Questions on Christianity

Lately we have heard a great deal about following “the science” but different persons seem to have different ideas of what constitutes “the science”.  So what is “the science”?

I recently was at a church at which the pastor declared that he did not like science.  This pastor enjoys much technology that science has brought him so why would he not like science?

The problem is that many do not understand what science is.  Many think science is a set of facts about the natural world.  However, the first class on science that I took in college emphasized that science is not a set of facts but is a process–a process of discovering how our physical world functions.  This process consists of developing a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, revising the hypothesis based upon test results, and then repeating the process.  This is a never ending process.

if scientists believe science is an accumulation of facts, they close their mind to information that might challenge those facts.  The history of science teaches us the wisdom of this tenant of science because scientists once believed in all manner of ideas that we consider erroneous today and undoubtedly future generations will look at some of our current scientific “facts” as humorous.  Scientists once believed that space was filled with an ether.  Now we believe space to be a vacuum.  Scientists once believed that catastrophes had no part in shaping our earth (uniformitarianism).  Now scientists believe that meteorite impacts have caused the extinction of various species of animals at various points in time.  In the 1700s, scientist scoffed at the rural folks who told them that rocks fell from the sky and denied what we now know as meteorites existed.  Now scientists go to great lengths to find meteorites and study them.  If you read any science periodical, you will constantly find research that challenges what we know and understand.  As a recent article articles on brown dwarfs and exoplanets states: “Nature does not abide by the rules laid out by the International Astronomical Union” [1] or any other scientific organization.

While science provides us with the technology that has made vast improvements to our lives, we must recognize that science is a human endeavor and like all human endeavors, it is fallible and incomplete.  What many people call science is just our current understanding of what is known about our world.  This understanding might be valid or it might not.  Science, for the foreseeable future, will be constantly revising its beliefs as it discovers new evidence.  This is the way science works.

___________________________________________

[1]   Caroline Morley, “The In-Betweeners”, Sky & Telescope, March 2022, p. 39.

A woman was lamenting the death of her son in a car accident.  She asks why God did this to her.  A hospital chaplain replies that God did not have anything to do with her son’s death and the woman snapped back, “Don’t you take away the only hope that I have”. [1]  Like many who suffer devastating tragedy, she was hoping God had some significant reason for imposing so great a loss upon her.

If we stand back and objectively look at the personal tragedies we experience in our lives, we must face the fact that most are meaningless.  The author of the book of Ecclesiastes (who is identified as the Preacher, who is thought to be Solomon, and who many consider the wisest man who ever lived) provides us with a whole book full of examples.  In fact he states that all of life is vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:2), or as other translations put it, all of life is a vapor, is meaningless, or is pointless.

Now most commentaries conclude Ecclesiastes teaches that life not centered on God is meaningless.  They have a hard time accepting the fact that our existence is pointless.  However, look at what the Preacher says.  Whether one is centered on God or not does not change the fact that there is nothing new under the sun (1:9-10), that no one is remembered after their death (1:11), that work is meaningless because we must leave the results to someone and we do not know if they will put it to good use (2:17), that God has set eternity in our hearts yet we cannot understand what God has done in eternity (3:11), that we cannot not really know what happens to our spirit after death (3:21), that oppression exists for all regardless of their beliefs (4:1-3), that wisdom is difficult to obtain (7:23-24), that “. . .The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned. . .” (9:11), that wisdom is better than strength but wisdom is not always rewarded (9:13-16), that we cannot understand the works of God (11:5}.

The Preacher states what we know to be true, if we are honest about what we have experienced and know about our life.  He gives us an accurate portrayal of the human condition.   Do we really think that 500 years from now any of us will be remembered?  Do we really think that 500 years from now the events of our lives will have a meaningful impact on that generation?  To answer that question, do you know who your ancestors were 500 years ago?  What do you know of their lives?

So what is the conclusion of the wisest man who ever lived given that our lives are meaningless?  The Preacher simply states:

The end of the matter; all has been heard.   Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.   For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.  (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV)

What makes our lives meaningful is the type of person we become.  What makes our lives meaningful is if we utilize our life experiences, whatever they are, to become more like God.  The events of our lives are fleeting moments in eternity but what will live forever is our soul.  And we determine what our soul will be like by the decisions we make, by our deeds, by whether we keep God’s commandments during the seemingly meaningless events of our lives.

So how should we respond to people who are experiencing deep and painful suffering such as the woman who lost her son?  In such a situation our first response is to provide comfort and trying to correct someone’s theology at such a time is not appropriate.  Even though God is not responsible for all that occurs on our earth (we do have free will), in times like these we need the faith that Paul expresses in Romans 8:28:  “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  Even the seemingly meaningless and sorrowful events of our lives will work together for our good if we allow God to do so.

________________________________________

[1] Marvin Olasky, “What Price Hope”, World Magazine, December 8, 2018, p. 42.

Why did God make us finite?  If he wants us to believe in him, why does he hide himself from us (Isaiah 45:15)?  Why does God, in the words of Orual, the main character in C. S. Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces, hide himself and torment men with glimpses, ask us to believe what contradicts our senses, that he will neither go away and leave us alone nor show himself openly and tell us what he wants? [1]

John Hick suggests that only if we are finite can we truly have free will.  ”the world must be to man. . .as if there were no God.” [2]  Hick’s point is that if it was obvious to all that God existed, we would not we have the free choice of whether to believe in God or not.

But is this the real reason God made us finite; was it to test our belief system?  The problem is that Satan is absolutely certain that God exists and that Jesus died for our sins..  “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”  (James 2:19 ESV)  Satan’s original rebellion was not a failure to believe, it was that he chose to rebel against God.  Satan exercised his free will in deciding whether he would follow God or go his own way.

So why did God make us finite?

_________________________________________

[1]   C. S. Lewis. Till We Have Faces.  San Diego:  Harcourt Brace & Company, 1956, pp. 236, 243, 244, 249.

[2]   John Hicks.  Evil and the God of Love.  New York:  Palgrave McMillan, 2010, p. 281.

Sophia Lee raises an issue that impacts us Christians more than is realized.  She asks:  For those of us raised in the Christian community, is our life is so filled with knowledge of the Bible and Christ, and are we so trained to follow Christian customs that we fail to develop a personal relationship with God? [1]

How many of us can claim a relationship like Moses had with God:  “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. . .” (Exodus 33:11 ESV)?  Very few, if any, but that is a goal we can set for ourselves.  Reaching that goal is not easy.  As C. S. Lewis says:  “Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they [the gods] hear the babble that we think we mean.  How can they meet us face to face until we have faces”. [2]  How can God talk to us as a friend until we know what we truly believe, what we truly stand for, what our soul is like?  Webster’s defines friend as “a person attached to another by feeling of affection or personal regard”.  Friends have something in common.  How much do we have in common with God?

____________________________________________

[1]   Sophia Lee, “Face to Face with God”, World Magazine, August 28, 2021, p. 40.

[2]   C. S. Lewis.  Till We Have Faces.  San Diego:  A Harvest Book, 1956, p. 294.