Growing up, my parents were missionaries and Christianity was a large part
of my life due to my parents’ occupation. With Christianity being the focal
point of their work as missionaries, their Christian beliefs were integrated into
all areas of life. I quickly learned to view things from both a Scriptural
perspective and a scientific perspective. In school I furthered learned to take
scientific knowledge and Christian beliefs and to compare and contrast each
to form my own beliefs. In this sense, I was taught liberal openness from
an early age. In Entwistle’s summary of chapter two he begins by asking if
science and Christianity are enemies or allies. He proceeds to explain that
historically science and Christianity have been both enemies and allies at
various times (Entwistle, 2015 p.36). In my personal belief, science has only
strengthened my Christian faith. Science can prove that miracles that
occurred in the Bible and those that are occurring today are truly miracles.
When science is unable to explain how something can logically happen the
only conclusion is that it was of the Lord.
d d d d By interacting with many people from various religious
backgrounds I was able to develop my intellectual courage as many of my
friends were not Christians and I learned to listen to their views and be
challenged by their beliefs. According to Baehr, open-mindedness is
characterized by fully considering an opinion or perspective that you initially
disagree with (Baehr, 2017). In order to do this intellectual courage is
required. This act of open-mindedness can help to strengthen one’s personal
view. This is done by learning more about why they don’t agree with other
views. This situation also helped to develop intellectual perseverance as my
own beliefs were constantly being challenge and I had to defend my faith.
In order to defend my faith well, I needed to constantly be growing and
learning more by pursuing more knowledge from the Bible. According to
Entwistle, the antonym of perseverance in this situation would be
procrastination or sloth (Entwistle, 2015 p.103)
References
Entwistle, D. N. (2015). Integrative approaches to psychology nd Christianity:
An introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations, and models d
d d d d d d of integration. Cascade Books.
Baehr, J. S. (2017). Intellectual virtues and education: Essays in applied
virtue epistemology. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
