However, I thought that saying that the Chinese and Indians want to “dominate” was a bit powerful and could easily be taken the wrong way. (trust me, i’ve said many things like that where people misunderstand) Even so, my mother is Chrinese and she pushes me and my sibling to do well in everything. I don’t think she wants us to “dominate” but to strive for excellence and work hard, and in my case to do everything for the glory of God. While I understand the message you are communicating, I’m just saying that talking about those things is being on a really fine line.

I’m really glad you are talking about this as I am considering some career choices now, and how best to do everything for the glory of God and to be a beacon in this world. Keep up the good work and thanks for all you’ve been doing with the rebelution. Its really inspired me.

I do have a question, though. Does anyone have suggestions on how I, as a woman, should pursue science/math? I’ve been reading Elisabeth Elliott’s books, Passion and Purity and Let Me Be a Woman, and I am in agreement with her statement that the highest calling on my life is to one day be a wife and mother. But I am not in control of God’s timetable for that calling, and as a soon-to-be college freshman, I doubt that will be anytime soon. Do I set forth to become the best scientist, mathematician, or doctor I can be even if it means that I may never fully participate in my field? (For example, training to become the type of doctor I’m interested in would take 14 more years.) I would greatly appreciate it any input. Thank you!

Very true: let’s not focus on “staying on top” but for our call as Christians to excellence in how we live for God. However, I’ll say that China is far from being a Christian nation, and though God’s certainly doing great stuff there in growing the church in numbers and internal and external maturity, with some Christians making quite an impact in the fabric of the country, thus far the actual percentage of Christians in the country remains a relatively small minority, though the number exceeds the members of the communist party.

And of course in dealing with China in foreign policy, which we do have to consider some time or another, though usually not directly, there is no way to treat it as a Christian country any more than you would, say, South Korea.

»It makes me sick when America and Christianity are equated as one and the same. We have such an elitist mindset.«

Agreed. As a citizen of the heavenly city I’m averse to seeing the two as coterminous.

»Of the 2.8 million bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering granted worldwide in 2003, 1.2 million were earned by Asian students in Asian universities. Only 400,000 were granted in the United States. Shirley Ann Jackson, the 2004 president of the American Association for Advancement of Science explains, “the proportional emphasis on science and engineering is greater in other nations.”«

I agree that this highlights a certain apathy we in America have about scientific inquiry and advancement of knowledge, perhaps, relative to other countries, but it also points to our underpreparation. It won’t help to have everyone become a scientist, nor an engineer (the two must be distinguished, though the distinction can be weakened in the academic preparation of the K-12 educational world).

»Science and engineering degrees now represent 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees earned in China but only 31 percent in the United States. When you factor out science degrees the figures are even further removed; 46 percent of Chinese students graduate with engineering degrees vs. 5 percent of American students.«

Factoring out the science degrees can be the start of a dangerous path. I would rather have a good balance between engineering and science than disproportionate weight shifted toward engineering away from both the knowledge and basis (theoretical and empirical) of science and the important contribution of the humanities. While American education is far from perfect and the problem discussed is real (not to the mention the problems with postmodernist, PC, anti-intellectual majors), let us not forget the need to be reasonably well-rounded and truly educated.

»I cannot stress enough that young Chinese and Indians are racing us to the top. They don’t want to work for us. Heck, they don’t even want to be like us. They want to dominate us. They are not content where they are and they’re studying us carefully in order to beat us. And guess what? It’s working.«

Excuse me? Is this a scare tactic? Perhaps not, but let’s keep some proper perspective here.

»Contrast this obsession with the American youth culture’s preoccupation with [...] getting rich by entertaining (sports star, movie star, pop star, etc.) has caused us to ignore traditional, foundational, and critical professions.«

Of course I prefer Bill Gates to Britney Spears any day (my background is Chinese, by the way, if that’s relevant), but let’s not train ourselves to be “efficient” engineers and computer scientists, neglect other knowledge, and then fancy our intellects well cultivated. And no offence to anyone, but an IT-trained worker does not replace a computer science graduate of UC Berkeley or Stanford.