Archive for August 27, 2007

Questions Don’t Always Lead to Answers

It’s funny.

The more questions I ask, the less I know. The more questions I ask, the fewer answers I have.

Amazingly, asking questions doesn’t always lead to answers. In fact, when it comes to asking these kind of questions, I’d say that asking questions rarely leads to answers. Or maybe I’m getting answers and they aren’t the answers I’m expecting. Maybe I asked God for salvation from up high and he sent me a boat. “Cool. A boat. But I’m waiting for God.” Whoops.

You know what? I’m cool with it. I’m cool with not getting answers. I’m cool with realizing that I’m not as smart as I once thought I was. I’m really cool with the idea that I don’t have my crap together. And amazingly, I’m cool that many of my questions may never be answered.

To me, it’s proof that there is a God.

Think about it. If WE are all that there is, then there is nothing that is beyond us. There is nothing - no question, no theory, no query - that will go unanswered. Eventually, given enough time, all will be answered. But if there IS something bigger than us, then it is likely - no, NECESSARY - that many of my questions will not be answered. Why? Because He is so much more than I am, that the answer will never fit in this tiny brain of mine. The answer will be bigger and more vast than the earth that dwarfs me, or the galaxy that swallows the earth, or the universe that makes nothing of us all.

And yet, I know that there is an answer. It’s a balance of sorts. Every question has some answer, whether we understand the answer or not. Every query returns a result, whether it’s pleasing, puzzling or revolting. The formation of science is derived to find the answers, as if there is a finite list. Science aims to sum everything into convenient laws, that start as theories, which is a fancy word for questions. And still, after all these years, science still can’t explain it all. In fact, some scientists have created a science that basically says that for many things, the only explanation is that there is NO explanation. Brilliant guys they are.

So, the more I ask questions, the more I realize there is a God. The more I ask questions, the more I grow comfortable with not knowing it all.

It’s good. Very good. It’s good that questions don’t always lead to answers.

Darwin, Christians and the Struggle Therein

You know, for years, science has been positioned as being in opposition to religion. That position is partly the responsibility of religion and partly the responsibility of science itself. Many scientists set out to disprove many things about religion, including the existence of God. Many of them ignore the fact that some of their very predecessors in science - like Einstein and Newton - actually believed in God and further, believed science gave proof to that fact, not denial. However, the antagonistic turn of the church towards science - probably as a defensive response in the same - is no better than what the scientists themselves are doing.

The primary issue the church has taken on recently has been the Theory of Evolution. For many Christians, it flies in the face of creationism and is incompatible with what God laid out in Genesis.

Also, before I go further, I feel like it’s necessary to clear something up. Charles Darwin never recanted his belief in evolution. Sorry, never happened.

Christians would do well to remember that there was once a time when a controversial scientific finding stood to rock the foundations of the faith. That finding was that the Earth revolved around the sun, not vice versa. As time has shown, our understanding of the Bible - and indeed our own faith - has adjusted and melded with the finding of that scientific fact.

It’s almost as if our faith is too fragile to withstand a critical eye. If so, is that a faith worth having?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that the entire theory is correct. Nor am I claiming - as many Christians instinctively do - that it is 100% false. The truth is, there is a tremendous amount of compelling evidence that suggests that evolution, on some levels, is not only valid but predominant. When you see that there are species that literally evolve to reproduce without a partner, it’s hard to ignore. Yet, many of us feel threatened by these things. We feel
But, no matter how much truth may be found in the evolutionary theory, it doesn’t mean that the Christian faith has to suffer for it. Fighting science is a fruitless endeavor. Rather, we should embrace the finding of new truths and work on the understanding of what it means to our faith, not assume that it destroys it.

As more and more evidence is discovered that supports tenets of evolution (again, not necessarily the whole thing), we should look at this as an opportunity to affirm the existence of God in these findings, not question it. We should embrace sound scientific study and applaud its merits, rather than looking like fools and criticizing it. We should embrace truth, wherever we find it.

For our faith is not the sole domain of truth - it is centered on the origin of it.

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