Crux II
I’ve already mentioned in this blog that I’m a Christian. The time has come to reveal more: I’m not the only one among the scientific stuff of TU Delft. We’ve a kind of small organization that does not advertise itself. It’s called Crux. Once in a month we meet, trying not to attract much attention.
Why not to attract? For forty years passed since Great Secularization of Dutch society it did not feel quite proper to talk about religion within university environment. The students are of course allowed to have interests, and there are several active student Christian organizations. As to the stuff, the common opinion was that faith is so deeply personal and so irrelevant to any academic acitvies that any mentioning of it is improper, very much like mentioning, discussing and promoting personal physiology. This is why we’re still a bit cautious. Although times seem to change: more and more academics actively and publically discuss questions related to interactions between science and religion and even provoke such discussions. Cees Dekker, prof of molecular biology at our Kavli Institute, is especially famous for this: see his site www.ceesdekker.net.
So two years ago Cees Dekker and Hans Hellendoorn, prof. in applications of computational intellegence, have founded Crux, In our meetings, somebody usually gives a (short) presentation that ignites a friendly discussion that can be about everything: from the best ways to handle Ph.D, students to what Scriptures say about environmental issues. Starting this year, we also invite postdocs and Ph.D. students: this is called Crux II.
Today we got very deep in philosophy. Kees Roos told us about Wittgenstein and Goedel. Yet everybody find it interesting and can say something about. Glory to God.
