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Meet Kirk Durston … scientist, clergyman, philosopher, father, husband, nature photographer, and wilderness adventurer
Kirk relaxing at Wycliffe College
Kirk grew up on a cattle and grain farm in central Manitoba, Canada, where he spent countless hours in the forest as a young boy, fascinated with the plants and animals that are native to that region. Throughout his teen years, he worked six days a week as a farm hand. He left his father’s farm at the age of 19 for university. Upon completion of his first two degrees, he was an experimental test engineer with Pratt & Whitney, helping coordinate the build and test of experimental aircraft engines. During those years, however, he felt a strong call to work with university students. After several years of considerable thought, he left engineering to work with Power to Change at universities across Canada for the past 40 years. He has spent much of that time thinking, writing, and speaking about the interaction of science, theology, and philosophy within the context of authentic Christianity. He has been married for 43 years to Patti and they have six children and eleven grandchildren with more on the way. He enjoys nature photography, wilderness canoeing and camping, fly fishing, reading, and spending time with family and friends.
Kirk’s story
If you are interested in reading Kirk’s brief account of how he began his own spiritual journey, here it is.
Kirk’s ‘Quest for a Beautiful Mind’
After half a lifetime of seeing his world growing darker and darker, Kirk reached a point of desperation where he begged God for a beautiful mind and for the sun to shine again in his soul. What followed was a series of life-giving discoveries of enormous importance that he describes in this video, titled ‘Quest for a Beautiful Mind’. It is 20 minutes long, but hopefully well worth the watch, and ends with what may be the most powerful prayer a person can pray.
Education
Ph.D. Biophysics, 2010 (University of Guelph)
M.A. Philosophy, 1997 (University of Manitoba)
B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, 1979 (University of Manitoba)
B.Sc. Physics, 1976 (University of Manitoba)
Has also completed 12 seminary-level courses
Academic Publications
Papers published in journals of science
Thomas D Townsley, James T Wilson, Harrison Akers, Timothy Bryant, Salvador Cordova, T L Wallace, Kirk K Durston, Joseph E Deweese, PSICalc: a novel approach to identifying and ranking critical non-proximal interdependencies within the overall protein structure, Bioinformatics Advances, Volume 2, Issue 1, (2022), vbac058, https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbac058
A user-friendly, laptop usable pattern-discovery software tool that analyzes large multiple sequence alignments for protein families and locates 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and higher interdependencies that are either proximal or non-proximal within the 3D structure of the protein. – Read Abstract – Read and download full article from Journal Website
Durston, K.K., Chiu, D.K.Y., Wong, A.K.C., Li, G.C.L., Statistical discovery of site inter-dependencies in sub-molecular hierarchical protein structuring, EURASIP J Bioinform Syst Biol. (2012) Jul 13;2012(1):8. doi: 10.1186/1687-4153-2012-8.
A k-modes algorithm can be used to discover interdependent sites within an aligned sequence from which a cluster tree can be constructed, revealing sub-molecular interdependencies within the 3D structure of a protein family. – Read Abstract – Read and download full article from Journal Website
Durston, K.K., Chiu, D.K.Y., Abel, D.L., Trevors, J.T., Measuring the functional sequence complexity of proteins (Highly accessed), Theor Biol Med Model. (2007) Dec 6;4:47.
In this paper, a method is presented for measuring the functional sequence complexity (also referred to as functional information) of proteins, using multiple sequence alignments for protein families, as well as a method for measuring changes in a protein, in terms of functional complexity. – Read Abstract – Read and download full article from Journal Website
Durston, K.K., Chiu, D.K.Y., (2005), A functional entropy model for biological sequences, Dynamics of Continuous, Discrete and Impulsive Systems: Series B Supplement. — Download full article
Papers published in journals of philosophy
Durston, K., The Incompatibility of God and gratuitous evil: implications for the termination of civilizations, Religious Studies (2015), 51, Special issue 03, 411-419.
Many have objected to the idea that God would order the destruction of the Canaanites. If we grant, however, a common assumption in atheistic arguments from evil against the existence of God––that God cannot permit gratuitous evil, it follows that when a civilization crosses the line to become gratuitously evil, then God must terminate it. – View – Download full article
Durston, K., The Failure of Type-4 Arguments From Evil, in the Face of the Consequential Complexity of History, Philo (2006), 8, No. 2.
Type-4 arguments from evil reason by abductive inference (inference to the best explanation) to the conclusion that gratuitous evil exists, therefore, God does not. In this paper, Durston shows that Type-4 arguments fail due to what we do not know about future history and alternate histories. – Download full article
Durston, K., The Complexity of History and Evil: A Reply to Trakakis, Religious Studies (2006), 42, 87-99.
Philosopher Nick Trakakis has raised some objections to the argument in my earlier paper (2000). Here, I respond to Trakakis’ objections to my earlier argument. – View – Download full article
Durston, K., The Consequential Complexity of History and Gratuitous Evil, Religious Studies (2000) 36, 65-80.
Some have argued that instances of evil that appear to be pointless are sufficient justification to conclude that God does not exist. This paper argues that, due to the fact that every event produces an exponentially increasing number of consequences stretching into the future of the actual world and other possible worlds, it is impossible for us to know what God should or should not permit. – View – Download full article
Other peer reviewed academic publications
Durston, K.K.; Chiu, D.K.Y. (2011), Chapter 5. Functional Sequence Complexity in Biopolymers. In The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control, Abel, D. L., Ed. LongView Press–Academic, Biol. Res. Div.: New York, N.Y., pp 117-133. – View – Download full article
Durston, K.K., (2003), Review: Humble Apologetics, Philosophia Christi, 5, No. 2.
Popular-level publications
Durston, Kirk (2020), Part 2, Chapter 5, ‘Are Faith and Science in Conflict?’, Everyday Apologetics, P. Chamberlain & Chris Price, eds., Lexham Press, pp 135-162.
Work
2019 to present: Digital Strategies, Power to Change - Director of Research and Publications
1994-2018: Power to Change (Students) - Researcher and speaker, Ultimate Questions Group
1983-1994: Power to Change (Students) - Student mentoring
1979-1983: Pratt & Whitney - Experimental Test Engineer
Student summer job 1978: Programmer, National Defence Research, Underwater Acoustics
Student summer job 1977: Engineering Assistant, Electrical Department, City of Penticton
Student summer job 1976: Geological Assistant, Manitoba Geological Survey, Mapping
Speaking experience
Thirty-nine years, and continuing, speaking at most universities across Canada, as well as universities in the UK, Ukraine, and the USA, focussing on topics pertaining to the interplay of God, philosophy, and science. This includes a few hundred talks and lectures as well as participating in approximately 80 formal debates on topics relevant to the defense of the basic beliefs of Christianity.