The sun revolves around the earth.
Animal species never change. …
The government can’t provide health insurance to old folks.
Humans can’t fly to the moon.
Telephones are only for talking and listening.
So begins “Brave Thinkers,” the featured article in the current issue of The Atlantic.
The assumptions listed above now, of course, seem silly. But for a time—in some cases—centuries, even millennia, such was the conventional wisdom.
The conclusion to draw is not that you can’t trust science—science like other disciplines—works with the raw materials at hand.
What science and indeed the world needs, according to this piece in The Atlantic are “brave thinkers” who challenge conventional wisdom and allow us to experience things about which we had only dared to dream.
I found it curious that of the 27 “brave thinkers” (BT) listed by The Atlantic, not one of them did any “brave thinking” in the field of theology or the church per se. Maybe the editorial staff at The Atlantic are Hitchens disciples who don’t think that religion is very good at chasing the bus, or ballet dancing (to understand this dense allusion, see my Back Page column for the Nov-Dec 2009 issue of Homiletics).
A partial list of BTs includes Thorkil Sonne, Ceo And Founder Of Specialisterne; Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister Of Zimbabwe; Camille Parmesan, Professor, University Of Texas At Austin; Shai Agassi, Founder Of Better Place; Montgomery McFate, Senior Social Scientist At The Human Terrain System; Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus, Institute For Advanced Study, Princeton; Iftikhar Chaudhry, Chief Justice Of Pakistan; John Fetterman, Mayor Of Braddock, Pennsylvania; and Craig Watkins, Dallas District Attorney.
Camille Parmesan, for example is working on strategies which will help save endangered species from the effects of climate change. She’s noticed that species are moving north. She wonders if human intervention is relocating species might be worth the effort.
It’s fascinating reading, and also quite encouraging to know that BTs are looking at radical and fresh approaches to solving some of the planet’s most pressing problems.
And here’s why I think this is relevant to what we’re doing in the local church. We have nothing to fear from BTs in our midst, and in fact, a good retreat with our BTs might turn up some surprising options for ministry in our local neighborhoods.
The Atlantic describes the people on its list as “people who are risking careers, reputations, and fortunes to advance ideas that upend an established order.”
Are you a preacher/pastor/teacher who would risk career, reputation and fortune--oh, wait, preachers don’t have fortunes—okay, career and reputation to advance ideas that upend the established order?
Let’s see.
Didn’t this whole Christianity thing get started by a BT? And a group of 12 BTs who were once described as having turned the world upside down?
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