July 2018

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was no real exposure to biology other than just being in the outdoors. Even though I didn’t know the word biology, when I got old enough, I knew I was going to be in this field. I just remember when I was a little kid, my brother bringing home a box turtle and I was just enthralled. Those box turtles had a formative impact on me. Throughout high school and college, I sometimes daydreamed of being on the Jacques Cousteau ship, of being this intrepid marine biologist, but then I realized that everything I learned I wanted to teach. I went to grad school and eventually became a professor. So, I didn’t have a goal to do this nature documentary. My nephew, best-selling author N.D. Wilson, was approached about doing a nature documentary from a Christian point of view. He agreed and asked me to be the narrator. So we started filming 3 years ago this summer and it’s been a wonderful ride. Explain the title of the film. It came from the title of my text book that I wrote a few years ago. I called it “The Riot and the Dance” and although the title is mysterious to people, I do explain it in the introduction. Because I’m a Christian, a Creationist, the “riot” refers to the riotous aspect of life where we see that the perfect creation was subjected to futility. As it says in Romans “all creation groans.” Death and decay were introduced into creation with Adam’s sin, and so you have all sorts of things out there in nature. As the “riot,” the world is eroding and longing to be liberated from its bondage to corruption. We are also groaning. We are longing for resurrected bodies. We, someday, will have wonderful bodies that won’t fall apart, that won’t decay, and that goes for the animal world as well. So that’s the “riot.” The “dance” refers to the uncorrupted aspect of creation. You still see all of the design. It says in Romans 1 that God’s divine nature is clearly seen from what has been made. Through all this “riot,” you still have wonderful, dynamic designs in form and function from the molecular level to the ecosystem level (like choreographed dances) which shine through very loud and clear. I read that you were once told early in your biology career that you would never be successful if you kept believing in a Creator or if you kept babbling about the Creator-Creature “nonsense.” How are your views about creation different from that of traditional scientific views or even different from regular Christian views? That’s a paraphrase of the actual note that I received from one of my professors in graduate school. Basically, the note said that you’ll never be able to call yourself a biologist if you continue to hold the views about evolution that you have demonstrated. My professor thought I was deluded because I believed in the Creation. Evolution isn’t considered a side show in biology. In secular biology, evolution is a central guiding theme and to deny evolution or to deny common ancestry of all organisms through totally natural processes is tantamount to a Christian saying I don’t believe in the Trinity. It’s central, it’s super-central. And so, if I call myself a biologist, to them I’m a heretic. I believe the Bible. I believe that God created all the various kinds of living things. That’s what it says in Genesis. Things were created distinct from each other. So that’s how I differ from the secular view. I also differ from a lot of Christians who have adopted a compromised position which says that God used evolution. They don’t want to go against the grain or against the flow of the scientific consensus, so they say let’s keep our Bible and our evolution too. I just think those two world views are not compatible. I really think you have to blur your eyes to the text of Genesis to try to incorporate an evolutionary world view. You say to get to know God you have to look at not only everything He wrote, but everything he made. How or why is nature essential to our walk with Christ? I use the analogy of Michelangelo in the movie. If you want to know Michelangelo, you study everything he’s made, his sculptures, his paintings. If he wrote anything, you read that. We should want to have full access into everything we can get that tells us more about God. When I study plants or animals, I am directly seeing the handiwork of God. And it’s wonderful because I’m getting insight into who God is. The Bible tells me his moral character, but I can also see his 70 www.faithfilledfamily.com July 2018
creative character. I am sure that you have some great footage. Is there a favorite you have of God’s masterpieces? Where did you film? I did my PhD on the Eastern Box Turtle. I really like that turtle for nostalgic reasons as well as scientific reasons. There are some incredible creatures. The Leafy Sea Dragon is one of those over the top, bizarre fish in the sea horse family. It’s on the south coast of Australia. It’s just a wonderful fish that is elegant, beautiful, bizarre, complicated. I like to showcase things that are often overlooked. In the movie, I really like the Green Vine Snake of Sri Lanka. It is a bizarre yet beautiful snake. I do like the normal animals that everybody else likes, the cute and fuzzy. It’s not like I only go for the bizarre and weird. We filmed in various places like Arizona, California, Yellowstone, North Idaho, Oregon coast, and Sri Lanka. What’s next for you? I still have my day job as a professor, but I want to be available to go off on more filming adventures wherever they may be. Well, there you have it. All I can say is wow! How fascinating our world is. And oh, how much we can learn about God by studying His creation. “The Riot and the Dance” was in theaters for a limited viewing in March and April of 2018. It has not yet been released via other outlets, but Dr. Wilson suggests that you visit the website and sign up to receive the newsletter, which will help keep you updated as to when will be the planned release of part 1 on DVD and via streaming video, as well as on the release of part 2, which will begin production in Spring 2019. Thank you, Dr. Wilson for providing your insight into this great topic, and thank you to Lori Heiselman, of Collide Media Group, for coordinating this interview. To learn more visit, http:// riotandthedance.com, or https:// www.facebook.com/riotandthedance/. www.faithfilledfamily.com 71
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REAL LIFE ROMANCE EDITOR’S NOTE:
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July 2018

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