Saturday, September 6, 2014

GOD AND SCIENCE: "IF ANY TWO OF YOU AGREE AS TOUCHING ANYTHING..."


"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
- Albert Einstein
 
"God delights in concealing things;
scientists delight in discovering things." 
(Proverbs 25:2 - The Message)
 
 
With God all things are possible...it's possible to be both spiritual and intelligent...these things are not necessarily incompatible...it's possible to "walk by faith and not by sight", and still have an inquiring mind, and general curiosity about the world, and about how things work...trusting in God and relying on a higher power isn't an excuse for living in ignorance, or for not taking responsibility for your life...the above verse from Proverbs in the more conventional translations says "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter...it is the glory of kings to uncover it"...it's possible to see the hand of God in all of creation, and still recognize that evolution through natural selection is just as miraculous as everything in Moses' account of how things came to be in Genesis 1...it's possible to believe in the God who said "Let there be light", and still acknowledge the Big Bang theory...it's possible to agree with David that "the earth is the Lord's and everything in it", and still know full well that it is much older than 6,000 years...in the same way that people pray to God for healing and still go to the doctor, it's possible to enjoy the best of both the worlds of science and spirituality, and receive the benefits of both...
 
Many people today say that Quantum Physics proves the existence of God, and in a lot of ways it does...of course, the best way to know and believe in the existence of God is to have a personal relationship with Him, but it doesn't hurt to have a little extra confirmation from the scientific community about it...and you don't have to understand it all to at least get the basic essence of it (no one understands it all, not even the experts in the field)...
 
It's possible to love and respect the Bible and other ancient manuscripts, and to appreciate them for what they are, and still be mature and analytical enough to recognize flaws and inconsistencies in them...the Bible itself encourages this...Paul said that the Scriptures must by "rightly divided" (or correctly deconstructed)...it's not a bad thing to do...in fact, it's required by the writers of the Scriptures themselves...Jesus said, "You have heard it said ____________, but I say unto you____________"...
 
Last night Ken took me to dinner at one of the places where he works because they had all-you-can-eat crab legs, which he knows I love...it was awesome, and I ate a lot of crab, and even asked for a second helping of it...I enjoyed it immensely, but ultimately made a big mess on the table, with all my empty shells piled high on a platter...you have to really like crab to eat it...you actually have to work for it...you have to crack and discard all the shells just to get to a little bit of the deliciously sweet meat in each leg...I like to eat crab, but I knew better than to just sit down at the table and start chomping away at the intact legs...same way with rightly dividing the Scriptures...the Word of God is in there, but you have to cut away a lot of stuff and use a lot of finesse to get to the meat of it, and you have to know what not to eat...it requires some work, but it's possible to be fed by it...
 
It's possible to understand a little bit more each day about God and about science...
 
It's possible to love God and still be smart...
 
It's possible to understand how things in the Universe work, and still be totally in awe of Creation...
 
With God all things are possible...

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