I am a biology major who graduated from LSU in 2009. I’ve since moved onto medical school and am about to graduate for there too.
I transferred in from a public university and I remember that my first thought was, “There is no difference in my science classes from the school I came to the school I’m at now.” I was expecting at least a fair shake to be given to Creation but none ever came. My very first biology class at LSU was general biology with Dr. McCloskey who repeatedly would use this famous line while lecturing, “I too believe in a Creator God, but the evidence speaks for itself.” This statement was always used when addressing the facts of an evolutionary outlook on science. I guess it is fair to say that, he never said “Evolution is the only way that things could have happened.” But you better believe that our classes were taught with that slant. I spoke to Dr. McCloskey privately on various occasions and he would present evidence to me that the flood never happened and that I should study the evidence for myself.
I was in Dr. Greer’s break-out session for worship, where he presented a lecture debunking the creation story of Genesis. He went on to say that Genesis 1 and 2 had two conflicting creation accounts and that proved that it was just a story and not fact. He informed us of the literary devices used to structure the story and how it was just that, a story, used by the Hebrews to compete against their neighboring nations, in terms of the origins of the world.
I was there when Louis Bishop asked a question in the break-out session and Dr. Grismer blew a gasket and basically yelled at him, calling Christians “idiots, ignorant and closed minded.”
I was there when Dr. Bradley presented a lecture on the evolutionary history of humans and how we came from apes and how the account in the Bible of Creation is fictitious. Dr. Bradley told our class that to be created in God’s image, means “to develop thinking and functioning minds, that our ancestor hominids did not possess.”
I too was there when Dr. Webster, from the religion department was brought in as a guest lecture and told our class that the Creation account in Genesis was just a story and that it was time that the church catch up with Science.
I spoke to many of my professors about the origin story that they were so staunchly driving us to adapt as our own. Dr. Perumal’s response to my questioning was one that I respected very much. He said, “we as humans will never know the whole truth, we only know a small part. But one day when we see Jesus, He will answer all our questions.” This stood out to me in stark contrast from the other professors (McCloskey, Greer, Grismer, Bradley) who openly told us time and time again (in lecture halls and outside of them) that they believed in an evolutionary origin story and taught our classes from that slant.
As a scientist, I have no problem learning about evolution. In fact, I think that it is essential to know about it to be a functioning member of the scientific community. However, my problem resides in the fact that I paid hard earned money to attend an Adventist school and that school did not present me with a fair view of both sides. I struggled a lot with what I was learning and had it not been for my strong upbringing in my faith, I may have discarded the truths I had been taught as a child. But ultimately I chose to just learn this information for my classes and instead believe what my convictions and the Bible said to be true.
– One Student’s Perspective
