I am Martin Ester, a computer science professor at SFU. I have supervised graduate students for more than ten years. I am also a Christian who is convinced that my faith is relevant to all aspects of my and our world. I continue to enjoy this part of my job very much and have the impression that my students also do enjoy their studies, at least once in a while. Sometimes current or prospective students ask me for advice on how to succeed, and I have tried to distill the following short advice, which will hopefully be useful not only for computer science students.
Posted by: gcarkner | September 4, 2012
Advice to Young Scholars
Posted by: gcarkner | September 3, 2012
Science & Christian Faith in Synergy?
Encouraging Note from Dr. Arnold Sikkema, PhD Physics from UBC
Thousands of students head off to university this fall with high anticipation to ply their future through higher education and skills training. Many will be a bit shocked to discover that major universities do not welcome through their gates their faith-based thinking. Is there any support for these students who respect scientific knowledge and have a strong faith? Read More…
Posted in Apologetics, Science Reflections
Posted by: gcarkner | September 2, 2012
Building a Platform for Success
Building a Platform for Success as a Graduate Student
Dr. Gordon Carkner GCU Staff
At the beginning of a new school year, it is worth asking the question: How do hard working, successful people of noble character pursue their highest goals and stick with them as a life-long task? Here are seven discerning pointers to keep you motivated and keep you building into your academic quest. These are some of the planks you need to lay down in order to fulfill your dreams. The best piece of advice given to me at the beginning of my PhD work was that one has to really, really want this, to be willing to grow up and do what it takes to make it happen. Are you hungry enough for that PhD? This means you count the cost, develop the skills and then commit yourself to the effort day after day with wise stewardship of time and good partnerships. How will your faith make a difference in this pursuit? These suggestions are rooted in the knowledge that God is interested in every detail of your life (Psalm 139), so a full conversion to living robustly under his loving care and grace is a key foundation. The collected wisdom below is directed at helping you to mark out a flight plan for a constructive life. It is not a slick formula. Read More…
Posted by: gcarkner | September 2, 2012
An Amazing Treat: Dr. Danielson
“An Amazing Treat”
Dennis Danielson
Ten years ago I attended a lecture by UBC astronomer Mark Halpern, a member of the team operating the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (W-Map for short). W-MAP is the cosmology project that since the beginning of this millennium has shown our universe to be 13.75 billion years old. (NASA’s astonishing short list of what W-MAP has achieved can be viewed at: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/) Read More…
Posted in Apologetics, Science Reflections
Posted by: gcarkner | September 1, 2012
Will Christianity destroy my personal freedom?
Will Christianity Ruin my Personal Freedom?
Christians are sometimes tagged as holding a negative, uptight religion within a trajectory that keeps an interesting and fun life out of reach. As the stereotype goes, faith places them in a lifestyle box, with a lid. Nietzsche called it the iron cage or a morality that stifles creativity. There is that long list of prohibitions we hear about. How attractive is that? Read More…
Posted in Apologetics, Seeker Corner, Stewardship
Posted by: gcarkner | August 30, 2012
UBC Professor’s Travelogue
My Journey through the Holy Land
It was November 1991. By this stage it was all arranged that my wife and I would be spending our sabbatical year in Israel and that we would live in Jerusalem. I was on e-mail when I received the message “I have your apartment arranged for you; you have an address in Jerusalem.” I remember sitting back in my office chair and pondering “we have an address in Jerusalem; this is the Holy City, the City of the Great King, and we have an address there!” Read More…
Posted in Faith & Culture
Posted by: gcarkner | August 30, 2012
Virtues & Vices of a Fellow Creature
Virtues & Vices of Human Creatures from Steven Bouma-Prediger, Hope College
Spirit Bear in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest
Respect & Receptivity: If life in all its diversity is a gift from a benevolent Creator, we should respect its innate, intrinsic and precious value—its creational integrity. Biodiversity (a rich and full flourishing fittedness) is an intended result of God’s wise and orderly creative activity. We as the human dimension of creation are only one species among multitudes, and so we should cultivate the earth in harmony with other creatures, so that we can all sing a symphony of God’s praises together (Psalms 104; 148).
Posted in Science Reflections, Stewardship
Posted by: gcarkner | August 29, 2012
Self-Concept Angst
I want to introduce some profound ideas through quotes on the false and true self from Parker Palmer, a brilliant Quaker educator. They are from his book Let Your Life Speak which I read summer of 2011. I trust you will resonate and see their relevance to our discussion on the identity formation of graduate students. Graduate students are not a tabula rasa (blank slate); they are all subjects in process (Julia Kristeva), being formed and shaped by various forces, relationships, politics, experiences and ideas. Read More…
Posted by: gcarkner | August 28, 2012
Incarnational Identity
What are the implications of the incarnation (God with us) for graduate students, one of the central doctrines of the Christian faith. What of their identity, their posture and their voice on campus? Incarnation is “where God’s eternity and creation’s temporality meet” (D. Stephen Long, Speaking of God, p. 86). There is no simple answer, but it is great territory to explore, good sod to turn over. There is a language to recover, golden insight and a new experience of self to be discovered. Read More…
Posted by: gcarkner | August 26, 2012
Scripture & the Postmodern Self
Dualling Texts: the Postmodern Self & Judeo-Christian Scripture
This is not a simple or straightforward reflection; it proceeds more by way of an upward spiral. It draws on the school of thought that looks at the self as text, beginning with Wilhelm Dilthey. Nietzsche also loved the language of text; perhaps to an extreme, he claimed that interpretation goes all the way down—there are no facts, only interpretations. There is a sense in which we humans are a text, that is, open for interpretation. We are not reducible to mere factuality. How do we read our life experience, we the self-interpreting creatures who are obsessed with making sense of our lives? Do we not interpret ourselves as we tell our story even as we share with a colleague or a friend? Read More…
Posted in Faith & Culture, GCU Personality, Seeker Corner
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