@tomt453 asked me this on Twitter: “What conflicts do you come across being a nerd and a Christian?”
I don’t think nerdom and Christianity are locked in a mortal struggle, like say:
The Sith and the Jedi,
The Fantastic Four and the Skrulls,
E-Honda and his loin cloth,
Frodo and the ring, or
Good taste and Ke$ha.
In my experience, my nerdclinations and Christian faith live alongside each other harmoniously and there is rarely any conflict. Obviously if my nerdclinations included pornographic anime, then there would be some definite conflicts. But as it is, I feel much like Darth Vader when he told Luke, “There is no conflict.”
Every so often, though, there will be something in my nerd life which pushes me to examine my Christian faith and think through some aspect of that faith. This frequently happens with Star Trek. I love Star Trek; I’m currently working my way through Enterprise when I run on the treadmill. Within the Star Trek universe, though, the fact that God doesn’t exist is a foregone conclusion. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was a secular humanist and his ideal future didn’t include God or religion.
While watching The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, sometimes my Christian beliefs are challenged. In some episodes, religion is viewed as simple and primitive at best, and violent and dangerous at worst. Any time my core beliefs are challenged like that, it pushes me to reexamine what I believe – and that’s never a bad thing. We can strengthen our faith by honestly examining it and it doesn’t matter if the impetus was Star Trek, Captain America or a Sunday morning sermon.
So, to answer @tomt453’s question, I don’t come across too many personal conflicts from being a nerd and a Christian. If I could hang out with Jesus today, I wouldn’t be embarrassed to watch Star Wars or play through Halo: Reach with him; legendary has nothing on the Son of God. If we were to watch a movie or play video games, though, I’d ask Jesus to trade out the fishes and loaves for some pizza rolls and Coke Zero.
What conflicts do you come across being a nerd and a Christian?
This isn’t a very meaningful comment, but… I just had coke zero for the first time yesterday, which was the first time I’d had soda in years. It was much more enjoyable than I remembered.
Scott, thanks so much for the reply and post on your site. That helps a lot!
Personal relations, Most of the Christians I know, aren’t nerds and most of the nerds I know aren’t Christians.
It really is nice when the two worlds line up. Faith in Christ provides the most solid foundation for a relationship but it’s nice to build some nerdiness on top of that foundation.