I Think I've Found My Hero!

A lecturer from UM (I do not want to disclose his name here, but he does have an interesting name!) came to speak in CF on Tuesday. As I talked to him after CF, I found out, to my utter amazement and delight, that he is a paleontologist! And there I was, this dinosaur loving grown-up kid who always wanted to be a paleontologist (but ended up being a reluctant engineer instead), drooling all over this real-life scientist who studies real-life fossils. It was pure admiration for the man that I wanted to be, and pure jealousy for not being able to be that man. I never knew there were paleontologists in Malaysia! “You mean you can find fossils of prehistoric creatures in Malaysia? Which age?” I asked him in starry eyed wonder. “Precambrian, Cambrian…” he answered like any knowledgeable scientist (and any kid like me who grew up reading books that had all those words in it) would. “In fact, if you go to this place just outside Kangar, you can actually find Trilobite fossils over there. It’s just that we haven’t found any dinosaurs yet.” Wow…

When I found out that he offered to speak on topics such as Creation and Evolutionary theories for any upcoming Inter-faith talks, I realized that I just had to ask him this question: What is your position on Creation and Evolution? When we were coming out of the elevator to walk to the parking lot, I popped the question. His answer? “Of course, it’s Creation. It is a miracle, whether it took 6 days or 6 billion years. But if you study within the confines of the Universe, you will find that it is evolutionary.” Ah… I was happy with that answer. At last, I’ve found another person in Malaysia who has a similar view to that of my own – that of Theistic Evolution. I often cringe when Christians who know nothing about it make fun of it and write it off as if every evolutionist is a silly God-rejector (because the Bible says God made the world in six 24-hour days). No doubt it still remains a theory. No doubt it still has its problems. No doubt it cannot be proven empirically. But there is growing evidence for it. And of course, it doesn’t matter if God created the world in 6 days or 6 billion years anyway… not for many people. But for those who desire to know the mind of God through His handiworks, it is a joy to find out more about these things.

I wonder if I’ll have another opportunity to have a chat with him. My hero?! Maybe I can find a little time to spare for a trip to Kangar… fossil hunting anyone?