| March 25, 2003 God vs. Science “He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.” Job 9:10 --Now of course that title to my entry is an oxymoron. God isn’t and can’t be opposed to his creation. That’s like seeing Ford vs. Mustang or Nike vs. basketball shoes, it just doesn’t compute. A creative entity won’t wage war against its own creation. Yet it seems today’s “church” has done a good job at hyping the fight that never was, never is, and never will be. (I can’t stand using the term “church” to describe Christianity as a whole, it so sucks. And so do all the bazillion different man-made denominations and freaking cults and “made in America” religions that pull bits and pieces from Christianity. I follow a Palestinian Jew from the 1st century. You wanna know what church I belong to? That’s what church I belong to. The “follower of a Palestinian Jew from the 1st century” church. Mankind and his ego for religious power sucks) Today’s “church” has done such a good job from isolating itself from the scientific community that no wonder the scientific community isolates itself from the “church”. In fact I’d say, with all seriousness, that the majority of scientists are closer to God than the majority of “churchgoers”. The reason for that statement.....simple. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 19:1 Now who is looking to the heavens and skies these days? Studying, testing, and discovering them? Could it be those evil, anti-christistic scientists are actually working to reveal God’s beautiful glory and wonderful design in his creation? Now I’m not saying that all scientists are “consciously” close to God. But golly, they sure are near. In fact today, the majority of astrophysicists are beginning to subscribe to the ID theory (Intelligent Design Theory) because of the overwhelming factual, scientific evidence of a creator (even loving creator) being revealed more and more each day through new astronomical discovers. People, God isn’t lying to us! What you see is what you get! Read Psalm 19:1 again. And because we know God is incapable of lying, his creation is incapable of lying too! When we take established absolute laws (more evidence of God’s creation) and use them to discover things like a 4.3 billion year old universe and a Big Bang creation model, (side note: science has confirmed creation conditions up to 10^-43 seconds after the alleged “Big Bang”. Before that time, we have no explanation, furthering the case of supernatural intervention beyond our comprehension, or Intelligent Design, aka God.) don’t run away and yell evil, evil. Embrace it, for it is God revealing his nature through his own creation. Don’t insinuate God as a liar. That’s no a very good idea. The only reason the “church” seemingly opposes “science” so much is for two unjustifiable reasons. The first being that the “church” (totally opposite to Jesus of Nazareth’s techniques) over the years has grown a liking to pounding the Word of God, aka Bible (unfortunately the “church” has mixed up the Word of God with different “men’s opinions” a lot too) into people. When’s the last time you read about Jesus knocking on people’s doors to tell people about himself (Hi, I'm Jesus, vote for me!), making phone calls during dinner, or forcing people to believe him? It’s my understanding that he used the method of “letting people come to him” and "letting people walk away if they wanted". Anyways, some guy in the “church” back in the 16th century (I’ll spare you the details, but provide resources if you are interested in them later on) decided that he’d use the Biblical records of genealogy from Adam on, to chart when the universe/world was created by God. He came up with a date of about 4004B.C. Because the world at the time did not have many, or any, means to “test” (PLEASE see 1 Thessalonians 5:21) this hypothetical date, the “church” accepted it as fact. Much like the Roman Catholic Church did a geocentric universe before Galileo came along. But the date stood, and over the years it just got pounded into the “church” brethren’s heads. And to question the “church” was heretical, much like it is today in terms of “hush-hush”. Obviously the “church” back then and today must be illiterate, because 1 Thessalonians 5:21 has a few things to say about questioning the supposed established thought (thank God they finally listened to Galileo, or we might have never had Star Wars!). And God “wrote” a verse like that because he knew if we did “test everything”, we’d not only reveal his glory more, we’d be able to sift out the lies, trash, and false prophets. He said it to protect out intellectual being. He said it to protect our souls! Again, don’t make God out to be a liar; bad idea. Back to my story.... Anyways, this guy back in the 16th century failed to account for many factors that would give him the wrong date. Some examples include failing to realize the incomplete genealogical records of the Bible (proven), failing to decipher certain Hebraic etymology (proven), and failing to have the means to test all the physical, mathematical, chemical, etc. factors that come into play when investigating the physical chronology of something (proven using God’s created laws of science). Of course I’m not here to give you an empirical equation on why the universe is about 4.3 billion years old. You can research that on your own (which I highly encourage to strengthen your relationship with your Creator). What I’m trying to prove is, that we as humans tend to believe what we’re told if is sounds good and yummy. We sometimes become robots, or gutless drones, accepting things just “cause”. The “church” has generally accepted things just “cause”. Because of a fear to neglect tradition. Well God’s Word is pretty clear when it comes to proving everything and holding on to what is good. So are you gonna follow God’s proven Word, or are you gonna follow old wives tales? Are you gonna think for yourself, discover for yourself, be a breathing human for God’s sake? Or are you gonna accept your robotish stance of believing what other people say without testing and proving. I guarantee God won’t be upset at you if you got a few questions... Did he rebuke Thomas, or did Jesus challenge Thomas to test him, to see if he was who he said he was? “Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" John 20:27-28 God is not campaigning for re-election. He needs no majority support to stay in office. Yet he still gives us proof of who he is, despite our doubts and humanness. Christ makes no provision for error though. He didn’t tell Thomas to go home and think about if he had risen. He never asked his disciples to pray about whether he was the Christ, the truth, and the only way. He didn’t need to, because he is the truth, and declared it so. He puts all his chips on the table by declaring that he is “the way, the truth, and the life.” He basically “dared” humanity to prove him wrong, because he knew it’d be a futile attempt. He didn’t leave his testimony up to discussion; he didn’t allow opinion or emotions to govern his authenticity. He was, is, and will always be the “I am.” In 2000 years no one has proven Jesus or his teachings “wrong”. His word, the Bible, in all its antiquity, has stood the test of time. I dare someone to prove it wrong. I’d give you my BMW if you did! I’d give you my bank account! Shoot, I’d curse the name of Jesus for 3 hours straight in front of the Pope if you proved it wrong! But until then.....grace be with me. The point is, God isn’t afraid of the science, math, chemistry, biology, ecology, engineering, botany, astronomy, etc. that he himself created. Then why, his followers, should we be?! Jesus wasn’t afraid to reference the fig trees, lilies, and thorns in his parables, because he knew it was his creation, and that is was good indeed. And in that creation, like Psalm 19:1 declares, we can see his glory, his love, and his truth. But when following Jesus, don’t leave your brain or heart at home. He wants all three pistons firing at once; heart, soul, and mind. If you just go in with the soul, you go in recklessly. If you just go in with the heart, you go in foolishly. And if you just go in with the mind, you go in stagnantly. You need all three components of humanness; mind, heart, and soul, to experience a living, breathing, dynamic relationship with the one they call the Christ. God gave us all three for a reason, but like a machine, these parts won’t function correctly as a whole if they’re all not working properly induvidually. He wants us to not only feel, but to revel and think also. “Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”” Matthew 22:37 The second reason why the “church” is so abject to “science” is because of its reoccurring fault of misinterpreting the source. If Dr. Curly says that science proves there is no God, the “church” automatically interprets that as “science says there is not God”. Whoa, hold on cowboy! Science didn’t say nothin there yo. Dr. Curly did all the talkin. And unless Dr. Curly can back his “hypotheses” up with hardcore, empirical data, his untested theory is as tossable as the Cubs winning the World Series this year. Just because people take Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution (an observable truth in general) and hypothesize that we could have come from apes and slimy ooze before that (a totally unobservable, untestable, unprovable model), doesn’t mean we did. The key is to consult God’s creation for the answers, not hypothesis-happy scientists. Again, 1 Thessalonians 5:21 comes into play . It’s so appropriate to the Christian life. People, hypotheses aren’t facts. People may have a theory that Britney Spears got breast implants, but until I can prove it.......hmmm, not sure where I’m goin with this one....haha, you know what I mean. Everybody has a theory (really a hypothesis until they can prove it through testable means) about something, but only God has the facts, hidden in his creation till we discover. And he encourages us to test our theories and hypotheses to hold onto the good and true ones, and chuck the crappy ones. Newton had a hypothesis that “what goes up, must come down”. The scientific community tested it, and voila, low and behold, it’s true. And its universally true (just like saying “there are no absolutes” proves that there are absolutes by the very absolute nature of the statement). Look at Galileo, Pascal, Einstein, Plank, Coulomb, etc. They all had hypotheses and theories that they or others tested. When they couldn’t be proven wrong, and could be proven right, they were considered truth, and in some cases law, being universally accepted. And what tool did they use to further manifest God’s beautifully and wonderfully made creation? That’s right kiddies, science. Despite some scientists’ nefarious plans to use to science to prove God wrong or that he doesn’t exist, they only further unknowingly reveal the Creator of the cosmos. Yes, I know there is no way, and prolly will never be a way to test how water was turned into wine, how a virgin gave birth to a baby boy, or how a man can step upon the waters, but we can know, without a doubt, that its source material is 100% authentic, provable, and testable. We can put our fingers through his hands and touch the hole in his side; that’s what science allows us to do. It draws us closer to the awesome wonder that is God. Like I said before, you don’t have to believe the words that Jesus said, but you can be sure that they were spoken. And if you do believe them, it’s gotta be 100%. Not 90%, not 99%. Jesus is pretty extreme. He’s an “all or nothing” kinda guy. Tis the perditious nature of sin. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” Luke 11:23 When he declares he is the way, the truth, and the life....he means it. And if you believe him, then that eliminates any other way, belief, tradition, or religion. Christ helps delineate between which way to take, and science helps delineate which truth to accept. They go hand in hand, just as the creation does with its creator. We will not uncover every detail, every law, and every little secret of God’s creation, for there are things we are not meant to and not capable of understanding. But while we’re here, he allows us to uncover his glory and salvation without him even saying a word. “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20 The only thing we should be wary of science of, is not science itself, but our human reaction. We cannot become proud or haughty of our discoveries, for like the grace of salvation, so is the grace of discovery. We do not deserve anything, yet God still provides us with his wonders. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 For God doesn’t fancy battle with his creation or science. He wages all out war against the sinful nature that pervades his most prized creation, us. He sought to destroy the barrier between us; and he was successful through Jesus Christ. The war throughout Heaven and Hell has been won already, the good guys were victorious. The only battle that still rages is the one inside yours and my heart. Salvation is at hand. The final question now remains; are you going to find things out on your own, or are you gonna go to the grave believin what "Grandma Estella" told you...? Christ stands at the door with his punctured hands and pierced side ready to be tested. He asks you to test him, but once you know the truth, he awaits to hug you like a father does his child... “...Now that I know this is beyond my control 'cause I could never turn my back away Now that I see you I can never look away...” lyrics from “Alive”, by P.O.D. *Please investigate further resources at www.reasons.org a non-profit organization that proclaims the beautifully harmony between God, the Bible, and science. **Please see random thought entitled “Bible-quote happy” also for resources |