This essay will be in a couple of parts. It is not intended to
be a heavily theological or apologetic work, just an outline of
how I became a Seventh-day Adventist.
Let me introduce myself by telling you a bit of my history. I
recently earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA. I
have a B.S. in Chemistry from Fresno State University.
I became a Seventh-Day Adventist after converting to
Christianity in college. Before that, I was a Chan (a.k.a. Zen)
Buddhist for about a decade. I became a Chan Buddhist (a
religion I now respect, but disagree with) after spending a
number of years studying Hung Gar Kung Fu under Sifu Mel S., who
was (if I understand correctly, a student of Bucksam Kong. (I
owe Sifu a great deal and hope some day I can regain contact and
thank him profusely.)
Hung Gar is a great martial art that does wonders for developing
confidence, character, self-defense skills and is an art that
can be studied for a life-time. If any of you have seen the
Once Upon a Time In China movies (of Jet Lee fame), the
movies are about the great Chinese physician and martial artist
Sifu Wong Fei Hung. (For some basic info about Hung Gar, see
http://www.kungfucinema.com/articles/2001-04-08-01.htm and
http://www.wle.com/thePen/iskf.html ).
However, while in college at Fresno State University (studying
Chemistry) I became convinced that there was some sort of God
after learning about hemoglobin in my biochemistry class. I
guess it was the teleological argument that hit me. But
hemoglobin seemed so well designed that I just figured it could
not have been the result of natural selection.
Oddly, when I asked my professor, "You mean to tell me that
that [hemoglobin] just happened by accident?" my
professor essentially yelled at me. He said, "Evolution is the
only way we could have gotten here. We are obviously here.
Therefore, evolution must be true."
Ignoring the circular reasoning for a minute, and ignoring the
merits of the various arguments for and against biological
evolution, there is something else this event taught me. I
realized that, if what I had said I implied I believed in the
existence of the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause, the professor
would have politely ignored me, thought I was strange, and
changed the subject. He would
not have yelled at me. I
learned that, for
that professor, he had an underlying
emotional reason for responding as he did. This was not
dispassionate scientific reasoning, but emotionalism.
In any event, I digress.
Hemoglobin started me down the path to believing there was a God
of
some sort. Exactly what this meant, I did not know at
the time. I was not sure what kind of God there was.
I had already left the Eastern religions (i.e., Chan Buddhism)
because I no longer accepted a dualistic view of the universe
where good and evil was just a matter of perception. (The
thought that Hitler and his victims might have the same ultimate
fate disturbs me morally.) So I was left with the so-called
western religions.
I began studying the reasons for believing whether Islam or
Christianity were true. Notice that I was not just studying the
particular doctrines of Islam and Christianity and then picking
the one I felt I liked the most, or made me feel the best, but I
was
trying to pick the one that was true.
(Part II later.)
Categories
