Sharing My Story

I graduated high school in June 1966 and entered college
the next September. Like many young students before or
since I did not have a clear idea what I wanted to do.
I had interests in paleontology and entomology and later
declared my major in Biology with a minor in Art. My first
year was spent in doing what was called general education
courses or Humanities (a sort of conglomeration of history,
philosophy, art and music appreciation courses. These courses
were a combination of lecture and small group discussions.

One distinct memory in the small groups was a discussion of
the Bible. and the book of Genesis. The group leader declared
there were two stories of the creation of man in Genesis 1 & 2.
This caused some consternation among the students. Somehow
I had shown some prior knowledge on Biblical topics in the class
and was asked for my views by the leader. I mentioned there could
be another way of looking at the passage. One that the first passage
(Genesis 1) is a general summary statement on how the creation of
man fit into the general sequence of the divine creation acts. The
second passage (Genesis 2) is not so much a separate account as it
is an amplification of the first account that emphasized the
specialness and uniqueness of man (being created in the image of God)
over and above the rest of creation. While the group leader probably
didn't believe that view he accepted it as a valid response.

Later one of the students in the class a young African American
asked me what I thought was going on in the class. I believe I
responded with something like welcome to the secular college
environment where there was an emphasis was to denigrate
personal faith and belief in the Bible as God's revelation. I was
somewhat prepared for that though other students weren't.
I suspect that the secularizing process in higher education is
much worse in the early 21st century than it was in the 1960s.