A Wow from Science

If you have lost the sense of amazement at the way the world is and how God made everything to be discovered and enjoyed and fathomed, and you have lost your "wow," you might look at this paper from the New England Journal of Medicine (looks like you can see it for free if you make an account with them). From the microscopic to the light-years, there are amazing discoveries all the time, which remind us that God is a creative creator who loves it when his children figure something out. And that the things we see every day are so much more amazing than we know and feel. 

If the science is challenging to digest, my everyday doctor's interpretation is as follows: 

 Researchers previously viewed a whole category of protein segments as overly simplistic and of little use in the body, disdainfully labelling them "Intrinsically disordered protein regions." However, further studies have revealed that these segments are very useful indeed and not at all disordered. Rather than having a singular shape, they fold into functional structures depending on their environment, serving many important roles in the body. With simple repeated units, they make superstructures that we could not live without. Imagine a kind of simple-looking metal that, if you pile it up in a city, forms itself into a skyscraper. Or if you dump it in a field, turns into a plow. And if you carry a little of it on your walk and it starts raining, an umbrella appears. That is what several of these chemical chains do in your body, depending on where they find themselves. And we had no idea until Dr. Gorlich and Dr. McKnight watched and listened and wrote and taught and went to conferences and sat at benches pouring chemicals back and forth year after year and discovered what was happening. 

Truly Solomon was correct when he said: "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, to search out a matter is the glory of kings."  (Prov 25:2) Paul B

Reference: Tanja Mittag, "Surprisingly Complex Assemblies from Low-Complexity Domains," NEJM, Sept 11, 20205, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMcibr2509676

Difficult to Locate

A purely secularist, opposed-to-all-religion position takes it to have been established that all religious doctrines yet offered have been shown to be false, and it is quite willing to infer that any doctrinal replacements will suffer a similar fate. Since the great work in which it was shown that all religious doctrines are false is uncommonly hard to locate—it is hard to think of any barely plausible candidates—pure secularism possesses an unfounded optimism about its status and prospects.

                                                                                           -Keith Yandell, Religious Experience

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Measureless

 

To say that God is infinite is to say that he is measureless.  Measurement is the way created things have of accounting for themselves. It describes limitations, imperfections, and cannot apply to God. Weight describes the gravitational pull of the earth upon material bodies; distance describes intervals between bodies in space; length means extension in space, and there are other familiar measurements such as those for liquid, energy, sound, light, and numbers for pluralities. We also try to measure abstract qualities, and speak of great or little faith, high or low intelligence, large or meager talents.

Is it not plain that all this does not and cannot apply to God? It is the way we see the works of his hands, but not the way we see him. He is above all this, outside of it, beyond it. Our concepts of measurement embrace mountains and men, atoms and stars, gravity, energy, numbers, speed, but never God. We cannot speak of measure or amount or size or weight and at the same time be speaking of God, for these tell of degrees and there are no degrees in God. All that he is he is without growth or addition or development. Nothing in God is less or more, or large or small. He is what he is in himself, without qualifying thought or word. He is simply God.

                                                                                  -A W Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Everywhere and Nowhere

Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being that they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself.  The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting that there is something which thy can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering. To admit that there is one who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. Yet how He eludes us! For He is everywhere while he is nowhere, for "where" has to do with matter and space, and God is independent of both. He is unaffected by time or motion, is wholly self-dependent and owes nothing to the worlds his hands have made.
                                                      -A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Expediency

"Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him"
                                                    -Pilate (John 19:4) 

Caesar spoke with the Jewish leaders who delivered Jesus to him in John 18 and 19. One can see that the primary goal for both Caesar and the Jewish leaders was expediency. It was not justice, love, truth, God, or really anything connected with the devine, though both groups would claim such. Rather, it came down to what worked for them.

For the Jewish leaders, they feared that Jesus and his teachings would disrupt the security and stability in their lives and in their country that they worked hard to maintain. For Pilate, he knew his role was to somehow keep this volatile Jewish nation from getting out of hand and thus gaining the attention of his superiors.

The Jewish leaders danced around the law, the directives from God, their position as God's people. They brought Jesus to the high priest, brought witnesses in, quoted scriptures when questioning Jesus, in attempt to make this a true Jewish decision. But they could not actually follow the law, knowing so many would be against what they were doing, knowing they had little to really accuse Jesus of. The reality of the world dictated that expediency would need to overrule these niceties.

For Pilate, he did question Jesus, tried to follow rules meant to uphold justice and protect the innocent. But Jesus was being so difficult. And the Jewish leaders were insistent. What would be the use of saving one life if that meant a country in uproar? If the Roman guards had to be called out, how many rioting Jews would be crucified instead? It was a simple matter of statistics that this crazy Jew would need to die. Expediency dictated the unreasonableness of any other course of action.

- - - - - - - - -

And for us? If we are honest, expediency directs our lives as well. Whether we work for the government (like Pilate), the church (like the Jewish leaders), or we are in the private world, it is the search for what works in this world that makes us successful. And if not success, even survival dictates walking the path of the reasonable with its often ugly underbelly. The realities of life that dictate decisions that we do not want to make.

Like Pilate, Jesus enters our lives. He makes us quite nervous, as we can see the consequences of His challenges together with our choices. We punish him for standing in the way of our success, angry that we have to walk on him to get to our goals.

Nonetheless, Jesus calls us to follow him. Even in the injustice felt, after the scourging and mocking by the Roman guards, Jesus explains to Pilate where his power and position really come from: the God who is in charge of all things.

The miracle here is not that Jesus speaks and Pilate is born again and turns his life over and goes to church. The miracle here is that even though Pilate does what Pilate will do: sacrifices Jesus to expediency, Jesus nonetheless speaks God's truth to him in mercy and love.

Our hope is not in ourselves: that we will see this story and run from expediency. That is simply not our nature. Our hope is always and only in the person Jesus. That as we trample him, he speaks to us. As we curse him, he blesses us. As we crucify him, he saves us.

Darings

Now, against the sacrilegious and impious darings of reason, we assert both that God knows all things before they come to pass, and that we do by our free will whatsoever we know and feel to be done by us only because we will it.

                                                                                     -Augustine (City of God)

The Pessimist

Not many years ago when I was an atheist, if anyone had asked me, ‘Why do you not believe in God?’ my reply would have run something like this:  ‘Look at the universe we live in.  By far the greatest part of it consists of empty space, completely dark and unimaginably cold...Earth herself existed without life for millions of years and may exist for millions more when life has left her.  And what is it like while it lasts?  It is so arranged that all the forms of it can live only by preying upon one another.  In the lower forms this process entails only death, but in the higher there appears a new quality called consciousness which enables it to be attended with pain...In the most complex of all creatures, Man, yet another quality appears, which we call reason, whereby he is enabled to foresee his own pain which henceforth is preceded with acute mental suffering, and to foresee his own death while keenly desiring permanence.  It also enables men by a hundred ingenious contrivances to inflict a great deal more pain than they otherwise could have done...Every race that comes into being in any part of the universe is doomed; for the universe, they tell us, is running down...All stories will come to nothing: all life will turn out in the end to have been a transitory and senseless contortion upon the idiotic face of infinite matter.  If you ask me to believe that this is the work of a benevolent and omnipotent spirit, I reply that all the evidence points in the opposite direction.  Either there is no spirit behind the universe, or else a spirit indifferent to good and evil, or else an evil spirit.’

There was one question which I never dreamed of raising.  I never noticed that the very strength and facility of the pessimists’ case at once poses us a problem.  If the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?  Men are fools, perhaps; but hardly so foolish as that.  The direct inference from black to white, from evil flower to virtuous root, from senseless work to a workman infinitely wise, staggers belief.  The spectacle of the universe as revealed by experience can never have been the ground of religion: it must always have been something in spite of which religion, acquired from a different source, was held.

CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

A House with Windows

An allegory regarding the finding of both spiritual and scientific realities.

By Paul Bunge

There is a house.  It is the house into which we are all born.  One of the first things we realize, growing up in this house, is the amazing view out of the large windows.  Beautiful and engaging views of the world outside wait for us whenever we venture up to one of these windows for a look.  The yard, the streets, the other houses, all are so interesting, each in its own way.  Animals, plants, sky, activity, other people; the full and rich stuff of the world.  One really could not ask for a better view than from our house.

For some of us, myself for one, we are introduced early on to something very important and very special.  We are told and then shown that there is another place in the house from which we can see outside.  It is called the attic.  We are shown the steps up to the attic and then we are taken up there, for our little legs are too small to make the trip on our own.  For several visits, it is difficult to see out of the windows there at all.  They are too high up for us to peer out of.  Sometimes there is a fog.  Not being able to see gets frustrating for someone so young, not having the patience needed.  But then, one day, we can and do see out.  Oh what a wonder!  What a joy.  What we thought was only yards and roads, is actually a whole town, with miles of buildings, people, cars, and activity.  Off in the distance we spy sky scrapers.  And look over there, there are not only trees, but a forest!  With animals of all kinds!  How we love to come to the attic now!  Hours we could spend up there, gazing out at the new wonders.  In fact, sometimes our parents must bring us back down, or we would miss dinner.   “Don’t forget the real world” some might say.  But as a child of course we know: one window is no less real than the other.  And we are confused that those who would show us the attic would be so quick to discount what we see from up there.

Older we get.  And one day we learn there is yet another part of the house that we did not know of before.  Or perhaps we heard it mentioned quietly, or perhaps disparagingly from those who warned us never to go down there.   An odd door that seems rather new, not matching the age and pattern of the rest of the house. It was locked up tight for some of us.  For my family, this door was never locked, though the latch was high up and I could not reach it.  My parents themselves brought me down to the basement.  And I saw nothing really.  It seemed dark to me.  If there were windows, they were much too high for me to make anything of.  But I appreciated that they had brought me down, not kept it a mystery for me.  Though it was dark, it was not nearly as frightening, knowing what was behind that odd door, if not what was out the window.

Later, we are old enough to go anywhere in the house at any time.  Various friends and others encourage us to spend time in the attic, or the basement.  Or just to stay on the ground floor. 

Often it is teachers from school who encourage us to go back to the basement.  To stay there long enough to let our eyes adjust to the darkness.  To bring a chair, and strain to see out of the slit-like windows that basements often have, near the ceiling, with no way to open them for air.  We inch up to get a better view.  Then at last we see.  Through the glass another new and strange world appears.  A world of crawling insects making tunnels that we see along the glass.  Of roots of the grass and other plants, snaking through the soil sucking up water and nutrients from this crumbly black and brown material called dirt.  And we see, that all of the wonders that we knew from childhood, are really made up of this kind of smallish bits of things, much rougher and darker than we thought.  Another wonderful and amazing reality!

We have friends who would advise staying in the basement as much as possible.  Here is the real, they argue, the dark and rough truth of the world.  But again, this seems odd.  Of course it is real, looking out on the world.  Just as real as looking out all of the other windows in the house.  It is not the house that makes the real, it is not the glass that causes truth.  The truth comes in and we see it.  That it comes in different ways at different windows is wonderful but not surprising. 

Some of us start to spend more time in the basement.  We train in it, make it our way of life.  We find teachers, and they find us.  Those who would help us, to better navigate these dark passageways.  Help to manage the dirt and the damp.  We appreciate them, love them for the wonders they show us.  And the livelihood we find in researching and conveying the truths that we discover bring us comfort and status.  Even help us to improve the other parts of the house, and our view out of their windows.

As we grow, we find more and more people in the house.  Our family enlarges in some way, to include so many.  And some are not doing well at all.  It seems to be that they are limited, stuck even.  Some spend perhaps too much time in the attic.  They refuse to go to the basement at all, and often try to lock the door to prevent others from going down there.  Even looking out the window of the main floor seems to make them nervous.  They can only speak of what they see from up the “glorious steps.”  And sometimes it seems that what matters more to them is the door, the steps, their chair in the attic, rather than actually looking out at the window.  We wonder that if they would leave these things aside and resume their looking, their discovering, that their lives would be much more glorious, and they wouldn’t require a special name for the steps and the chair.

But there are others who love the attic for what they see.  They don’t go up just for the fancy chair or the title.  And they share what they find with others, such that they inspire many to run up the stairs and look for themselves.  They bring a freshness and a life to the whole house.

Some of those who spend most of their time in the basement seem rather pale and unhealthy looking.  As if they just hadn’t gotten enough sunlight, or perhaps had forgotten to eat.  Some are perpetually sarcastic, despising and ridiculing anything that is not discovered or explained by those in the basement.  When someone describes a deer bounding by with its young, they refuse to look.  Scoffing, they say: “and tomorrow it shall be a rotting corpse,” and move on to describe maggots they have seen and categorized from dead mice analysis, all from the basement window.  It starts to bother us sometimes, especially as we know these people, and love them as those who have shown us the mysteries of the basement.  And we are sad.

***

We are not sure when it was that the war itself started.  Could it be that at one time they were not at odds, and now they were?  Or perhaps they always were and we had not seen it.  Perhaps they were simply new to the house or to each other and found themselves incompatible now only because it was their first interaction.  In any case, what strange lines were drawn and what strange behaviors were occurring in the house.  And what names these warring factions now took.  The pale basement people called themselves “scientists.” The attic people rallied behind the name “believers.” 

As the believers tell it, it was the scientists who struck first and locked the door to the attic, by trickery and lies.  The scientists deny this completely but accuse the believers of locking up their favorite door, spreading rumors about their methods, and even spray-painting the windows so that for a time no one could look out.  And the situation only becomes worse: repeated locking of doors and then the breaking of locks.  Noise and confusion everywhere.  New discoveries bringing ridiculed, shame instead of joy and fellowship. 

Children have it the worst.  Though everyone agrees that they should not be exposed to the violent arguments, the scientists stop allowing their children access to the attic.  And the believers take the same approach, with severe restrictions to the basement for their children.

Are we the odd ones, those of us who see this war as ridiculous and harmful?  Those who want to get rid of the locks and encourage all to enjoy the full range of our house’s windows?  Those who find it narrow-minded to never leave the basement, and disconnected to stay exclusively in the attic?  Those believers who love science, those scientists who seek spiritual truths?  And what of that great majority of people who comfortably spend most of their time on the main floor, and should not be hindered on their journeys either up or down?  How does all of this bickering help them?

We have a wonderful house.  It has three floors.  Each floor has windows, from which we can look and see and learn and wonder and share.  Let us help each other and not hinder each other.  Let us encourage each other and not criticize each other.  Come on, let’s go look out a window!

Copyright 2013

Who is Watching You?

The Hawthorne Effect is a very interesting phenomenon. The term was coined in 1955 when reviewing experiments done earlier at the Hawthorne Works factory near Chicago. Simply, it is the increased productivity that occurs when workers are being observed. In medicine, it could be considered that improvement that occurs in a patient simply by the doctor measuring his or her symptoms or illness. This is part of the "placebo effect."

The concept is in the Bible as well. Ephesians 6:6 says when working, don't just work hard when you are being watched (ophthalmodoulia), of course implying that is what happens. The Christian is to be a faithful, hard-working servant, working for God and not for man. The believer is one who knows that someone is actually watching him or her at all times. How few of us fit this category, if measured by our behavior?

speak

God, speak to me

I speak

No, I want loud, I want audible, I want thunder.

You want crazy.

Not crazy, just you speaking to me, showing me the way.

The way I already showed you.

What you mean is, I spend more of my time off of the path than on it, I know that. Maybe if you would speak to me, that would help.

Would it?

Please just speak to me.

I speak

If you speak, I will hear, I will know. Others will hear, others will know.

What does your doctor say?

My doctor? I am a doctor. Oh, what would the doctor say if I told him I heard audible voices of God? He would say I was crazy.

Would do you say?

I would say I was crazy, too. My ingrained teaching, my habit, my work, my references, all say that. I see, they are built on a foundation that rejects the entire concept of God interacting with people. The materialistic foundation that rejects all that cannot be explained by cause and effect in a scientific experimental model. Really, the foundation of all of my training and education is a rejection of God.
…
I should rather be asking the question: how is it that you can communicate with me at all?

I am God.

Yes, but how is it that you can reach someone with a foundation, an education, a language, which rejects you?

I am God.

I see you using others. Others who know you, who share my language, my culture, my foundation. They speak of you as if you are real, as real as dinner, as rocks, as light. They trust in you as a real person, more than just a concept. But they start with a concept sometimes to get there. A concept like e=mc2, which I don’t understand, but I know is true. Concepts resonate with me, with my foundation. I take e=mc2 on faith, and I can be unhindered in faith with that realization.
…
I see you using other cultures and places. I see in rural Africa, people believe and hear and see, things that I would say are crazy. To me, they are unscientific, they are unenlightened. And I have things to share with them, ways to free them from superstition. But they have things to share with me, ways to free me from a hobbling walk, to enable me to fly a flight of faith.

The Skeleton of a Question

Many people have asked this question: Why do the laws change from the “Old Testament” to the “New?” And why do we not follow literally all of the New Testament teachings (such as women not cutting their hair)? And if we do not, is there no solid foundation by which to guide our behavior?

I have never myself felt a terrible disconnect between the teachings of Moses and Jesus, Isaiah and Paul. The understanding of calculus requires a foundation of algebra, though it does seem disconnected to some (that is all I will say about math, thank you). The theory of relativity does not prove Newton incorrect. One must suffer through Dick and Jane before one can enjoy War and Peace. But, as I was re-reading the wonderful book: “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made” by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey, I thought that chapter 12 might help those that struggle with the God and the Laws of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses. Here is a sampling, the book is really worth the time if you haven’t read it:

Bones. At first glance, it appears that bones are the solid, unchanging struts of the body. One sort of bones for one sort of person, another for another sort. But what of children? How do their bones grow? And how do they heal when broken? We must look to the microscopic level. There we see two types of cells, constantly active throughout the life of the individual: the osteoblast and the osteoclast.

The osteoblasts are pothole-filling repair cells that attach themselves for example to fracture sites and lay down bone crystal. But the Blasts do not wait around for accidents. Billions of them labor diligently, replacing overaged bone. When you are young, 100% of all the bone is replaced each year. In the adult, only about 18% of the bone is replaced each year.

Old bone does not surrender territory easily. It must be dynamited and vacuumed out, and for this job the body has osteoclasts, the demolition team. The Blasts are large, with an average of ten to thirty nuclei, as if they need all the instructions they can get for their sensitive task.

If I tried to renovate a brick wall by removing a line of bricks in a horizontal row, the entire wall would quickly collapse. If, on the other hand, I removed a brick over here by my left elbow and replaced it, then replaced a brick by my knee, then one up by my head, I could in time safely reconstruct the entire wall. Similarly, Clasts scavenge a bit of bone at a time.

As old bone is renewed, Blasts factor into their design necessary adjustments for stress. All bone elements are arranged in perfectly engineered, intersecting lines of stress, like the girders on a steel bridge. If I break a foot and the pain of healing makes me adjust my walk so I take shorter steps, gradually those lines of stress in the heel bone will change and will end up at a new angle to the leg. The Blasts will accommodate to meet the new challenges.

When I consider the spiritual Body of Christ, and especially its skeleton of rules governing human behavior, I am conscious of a parallel type of renewing, adapting activity. The principles God has laid out, sometimes capsulized as in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, do not change, but their specific application certainly changes as the Body of Christ encounters new stresses. Many of the laws and observances of the Bible were geared to a society and culture alien to our own. A continuing need exists for prophets and teachers to interpret unchanging principles in light of the peculiar conditions of their day.

Issues of the day do not call for sweeping revisions of creeds and beliefs, but they do evince a need for some members of the church to reflect, study the Bible, and pray, and then lead the way in reinterpreting the will of God for their own generation. These people, prophets and teachers, serve as living bone cells in Christ’s body, laying down the inorganic minerals that go into our frame. They should possess humility and a commitment to preserve the great principles of the Christian faith. Yet they should have equal concern that the principles be relevant and give strength just where it is needed.

A God that kills children.

Possibly one could argue: it is not god's fault, God didn't mean it. God had a greater purpose.

But we are often left with the harsh reality of the world and our questions for God unanswered.

A reason for anger at God? Yes.

A reason for believing God is not there? Not so much.

Harsh realities that are uncomfortable, unbearable, unexplainable, exist in many "belief systems"

One believes there is no God, all is chance. Harsh reality: nothing has any ultimate meaning, all our greatest achievements, dreams, concepts, all a complex joke. Or in the words of my professor of developmental biology: "a hen is only an egg's way of making another egg."

Realities that break apart our concepts of truth are not by any means uncommon. The Jew loses his faith in light of witnessing the holocaust. The atheist cannot maintain disbelief in light of the horrors of Stalin. I am more and more convinced that if i were to truly learn, day by day, all of the realities of the universe, experience the joys and horrors of all of human existence, i could easily lose my faith in just hours, gain it back in a few more, over and over and over.

How to go on? I fall at the feet of my God for mercy.

“Science knows nothing of the person”
-Paul Tournier

Science is the measuring of things. The use of standardized units. Units that are seen, heard, felt, etc. The person has an immortal, unmeasurable component. Or rather than a component it is in a way the everything. The everything that in the mind of science is nothing. By this we get a glimpse the limitation of science, and laugh at ourselves for our measuring.

Where do you go?

My friend asked me a question having to do with my work as a physician: “When you're seeing a patient, do you go to God or to science to solve the problem? Presumably both, right... do you think it's more dangerous to only go to science, or only go to God?”


I would say the question is incorrect. The implication is there are two choices, which is my point—there are not two choices. But for the sake of clarification, the following are the choices presented:
1. The “doctor” references her scientific learning, and the accumulated learning of all that have gone before her in researching by the methods of objective inquiry, the diagnosing and treatments of the maladies of man. This doctor gathers data about the patient through the history and physical, and appropriate labs and other tests (data gathering, more science). Using statistical inferences, a diagnosis and treatment plan are formulated.
2. The “faith healer” listens briefly to the story, then consults the spirits, the tea leaves, or the “Christian God,” to find the problem, and formulate a recommendation, which usually involves prayer on the part of both parties in some way.

Of course one goes to medical school, does research, and becomes licensed as a physician, with the general goal to practice scientific, evidence-based medicine as much as possible. That is what the patients go to the doctor, to see someone who has been trained in science and medicine.

You are right that I strive to go to both God and science. But that is not different (or at least it shouldn’t be) than anything else I do. I strive to use the scientific method to improve my ability to raise my children. I also pray for my children and teach them to do so. To me, the division above is unhealthy (to use a more “scientific” term) and unholy (to use a more “faith-based” term).

The following is from “The Watchmen.” The character is describing his attitude over time towards the study of owls:

“Is it possible, I wonder, to study a bird so closely, to observe and catalogue its peculiarities in such minute detail, that it becomes invisible? Is it possible that while fastidiously calibrating the span of its wings or the length of its tarsus, we somehow lose sight of its poetry? That in our pedestrian descriptions of a marbled or vermiculated plumage we forfeit a glimpse of living canvases, cascades of carefully toned browns and golds that would shame Kandinsky, misty explosions of color to rival Monet? I believe that we do. I believe that in approaching our subject with the sensibilities of statisticians and dissectionists, we distance ourselves increasingly from the marvelous and spell-binding planet of imagination whose gravity drew us to our studies in the first place. That is not to say that we should cease to establish facts and to verify our information, but merely to suggest that unless those facts can be imbued with the flash of poetic insight then they remain dull gems; semi-precious stones scarcely worth the collecting….A scientific understanding of the beautifully synchronized and articulated motion of an owl’s individual feathers during flight does not impede a poetic appreciation of the same phenomenon. Rather, the two enhance each other, a more lyrical eye lending the cold data a romance from which it has long been divorced.”

The danger I think for the scientist, as described, is that something is lost in the dissection. There is a temptation to lose a necessary part of our human-ness, and our spirituality in our endeavors. And we should not fear fighting to retain it, and thereby actually bring more to our scientific endeavors, not less.

I read Proverbs. I look for an argument that says: hey, this is why you should believe in God. I do not find it there. I find rather warnings: follow the path of good, not evil. Fear God. Make right choices. All mixed up together with the exhortations to get knowledge and understanding. Why? It is because our ultimate problem is not ignorance, it is bad choices. Selfish, immoral choices. Selfish, immoral choices eventually lead to bad science, or science used to harm. One of these poor choices is to try to divide science and faith. One of the selfish choices is to cut off that part of ourselves which we find inconvenient in our pursuit of science, be that our family, our God, or ourselves.

Put Up Your Dukes II

A Poem:

My argument is this: there is no argument.

My speech is this: the words carry too much, they are too heavy to use, and must be emptied.

My thought is this: if you look for more than what your neurons put together can give you, you will not find it by putting your neurons together.

I have been studying the book of Proverbs over the last couple of months. In doing so, I have discovered a concept that had not previously sunk in. I think it applies to this discussion (or this boxing match, if you prefer). The concept requires exploring some of Proverbs, so please take the time to do this with me, trying to put aside preformed opinions about the book. 

When I think: “Who is a very smart person?” I think of Solomon. So what does he have to say about science, so much that science is in one definition the objective accumulation of knowledge?

First and foremost, Solomon gives us a picture of what he calls “Wisdom.” He personifies the concept of Wisdom, calling Wisdom a woman:

“Does not Wisdom cry, and understanding raise her voice? On the top of high places by the way, where the paths meet, she stands. “O you simple, understand prudence; and O fools, understand wisdom”

Solomon develops the character of this woman over several chapters. In chapter 9, the woman calls out, calling to the smart, and specifically to the not-so-smart, the “fools”. She is visible to all, not invisible (not some secret-knowledge thing here). But what is it that she says? What does she teach that is so simple that the “fools” can get it?

Actually, the concept is fascinating and provocative. She says things like:
“I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence”
“All the words of my mouth are righteousness.”
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.”

OK, now wait a minute. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge. I know a few things about these. I have been to a lot of school. I know the scientific method. And this does not sound like that. What is she talking about? Prudence? Righteousness?

The idea is that wisdom actually has more to do with choices than fact accumulation. And the first and most important of these choices is the fear and knowledge of God. I know that faith and God can be difficult to swallow. But I cannot see this any other way: Solomon is saying this. For many an atheist, the accumulation of knowledge is what makes him “come out of the closet,” as Peter said in his response to the last entry. First, the tooth fairy, then God, evaporated under the clear light of science. So putting God at the beginning of a conversation about knowledge must seem ridiculous. And for the believer, we tend to think that when discussing with the atheist, we should gather up knowledge and facts and then show the world how they explain and prove our beliefs. We can thereby come to God’s rescue.

But Solomon says that knowing God actually IS knowing. And the problem is not getting the right facts in the right order, but human beings with bad choices.

Knowledge has a moral component. It cannot be gathered completely “objectively,” in a moral vacuum. Before Solomon starts giving specific “proverbs,” he spends several chapters encouraging the reader to get wisdom, and in that way, and because of it, avoid the many evil traps that men are susceptible to. Moral traps. Foolish traps. Solomon does not divide the knowledge available and the moral choices. It makes it difficult to really understand what he is saying. For in our “modern” thinking, “cold, hard, facts” have nothing to do with right and wrong. They just are. So we must contemplate this call, and decide. To accept what Solomon says, to understand God, we must be willing to think “outside of the box.”

Wisdom calls: “Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness.”

What is the opposite of truth? In our scientific theorizing, we would say: ignorance, misunderstanding, and imprecise measurements. But Solomon says the opposite of truth is wickedness. A moral component to facts. No facts can be gathered in a moral vacuum.

Contemplate these ideas for a moment:

Facts and knowledge have a moral component
Science is the measuring of things
Knowing God IS knowing
The choices we make are what divide wisdom from foolishness, not the amount and number of facts we have accumulated.

Put Up Your Dukes

Put Up Your Dukes

Come on, let’s see ‘em. I want to fight that science-worshiper, and show him (or her) what he is missing! But it seems more the argument of the Christian is not lost by point and counterpoint. No, it is lost when no one sees the point. The point of having the discussion in the first place. The unbeliever for her part is brought up, in church or out, with an underlying current of philosophy that considers God as irrelevant as the Tooth Fairy. A myth, a story, one of many, maybe some truth to it, maybe not, not really important enough to bother with. The Christian for her part shyly flits about this world, trying not to make too many ripples. Earbuds in the ears—Christian music mind you—but quiet so as not to disturb the peaceful underlying philosophy, which she shares with the unbeliever. That which says God is irrelevant. Oh sure, the Christian would say God is relevant to him. He is well-trained to speak of his experiences with God. But if a problem arises, does go to God to solve it? No, he goes to science. He goes to the local expert. He goes to the Internet. Not once pausing to thank his “Lord” for these tools.

But the Christian is angry at the scientist for stating that there is no God. Well, Christian, what of it? Your actions, your appearance, your language, your daily life, all hide God. You work hard to do so actually. So if the scientist says God is missing, have you blocked his view?

But, back to the scientist: science-worshiper or not. Let go of the microscope and the scale for a moment, and see what you are actually measuring. Step back and let it sink in. Fantastic, isn’t it? It is worth taking some time to contemplate, for there is evidence of something more. Something immeasurable. Are you ready for the fight?

Magical Science

In the book “Eragon,” and its sequels, the young author has a scientific explanation of the “magic” wielded by the Elves and by the hero. Possibly this makes it more palatable for the young reader to explore “super-powers,” as they have an explanation. The same of other recent movies and books. Midi-chlorians explain the “force” of Star Wars that only a few years previously depended on its mystery. But pity the generation that requires an explanation for magic! The people who cannot step out in faith because everything must be explained. The glory and the genius of the person is the ability to jump out ahead of the explanation. To live with ambiguity and doubt and still succeed. To bring the thing under the telescope and microscope of the scientific measurement is at the same time to discover a whole new realm of unexplained possibilities.

The more scientific we become, the more spiritual we must become. There is a tendency to bring everything to the foot of science, as if science is a king or a god. Many would claim that science is their god. Or as said in Nacho Libre “I don’t believe in God, I believe in science.” We take the wrong approach when we give up faith as science expands, or we give up science to keep our faith. No, our problem is two-fold: not enough faith, and not enough science. For it is only the man of faith who has the freedom to explore a question with no prejudgments. And it is only the woman of science who has the freedom to trust a God who is not trapped in a tree, in the wind, in the crops, in fertility, but who escapes her and calls to her at the same time. Who defies definition. Who is the Creator and Sustainer. Who is truly a God.

Science vs God: the battle that never was

It is not a matter of ever-enlarging scientifically explained reality vs ever-shrinking theologically comforted mystery.

No

Reality is all and everything at once both scientific and therefore explainable and searchable and measurable, and everything all at once and for all time and beyond time wonderfully mysterious, unexplainable, unsearchable, and unmeasurable.