKYDAD. It also has a widely-respected college of medicine. I would think Baylor would be a better choice than Liberty for someone interested in becoming a doctor.
Teaching 34 yrs is not noteworthy, in of itself.
I know a few teachers who basically taught the same thing over & over against, without any additional wisdom or insight.
He isn’t an anthropologist or an archaeologist or even a geologist.
His PhD research was on fatty acid deficiency.
I agree that people should not go into the business of providing medical care, if before hand they already know that they will not be open to treatments that may be the best for the patient, but which they are uncomfortable with due to personal beliefs.
LucieThelLakie makes a very good point, though. Reading this thread you would think there was some conflict between being a Christian and being a physician which is ridiculous since there are at least thousands of practicing medical professionals who are some sort of religious. Interesting.
As long as their religious beliefs do not interfere with doing their job, I don’t have a problem with that.
A point of clarification: BCM is independent from Baylor University and located in Houston, more or less across the street from Rice, actually.
Marie, no one said Christians can’t be doctors. What they said is that it may be difficult to learn what you need to learn in undergrad and med school, then work with patients with the full spectrum of medical treatments, if you cannot accept human biology as currently taught and cannot participate in treatments required of certain specialties. For example, many patients may not appreciate an on/gym who will not give counseling about birth control.
There are many - probably most - Christians who fully accept evolution.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/170822/believe-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx indicates that, as of 2014, creation is actually the plurality view in the US at 42%, while 31% believed in guided evolution and 19% believed in unguided evolution.
Weekly and monthly churchgoers preferred creation over guided evolution or unguided evolution.
College graduates’ plurality viewpoint was unguided evolution.
I am just not sure that Liberty isn’t a good choice for the student, if the student is interested in that school. It is a different path than most of us posting here would choose, but it may be the right path for this student. I think LOUKYDAD needs to be talking to Liberty about what opportunities are available there
Those statistics never cease to shock me. Aside from some of the highly radicalized nations in the Middle East, the US is really the only country in the world with anything resembling a significant percentage of citizens that do not accept evolution. And the acceptance of it correlates very closely with level of education.
I say go all out with it. If the kid wants to learn about creationism in his biology class, then make sure it includes ALL of the hundreds of creation stories from around the world. They’re all equally valid and deserve equal time. If you’re going to teach “the controversy,” then make sure to teach the whole thing. He needs to get equal time spent with Islamic and Hindu creation stories, Netsilik creation stories, Chinese, Japanese, !Kung…even the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Pastafarian creation stories. Maybe there will be some time to squeeze in some actual biology after the whole controversy has been taught.
My full opinion - Any post-secondary institution that requires a -biology- class that teaches arguments for creationism and arguments against the very foundation of biology should not be an accredited collegiate institution. I don’t want medical researchers or doctors that won’t accept that viruses evolve.
Thanks, @SomeOldGuy, for that correction!