Creation was a dance (and still is in many ways), but now it’s a riot. If you didn’t already know, there’s a new nature documentary out that finally gives credit to where credit is due: God. Christian biologist, Dr. Gordon Wilson, joins us this week to talk about the film The Riot and the Dance which he narrates. We talk about the film, if animals are sinful, general revelation, and how the gospel is seen in nature.
Who is Our Guest?
Dr. Gordon Wilson is a Senior Fellow of Natural History, responsible for the College’s Natural History Colloquium and science electives. He received his Ph.D. from George Mason University in Environmental Science and Public Policy in 2003. Dr. Wilson and wife Meredith have four children and growing collection of grandchildren.
Episode Links
Check out The Riot and the Dance.
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Isaac
With me today is Dr. Gordon Wilson. Gordon is a senior fellow of natural history at New St. Andrew’s College in Idaho, and among other degrees, Gordon has his PhD in environmental science and public policy from George Mason University.
Anyways, it’s great to have you with us today, Gordon.
Dr. Wilson:
Thank you for having me, Isaac. It’s great to be here.
Isaac:
We start every conversation like this. Just before we jump into the subject, who are you? What are a few things you can tell us about yourself that would allow us to know you a little bit better, maybe how you came to know Jesus?
Dr. Wilson:
Well, I grew up in a very, very strong Christian family. My dad, after he got out of the navy which was before I was born, just 24/7 Christian. Both my mom and my dad had a great relationship. A peaceful home. Never saw any ugly fights or anything. They had disagreements, but they also resolved them peacefully. My dad, after he got out of the navy, he was an evangelist in Christian literature, so the gospel saturated the home, and good, firm discipline, good, loving discipline, and around six years old, I came under conviction after stealing my brother’s quarter, and at the dinner table, it was announced, “Doug is missing a quarter.” And I sort of twisted the story to look like I was the hero. The, “I think I know where it is.”
So, I retrieved the quarter, and then received a spanking because I was lying about it. I stole the quarter. I wasn’t just being the hero of the day and retrieving it.
But anyway, then after the spanking, received the gospel, and prayed the prayer as they say on the bottom of the basement steps which is where all of our justice was meeted out on our heine. But, that was probably about ’67, somewhere in there, 1967.
So, that’s a brief testimony, and just grew up in a wonderful, Christian home and realized that man, as I’ve grown up and met many, many Christians, some with similar backgrounds, some came to the Lord later in life and have very, very gnarly backgrounds, I’m very grateful for what I received.
Isaac:
That’s so good.
Now, Gordon, I did some digging. It wasn’t too much digging, but I did find out that you wrote your dissertation on the eastern box turtle, so really-
Dr. Wilson:
One facet of it. There’s a lot to be known about the eastern box turtle, and I studied under, you could say turtle Jedi-master, Dr. Carl Ernst at George Mason, and got to work on probably one of my favourite animals in the world just because I grew...