Our assignment for Introduction to Psychology today was to write a paper outlining the position of a website that said that Christian Psychology works and a website that said Psychology was un-Christian. After that, we were to write a one-page position paper with our thoughts on the subject. Being a rather reasonable fellow not holding with such nonsense as "Psychology takes people away from the Bible and into pseudo-science" I decided that Psychology and Christianity had no call to be at war, and wrote as much in my position.
The paper was required of us in class today, but before then we were to write a number on a scale from 1 to 10 on the back of our paper, illustrating how much we felt the two topics coincided (1 being none, 10 being total overlap.) Now typically, I would have rolled with about a 9. However, I have always been somewhat argumentative and felt a good discussion brewing, so I went with the superlative 10. Dr. Hetzel then separated the class into 10's and the rest, placing us each on one side of the aisle and challenging us to convert one another.
Let it be known that LU students largely can't argue their way out of a wet paper bag. There were about 6 of us who could intelligently dissemble our positions, and oddly my typical ability to argue seemed to be flagging as I stammered and stumbled over words. Fortunately, my compatriots assisted brilliantly, and we converted a decent number from the class over to the side where the 10's were.
All in all, the class was an interesting introduction to "how the other half lives" so to speak. I haven't really in all of my life come across a Christian who actually believes that Psychology is evil and not of God. Sure, I've encountered quite a few with serious misgivings about Freud and psychoanalysis, but I think this may be my first chance to meet those who honestly don't trust Psychology. Should be fun... I'll keep you posted.
Posted by Vengeful Cynic at September 2, 2004 05:02 PM | TrackBack