Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Christianity And Science

One of my chemist co-workers at Thermo-Fisher Scientific once made the observation, “All I know is that everything evolved… and then Jesus came.” The comment has forever embedded itself in my consciousness because it so aptly illustrates the struggle the scientific community has with what I call “The Jesus Problem”. Evolution is not regarded as a matter of belief among most scientists, but rather a matter of observed fact. This deep rooted view of the world however stands in stark contrast to what also is regarded as the historical fact of Jesus. The historical person of Jesus is hopelessly entangled with supernatural accounts – miracles, resurrection, and claims that shake the common thinking among scientists that matter is the ultimate reality. I would venture to say that most scientists deal with the issue in one of two ways – either ignoring Jesus altogether or ‘compartmentalizing’ – where spiritual or religious matters occupy an entirely different region of their thinking than ‘real life’.

None of these solutions however address the problem in a truly satisfactory way. How can you ‘ignore’ established historical fact and also claim that ‘facts’ are the only reliable guide to understand reality? Or, how can you accept something as ‘truth’ that doesn’t extend to all of reality? Ultimately it only makes sense that ‘the truth’ must encompass and explain all established observations – both ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’. Facts themselves are unbiased and impartial, it is unfortunate however that they are too often segregated and categorized for the sake of maintaining a certain view of the world.

Anyone who claims to be both a Christian and a Scientist must accept that both Christianity and Science represent ‘truth’. If there is no compartmentalization in their thinking, the facts that underlay their understanding of Science must be completely compatible with the facts that underlay their understanding of Christianity. A Christian Scientist must therefore hold the view that the 'facts' regarding evolution are not incompatible with the 'facts' regarding Christianity. Different facts lend themselves to different theories, but the best theories explain and account for the most facts… 

Evolution - Thoughts From a Christian Scientist

The basic driving principle of evolution is the concept of natural selection. Natural selection is the process whereby nature ‘selects’ favorable traits that are passed down to succeeding generations of life. There is nothing spiritual or supernatural about this process, it operates solely on the idea that the ‘most fit’ organisms will survive and propagate their traits to later generations. The changing of species over time by this process is referred to as ‘evolution’. The changing of species over time itself is an established fact that few people would dare to challenge. Anyone who breeds animals uses the principle of natural selection to produce different variants in later generations. The controversy however is not with the ‘principle’ of natural selection, but rather with the idea that the ‘process’ of natural selection could produce all of the genetic diversity that composes life on this planet.

The Christian Scientist would argue that ‘adaptability’ or the capacity for life to respond to differing environmental pressures is a characteristic of ‘design’. For example, if we were to ‘create’ an organism of some sort – the best design for that organism would allow for it to ‘adapt’ to changes in the environment over time. If this adaptability were not present in the original design, the organism would be limited to the type of environment it was created to exist in. If adaptability was part of the original design scheme, it would need to have the genetic potential to change from the very beginning.

Where the Christian Scientist diverges in thought from much of the scientific community is in the idea that evolution is a refining as opposed to a creative force. Evolution could be compared to the knife that carves out a block of wood. The knife really isn’t creating anything – in fact it is taking away from the original block. The end result serves a unique purpose, but further refinement is limited. A good example of this is the many endangered species of big cats. These animals are extremely refined but lack the genetic diversity to change much further, which makes them extremely susceptible to environmental pressures. A block of wood whittled down to a pencil is not a good starting point to make something else!

The assumption that the process of natural selection has produced all life on earth from a single cell is inconsistent with the way natural selection works practically. Going back to the example of people who breed animals – they all are aware that traits are lost and not necessarily gained in the process of selection. The more refined an animal becomes through selection the more limited it is to respond to new environmental pressures. Logically then – what does this tell us about life as we look into the past? It seems to indicate that although past life forms may have been less ‘refined’, they were more genetically healthy than they are today. The logical trend for the future will be that genetic diversity will become more limited as further refinement occurs.

As a Christian the observed reality of natural selection is very consistent with the idea that all life is the product of creation. Life placed on the earth at the beginning of creation was at its optimum or peak in terms of genetic diversity, and over time this genetic diversity is gradually lost through selection. This view is really quite opposite to the commonly held view that time has and will continue to be a force in creating genetic diversity.

Atheism and Mysticism

“The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.” –Psalm 14:1

It seems ironic to me that atheists often choose as their god the intellectual byproduct of Christianity.  The scientific method of thinking resulted from the work of Christian theologians who sought to distinguish between material and spiritual elements in nature.  Pagan thinking prior to the 17th century failed to distinguish between god and nature, and hence all observations of nature were hopelessly entangled with mystical elements.  Science as we know it today did not exist, and the alchemists of the time relied heavily on astrology and spiritual elements they believed to be present in nature.  This type of thinking limited potential advances in technology because it introduced into nature a mystical or irrational component that could not be comprehended through the observation of cause and effect.

Christian thinkers asserted that nature was like a machine created by a rational God who was separate and distinct from nature.  This separation of God and nature allowed for the development of the mechanical philosophy, which was based in the idea that all natural phenomena could be understood as the result of matter in motion.  Under this thinking there was no need to invoke any spiritual or mystical elements to explain nature – God was a rational being who created a rational machine that could be understood rationally through the observation of cause and effect.  The entire basis for rationality and the scientific method was grounded in the assumption that nature was the created product of a rational God.

Contrary to popular opinion, the assumption that the Universe was created by God has always produced better science.  The reason for this is that when God is removed as the creator, the same irrational and mystical component once removed is reintroduced into our understanding of nature.  Nature is no longer the ordered and rational product of a rational God, but is a mysterious entity that must account for its own existence.  Modern science unfortunately is fraught with mystical beliefs that are presented as objective fact.  This trend began with the widespread atheism that spread in the scientific community in the latter half of the 18th century.  By the beginning of the 19th century the rationalist movement gave way to romanticism with its renewed interest in magic and the paranormal.

The forefathers of modern evolutionists were the advocates of spontaneous generation at the beginning of the 19th century.  Because God was removed from the equation as Creator these scientists had to suggest ways that nature could arise on its own.  Any observation in nature was now subject to the same mystical causes that once limited advancements in understanding among the alchemists.  These ‘scientists’ believed that frogs would spontaneously generate from muddy ponds, and that some ‘vital element’ in the air would cause maggots to spontaneously generate from decaying meat.  Like modern evolutionists, their theories were padded with legitimate observations that in reality obscured a mystical cause.

Louis Pasteur was a Christian not willing to accept mystical causes for natural observations and famously disproved spontaneous generation in 1859.  This paved the way for our current understanding of life through the Cell Theory, which states simply that all life must arise from preexisting life.  Since then atheism has always had the tendency to ignore or reduce complexity in life for the sake of maintaining an irrational view of the world.  Through the first half of the 20th century cells were regarded as being little more than ‘bags of chemicals’ – and now our understanding of even the simplest of cells reveals the ignorance of mainstream science then.  Of course if everything arose from itself at some point or another, how complex can life really be?  Just like anything else, science will only be as good as the assumptions that go into it.

Evolution and The Force

A family of ape-like creatures nestled around one another as the night cast shadows about the desolate wilderness they lived in.  It had been a normal day for these creatures, filled with the normal routines of searching for food and grooming one another.  The next morning however brought something unusual that the creatures had never before encountered.  There in the midst of their habitation a sleek rectangular object, black with well defined edges stood upright with a foreboding appearance.  The creatures, seized both with fear and fascination gathered around the mysterious object and began to cautiously poke and then carefully lay their hands on the strange form.  Later that afternoon one of the creatures sat nonchalantly amidst a pile of bones when the afternoon sun cast its shadow over the rectangular black object.  Suddenly the creature had an epiphany of some sort, and picking up one of the bones realized that it could be used as a tool to crush other bones.  This was the dawn of man.

This scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey is not the only example in our culture of the idea that the process of evolution is somehow driven by a mysterious force in nature.  Popular references to evolution often speak of it on a global level, with the idea that life is ‘trying’ to evolve.  This gives evolution a personal aspect that is very different from the impersonal process taught in high school biology courses.  Of course this should not really come as surprise since nature in modern thinking must also play the role of god.  The concept of God as being a separate entity from nature has been rejected for the most part by popular thought, and therefore nature must be responsible for its own origin.  Although evolution is taught as an impersonal process that requires no external influence, the logic behind this thinking fails when we consider what natural selection alone had to accomplish.  The idea that natural selection alone could have produced all the life on this planet is little different from the assumption that spontaneous generation could instantly produce frogs from muddy puddles.

The principle of natural selection itself is very sensible and pragmatic.  High school students are given very logical scenarios that demonstrate how the principle could operate in nature.  For example a pack of wolves suddenly encounter a change in the environment that causes a severe drop in temperature throughout their habitat.  Several members of the pack happened to have thicker coats that enable them to survive and reproduce more successfully in the colder temperature.  In time through natural selection the entire population of wolves has thicker coats.  After students have been instructed in this principle they are led to believe that this process was responsible for cells emerging from non-living elements, fish turning into salamanders, salamanders to lizards, lizards to birds, and so forth all the way to humanity.  At first glance this seems somewhat plausible considering similarities that are universal to all life, but could all this change really have occurred through a gradual step by step process?

Once again theories that remove God as creator have the tendency to oversimplify life, as if living creatures were no more complex than play-doh with an infinite capacity to be shaped and molded into other things.  But even if life were as simple as play-doh, the principle of natural selection requires that every change that occurs must be advantageous or confer some survival benefit in order to be transferred to the rest of the population.  It is very easy to point out the survival benefits of limbs and wings, scales and feathers, vertebrate and invertebrate configurations – but what about the intermediate stages between them?  A limb doesn’t turn into a wing overnight or through a single mutation, nor does a scale turn into a feather.  The question must be therefore, what would be the survival benefit for transferring a trait to an entire population that is not yet fully functional?  Evolution requires that every single mutation be beneficial in order to be transferred to a population.  It has been suggested that the reason the first ‘fish’ crawled out of the water onto land was to exploit a yet untapped ecological niche.  Once again this sounds reasonable, but at the same period of time invertebrate creatures were at their most highly evolved state with 3 meter scorpions and giant insects roaming around.  What competitive advantage would such a creature have had in those circumstances?

If evolution had occurred in the way it has been suggested then the entire fossil record would be filled with play-doh like creatures having intermediate characteristics between fully functional forms.  Although there are plenty of creatures that have variations of fully functional traits, these intermediate forms simply do not exist.  Some of the most famous examples of so-called transitional forms turned out to be fully functional!  The Coelacanth was once touted as the missing link between fish and land dwelling creatures with its fleshy limbs, until it was found still alive today.  The famous missing link between birds and dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx – appears to be a fully functional creature with developed wings and feathers.

The problems with evolution are well known among scientists and researchers who themselves aren’t bound by their own version of ‘blind faith’.  Really when it comes right down to it the battle over evolution is more of a philosophical debate about whether or not to acknowledge God.  Of course acknowledging God is an unthinkable option for many that carries with it many unwanted social and cultural ramifications.  If most scientists had to choose between God and aliens as the Creator of life on earth, hands down the choice would be aliens.  Not surprisingly of course the ‘seed theory’ of life is becoming more popular among scientists – which states that we were planted here by aliens!

Resolving Paradoxes

“If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.” –Paul, 1st Corinthians 8:2

Every so often I will look down at my own hand and consider how very little I know about it.  Moving my fingers I can see an array of bones working together in tandem, somehow tied together by a complex network of muscle and tendons.  The muscle is mysteriously activated by electrical impulses triggered by my brain, causing a cascade of molecular rearrangement that makes one of thousands of fibers contract precisely in such a way as to create an efficient movement.  The draft I feel as my fingers cut through the air results from millions of branched neurons scattered throughout my hand granting me the wonder of sensory perception.  The very flesh that encases my hand is composed of countless cells each containing their own biochemical factory rivaling all the industries on the face of this planet.  And for all this, my knowledge is limited to the vaguest generalizations of a reality that infinitely extends in complexity.

I could focus all of my attention on one aspect of one detail of my hand, and perhaps could suggest a reasonable theory for how it came into existence.  However brilliant my theory may be though, it would still be void unless it could also account for the rest of the hand.  The problem with theories of origin is that they fail to take into account the paradoxical arrangement of our universe.  From swirling galaxies to swirling electrons, everything is ordered in such a way that every aspect of detail requires another aspect of detail in order to exist.  For example when it comes to life on earth, the existence of every creature is dependent on the existence of other creatures in an elaborate ecosystem.  The earth’s environment is regulated by millions of different organisms that continually cycle carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen for their mutual survival.  Nothing on earth can survive on its own, and if we were to find life on another planet it is only reasonable to assume that we would have to find an entire ecosystem.

When studying theories of origin in college I was particularly struck by this lack of thinking when it came to the evolution of DNA and proteins.  Initially in the 1950’s there were theories advanced suggesting that the building blocks of proteins, amino acids ‘could’ have existed in some primordial soup billions of years ago.  However even if that were the case, and this ‘soup’ somehow produced functional proteins contrary to principles of dynamic equilibrium, how would those proteins be reproduced?  In our modern world, the information that encodes for proteins is found in DNA.  This means that in some form or another, DNA and proteins had to coexist or at least co-develop from the very beginning of time.  Proteins can’t exist without DNA, and DNA can’t exist without proteins!  Modern theorists have attempted to resolve the problem by suggesting that RNA, a functional hybrid of DNA and proteins was the first to develop.  This initially sounds plausible, but RNA can’t successfully perform the functions of DNA or proteins – and also requires DNA and proteins to exist itself!

Contrary to the critics of intelligent design, the chief argument in favor of the universe being created is not merely that everything is ‘really complex’.  Rather, it is the paradoxical arrangement of that complexity – such that everything depends on everything else for its own existence.  Such an arrangement could not have come about in a step by step process, but must have had some functional unity from the very beginning.  For anyone that is truly honest with their selves, and considers how little they really know – none of this should come as a surprise.  God never intended His reality to be questioned, but designed creation to be an open declaration of His existence.

Homologous Structures

I love my iphone – it has got to be one of the most useful devices ever created.  Not only can you listen to music, but you can also watch movies, check email, surf the internet and of course play games.  I must admit that the App Store has become one of my guilty pleasures of late, and have been continually amazed at the ever burgeoning supply of available applications.  There is an incredibly diverse array of applications ranging from file storage programs to photo editors to the most unusual of games.  I have smiled on the inside playing some of these games thinking about the creative gifts that God has blessed some people with.  There is nothing that pleases me more than to encounter something that is truly original, and the App Store has provided me with plenty of those moments.

As unique and vastly different as all of those iphone applications are from one another, if we were to ‘look under the hood’ and compare the raw binary sequences that compose these programs – there would be a very high degree of sequence similarity!  In fact, there would be vast and repeating regions of identical sequences common to all of the programs.  Why should this be the case?  Each application after all represents a unique effort by an individual or team of individuals to turn an idea into a functional program.  Although the ideas of these individuals may have been inspired by previous applications, every programming effort must begin from scratch.  The answer to the mystery lies in the fact that similar programming languages are used by all the programmers.  Programmers don’t program using raw binary sequences, but instead use languages that have been built up from those sequences.  Even the simplest commands used by programmers represent a huge binary sequence that will be repeated every time that command is used.

When we compare the raw DNA sequences of living things to one another there is also an astonishing degree of sequence similarity common to all life.  Like computer programs, the level of similarity between sequences will depend in large part on the types of living things we are comparing.  Life that is outwardly similar structurally will most likely share a greater degree of common sequences.  In the same way, a word processing program will share more sequence similarity with another word processing program due to the nature of the application.  This is a natural consequence of the programming language used to create the applications.  When the end result is similar, it is necessary that there will be a greater degree of common commands used to achieve that end result.

The programming language of life is proteins; proteins determine the chemical environment of a cell which in turn triggers developmental changes.  DNA could be compared to the binary sequences in computers, and its primary function is to encode for proteins.  You could think of the proteins as representing ‘commands’ in the programming language of life, and hence many of these ‘commands’ are found in almost every living thing.  It is therefore not surprising that similar proteins can be found in bacteria, plants, animals and humans!  Of course like computer programs, the degree or percentage of similar commands will depend on the type of living thing that will result from the program.  For example, as different as every human being is from one another, our DNA sequences are all 99.9% identical!  When compared to a mouse, we are 70% identical.

If we were to collect all of the different App Store applications and compare their structural and sequence similarities, we could create an evolutionary tree from that information!  We could determine which application ‘gave rise’ to other applications based upon ‘homologous structures’ structurally and ‘genetically’!  Of course we all know that would be utter nonsense, because each application was created from the ground up by a designer.  Even though applications can be ‘tweaked’ to a certain degree, once created they are limited in the amount of change they are capable of.  Life is no different – God created life with the ability to adapt to changes in the environment to a certain degree, but the degree to which life can change once created is limited.

Vestigial Elements

Going on the NUMMI plant tour in Fremont, CA reminded me of the scene in Jurassic Park where visitors to the island were driven past various dinosaur displays.  Seated in the front seat of a tram with about seven other coworkers my mind struggled to take in the immensity of detail being presented to me.  Giant robotic arms were visible over compartmentalized barriers as they swung into action constructing components that would be used in an automotive assembly line.  Self guided robots could be seen shuffling along magnetic strips carrying materials to different locations of the facility while sparks flew into the air past enclosures.  The tour guide explained that this auto manufacturing plant was unique in the world as it represented a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors.  In this facility Pontiac Vibe’s and Toyota Corolla’s were manufactured on the same assembly line!  I thought it was interesting how two completely different vehicles with different specifications and ‘personalities’ as it were could be manufactured on the same line using a similar process.

In order for both vehicles to be manufactured on the same line there needed to be enough compatibility between their basic frameworks for the process to move forward.  Toward the beginning of the process both models were more generic in structure but became more specialized with each stage of manufacturing.  This is the brilliance of the assembly line technique, as it allows vehicles ranging from cars to tanks to planes to be manufactured on similar lines with very little need to modify the line itself.  The technique itself is so efficient that it could be argued that its use in World War II for the construction of military vehicles allowed us to win the war.  There are some aspects of this manufacturing technique however that can give the final product some mysterious attributes.

Have you ever wondered why people have tailbones and men have nipples?  These are qualities that aren’t really functional, and may inspire imaginations about humanity’s distant past where we ran around as tailed unisex creatures.  These ‘vestigial elements’ however are really just the product of our own manufacturing process!  In the same way you may have noticed some empty spaces on your vehicle’s dash board or door handles and wondered what ‘could’ have been there.  Those empty spaces are there because the assembly line your car was manufactured on was adapted to produce more than one model of car.  As the vehicle progressed along the assembly line it hit various checkpoints that signaled for it to be manufactured in one way or another according to the final model.  The ‘blank spaces’ in your car are simply the remnants of that checkpoint!

The same is true for our own embryonic development.  We all begin somewhat generically in our own ‘manufacturing process’ and various chemical signals along that process trigger different developmental pathways.  Just like the assembly lines used to manufacture a multiplicity of different vehicle types, embryonic development is very similar across widely varying species from fish to humans.  This however speaks more of the efficiency of the process than of common descent.  In the case of gender development, the presence of nipples in men is somewhat like one of those empty spaces in your car’s dashboard with little functionality and represents a checkpoint in the developmental pathway.  The presence of tailbones in humans could be compared to the remnants of scaffolding used to construct the individual during development.

As efficient as assembly lines are however, they are not immune to errors.  If one of the robots on the assembly line fails to properly tighten a single bolt, then an entire build of vehicles can be compromised!  Of course there are quality control personnel constantly monitoring the machinery to prevent this from happening, but mistakes can and will happen.  Most of the time those mistakes will be either irrelevant or dangerous – but it is possible that a mistake will have some beneficial qualities.  Life is no different, and over the years of our existence we have accumulated mistakes in our own manufacturing process that account for various diseases and susceptibility to cancers.  Sometimes however a mistake will have a beneficial side effect as in the case of sickle cell anemia.  Those with this condition suffer with symptoms of anemia, but also have the benefit of not being able to contract malaria.  Thus many populations that have been seriously affected by malaria also have a high prevalence of sickle cell anemia.

Life like everything else is subject to breaking down and failure over time.  As time continues genetic diseases and disorders unfortunately will only become more common.  Oftentimes it is easy to focus on all of the disorders and disfigurement in life and forget the beauty and order that went into its creation.  Death is a reality that we are all accustomed to, but it was never meant to be part of creation’s order.  Scripture tells us that nature was subjected to death unwillingly, and that it ‘groans and travails in pain’ waiting for the day of its redemption.  But it is not just nature than is in pain, “but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” –Romans 8:23

What Happened to The Dinosaurs?

“For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” – 2 Peter 3:5-6

The world that we live in today was once vastly different, our modern world resulting from a major catastrophic event that forever changed the earth’s climate and biodiversity.  Scripture describes a time when the entire earth was enclosed with a firmament or canopy of water.  There were no clouds or water vapor floating around the sky, and hence there was no precipitation of any kind.  That is to say; all of the elements that we call ‘weather’ were noticeably absent – no rain, snow, fog or wind.  The earth was watered by a mist that would rise from underground reservoirs through the ground.  What then was called ‘earth’ was really the middle layer between two nourishing and protective layers of water.  The flood described in Genesis resulted from the breaking of these two layers of water.  Both the water canopy above and the ‘fountains of the deep’ capsized and erupted, leaving the middle layer caught in a destructive deluge.

What must the environment have been like in the world that once was?  The temperature worldwide would not have been fractured with the microclimates that typify our modern world, but would have been homogeneous all across the earth.  This homogeneous and moist climate would have given rise to a worldwide tropical environment lush with biodiversity.  Like the rainforests in the Amazon, locations in our world rich with biodiversity are supported by a broad base of vegetation.  The vegetation is like the bottom of a pyramid in the food chain – the broader the base in an environment, the more life that environment can support.  In order for an environment to support massive grazing animals and predators like the dinosaurs, there must have been a huge base of vegetation!

The question of what happened to the dinosaurs is really more a question of what happened to the environment.  In today’s world there are few places on the earth that could even support such life.  It is not really surprising that the largest animals and predators in our world are still found in the densest jungles and tropical climates.  Even though many large species may have survived the flood, the sad truth is that our destroyed would simply wasn’t able to support them anymore.  The book of Job which is the oldest book of the Bible describes along with other well known animals a large grazing creature that ‘moved its tail like a cedar’.  Contrary to many Bible scholars, there is nothing alive today that even remotely fits the description of this animal.  Some have suggested that it is only a metaphorical description, but this doesn’t really make sense contextually as it is described next to other animals known today.

Every now and then when I turn the ignition on my car I think about the dinosaurs.  Have you ever wondered why there are so many fossil fuel deposits in the earth?  There is only one way to create fossil fuels – and that is to bury large amounts of organic material and subject it to pressure over time.  Normally when things die they decompose on the earth’s surface very quickly, and never have the time to be converted into fossil fuels.  The flood described in Genesis would have buried massive amounts of organic material all across the earth.  There is a strong possibility that you are driving around everyday using what remains of the Dinosaurs!

Evolutionists often like to describe earth’s history as one of ever increasing biodiversity.  The fossil record however and even our own modern observations seem to indicate otherwise.  Every year species go extinct and are not created, and it seems that will be the trend in the future.  This observation is consistent with scripture, as it tells us that the earth ‘waxes old like a garment’.  We are living in a dying world!  The God that made the earth however is not dead, but very much alive to all who call on His name.  Psalm 145: 18 tells us, “The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to call that call upon him in truth.”

The Bible and Time

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?  For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” – 2 Peter 3:5-6

When Charles Darwin traveled to America it is not surprising that he would be captivated by the majestic beauty of the Grand Canyon.  Looking down those craggy stratified walls at a stream faintly meandering along the bottom inspired the question – how old must this be?  Assuming the stream cuts through the rock at a rate of several centimeters per year, an immediate mental calculation would place the time required to form the Grand Canyon at countless millions of years.  Like any other age estimate however, the validity of a result is only as good as the assumptions that go into it.  For example, do we really know that the Grand Canyon was formed only by water cutting through the rock over countless eons?  And if this were the case, how can we be sure that the rate at which the water cut through the rock has always been constant?  Unfortunately most of our age estimates depend on the great assumption that everything has always been the way things are now.

This type of thinking, otherwise known as ‘uniformitarianism’ is exactly what the Apostle Peter said would characterize the thinking of people in the last days.  The reason for this thinking is not so much that people are interested in natural history, but rather that people are interested in justifying personal lifestyles without having to retain God in their thoughts.  From my experience there are two types of people when it comes to discussions of God and Science.  There are those who are genuinely interested in truth, and who are willing to tackle tough questions in an objective manner; and there are those who want to hold on to tough questions – and would rather that they not be answered at all!  Those in the second class are what the Apostle Peter called ‘willingly ignorant’ that the world has not always been the way it is now.

For those in the first class, the Bible makes no direct claims about the age of the Universe – but it does make claims of events that would drastically alter age estimates under uniformitarian thinking.  For example when fossils of ocean life are found high in the mountains, under uniformitarian thinking we would have to assume that they got there through the slow shifting of earth’s plates bringing what was once submerged to the tops of mountains ages later.  Or if there was a worldwide flood that covered all of the mountains leaving them submerged for several months - that would provide a much different age estimate.  If the Mississippi River can obliterate entire islands in a matter of moments, what would a worldwide flood do?  Strata all across the earth would be layered literally within minutes according to density, and vast amounts of organic material would be buried instantly.  When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, it carved within minutes a gorge nearly 1/3 the depth of the Grand Canyon.  Of course mainstream science refuses for the most part to consider the potential effects of a worldwide flood coupled with eruptions on geology and the fossil record.

What about the age of the stars?  Since we can’t go back in time to see how the Universe was created, once again our estimates will only be as good as our assumptions.  The book of Isaiah claims that when God created the heavens that he ‘stretched’ them out like a curtain.  What if the Universe were like a deflated balloon at the beginning of time that God ‘inflated’ after creation?  If all the stars and galaxies began from some central point of origin and were then drawn away at the speed of light, how would that affect our perceived age of them?  First of all the light from those stars would not have had to take millions of years to ‘reach’ us, but their light would have been present from the first day.  Also according to basic principles of relativity, the stars having been drawn away from us would affect our ‘perceived’ age of them by millions of years!  In addition our current observations of the Universe would indicate that the Universe is expanding from the light of that past event.

This same type of analysis can be carried out for nearly all of the different techniques that we use to determine the age of things.  For us as followers of Christ however the important point is not the actual age of the universe, but rather that things have not always been the same – nor will they be the same in the future.  Scripture tells us of a day when all of the elements will ‘melt with a fervent heat’ and the world will be transformed. (2 Peter 3:12) Even though sometimes it seems that things will never change, they most certainly will – let’s be prepared for the return of the King.

Spiritual Truth

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”-1 Timothy 3:16

Physical reality is complicated – to the degree that even the most basic college chemistry course must tackle abstract concepts like orbital theory for even a basic understanding of reactivity. It may be frustrating trying to tackle these subjects, but most students understand from the beginning that the subject matter is inherently difficult. It would be absolute nonsense to discount the reality of chemical reactivity simply because it is difficult to comprehend. If we all assume that physical reality is complicated by its nature, why should spiritual matters be any less complicated? It seems that when it comes to spiritual truth, we all demand simple answers for difficult subjects – and if a simple answer can’t be provided we are inclined to dismiss spiritual matters altogether. If we had taken this same approach to our understanding of physical truth, we would still be in a stone age.

Spiritual reality is by no means less complicated than physical reality, because physical reality was itself derived from spiritual reality. That is to say, the very substance of matter came forth from a spiritual substance. Scripture tells us that, “…the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”-Hebrews 11:3 In a sense you could think of this ‘spiritual substance’ as being the raw material for the ‘physical substance’ we call matter. From a high level physics standpoint, this conclusion really isn’t as outrageous as it might initially sound. It is fairly well understood within the mainstream scientific community that in order for our universe to exist, there must be other coexisting higher dimensions. The reason for this is simply that our universe as a closed system can’t exist without any external source of energy.

This concept of a closed system may be understood by comparing our universe to a giant matchstick. At the beginning of Time the match was unlit but had the greatest amount of potential energy for reactions in the future. Think about all the energy required to run the stars, form the galaxies, and shape worlds. The moment the match was lit, the universe began to ‘burn out’ as it were. Although the ‘total amount’ of energy in the universe has remained the same since the beginning of time, the remaining potential energy for future reactions has decreased with time. Eventually like a burnt out match the universe will come to a point of equilibrium, where there is no energy remaining for future reactions. Looking at the universe like this however is quite troubling, besides for the fact that it places a distinct beginning and ending point to the universe.

If the universe really is like a giant matchstick, then how did the matchstick itself come into existence? As a Christian that is not a difficult question to answer, but most scientists will use every precaution to invoke anything that remotely sounds like ‘God’. A much more popular view is that matter has always existed – and that there is something ‘outside’ the universe in the form of other dimensions that has somehow fed energy into our universe. Either way you look at it, in order for our universe to exist there must be something ‘outside’ of it that has enabled or enables it to exist. As a follower of Christ, I have always found it humorous how ‘spiritual’ my fellow scientists suddenly become when discussing these matters – after all what difference is there really between ‘other dimensions’ and ‘spiritual reality’!

When it comes to spiritual truth, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” – 1 Cor. 12:12 God knows us far better than we are able to know Him, and our understanding of Him will always be at best dim. However, even though we can’t see clearly through to the other side of the glass – we can see clearly enough to know He is there! If we want to know what God is like, we need to look no further than to Jesus. Jesus was the One who fed the multitudes, healed the sick, and laid His very life down for our sake.

The Null Hypothesis

“For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard...” –Peter and John, Acts 4:20

Imagine that you and a friend were walking down a common residential street when all of a sudden a transparent bird flew by and lighted on a tree nearby.  Looking at one another you asked – ‘Is that what I just thought that I saw?’  Seized both with curiosity and a little fear the two of you then proceeded to the tree and began to examine the otherworldly form.  Sure enough, the bird was indeed transparent, with branches clearly visible through the bird’s body.  Neither of you were experts in zoology but you both knew that nothing like that existed or even could exist on this earth.  And yet – there it was, hopping from branch to branch as you observed it for over an hour.  You reasoned that what you were seeing could not possibly be a delusion, because both of you were seeing the same thing at the same time.  Ultimately the two of you concluded in a Sherlock Holmes fashion that, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

If the two of you then told others about what you had seen, it would be natural for others to doubt your story.  Even if you had taken video and audio clips, detailed notes and observations of everything you saw, most people would probably think that somehow the whole thing was a hoax.  Ultimately the very most important evidence would be the fact that you both witnessed the bird for yourselves.  People would then begin to question your reliability as witnesses, whether or not the two of you were capable of collaborating to deceive others.  In the end the only people to believe you would be those who were confident in your character as witnesses.

The evidence for the death and resurrection of Jesus is not limited to vague legends of an inconclusive nature.  Unlike many religions and belief systems, the claims of the early Christians were not based on the experience of a single individual that might be discounted as a mere delusion.  Rather, they were based on countless firsthand witnesses all speaking the same thing.  The twelve disciples of Christ were not the only people to live and die for the things they had personally witnessed.  The resurrected Jesus was not only seen by an elite few capable of concocting some vast conspiracy, but over 500 people who were mostly alive when the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians.  The Apostle Paul himself who last witnessed Jesus wrote to the Galatians, “Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.” –Galatians 1:11

The accounts of Jesus and his miracles are not confined only to scriptures, but are a reality that is part of our history.  There is no such thing as a secular account of the life of Christ that somehow omits or discounts the miracles he performed!  When the Apostle Paul was being questioned about his beliefs before King Agrippa, he knew that the King was familiar with all of the events surrounding Christ saying, “For the king knows of these things, before whom I also speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.” –Acts 26:26 The famous response of King Agrippa is not unlike many today who are fully aware of the reality of Jesus and his life, “Almost you persuaded me to become a Christian.” –Acts 26:27

According to the Null Hypothesis, it is impossible to prove any positive statement to be true.  It is possible to disprove the alternative of that statement, but when it comes to truth you will simply have to believe one thing or another.  Any ‘scientist’ who demands that you ‘prove God exists’ is being dishonest with their own discipline and system of beliefs.  There can be plenty of evidence to support any given belief, but as creatures of belief we all make decisions to believe that go beyond what mere evidence can support.  Unbelief is really belief in an alternative statement.  Whatever you decide to believe, you must make a decision about Jesus Christ – His life, death, and resurrection demands the consideration of every soul on the face of this earth.

Wasn't The Bible Written By Man?

“Even it is written in your law, the testimony of two or three witnesses is true.” –Jesus, John 8:17

People often claim that the Bible can’t possibly be a reliable source of truth based on the fact that it was written by man.  However even if you believe that it is impossible for a flawed human being to be used for a greater Divine purpose, our own legal system makes determinations about truth using flawed individuals all the time!  The roots of our present legal system began in ancient Israel, where the testimony of at least two witnesses was required to make a presumption of truth in a matter.  Truth itself has an objective quality that can’t be owned by any individual or organization, and scripture itself could be thought of as a collection of witnesses testifying to the same thing over thousands of years.  If we were to have some compilation of observations about lions and their behavior made over the last four thousand years, those writings in composite would give us a pretty good idea of what lions are like!  The different authors would have varying insights about lions, but taken together their thoughts would point us to a truth greater than the authors themselves.

If we were to take a classroom of children to the zoo and ask them to describe the lions there, each child would have a unique description with their own observations.  Some children might emphasize the fuzzy manes, while others might emphasize the teeth and claws.  At first glance it may seem like the children are describing completely different animals, but taken together they would give us a fair description of what lions actually look like.  If one child however mistook a monkey for a lion, it would be easy to omit that observation based on an apparent lack of uniformity with other observations.  It would be silly for us to take any one of those children’s descriptions alone as a sole authority on lions, but taken together they would be a very useful authority for someone who has never seen a lion before.  For those who have seen lions, reading the different accounts would be an illuminating experience providing details they may not have noticed.

When people read scripture they often get caught up in minor details or apparent inconsistencies instead of focusing on the big picture.  Some of those children at the zoo for example may have had some unusual insights about lions that the other children failed to recognize.  Taken out of context this single observation may be difficult to reconcile with the others, but it would be silly to discount all of the observations based on that alone!  The Bible is the most amazing collection of writings in existence – spanning nearly all known human history.  As an archaeological tool it has been used to confirm historical events and places ranging from Rome to Babylon to Sodom and Gomorrah.  The most amazing aspect of the Bible however is the level of uniformity that it possesses considering the time span it was written over.

Scripture itself acknowledges the need for multiple independent witnesses to verify truth.  This is why there are four different accounts of the life of Christ in the Bible.   Jesus Himself was aware of this need and appointed twelve disciples whose life purpose was to testify of the things they had seen.  Jesus as a witness Himself told Pilate before the crucifixion, “To this end I was born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.” –John 18:37  The witnesses throughout scripture never sought to promote themselves – not even Jesus.   In law today that would be a conflict of interest, and tarnish the legitimacy of the witness and reliability of the account.

From shepherds ages ago, to prophets speaking of future events, to poets proclaiming His beauty, to Kings of the greatest empires, to Jesus Himself – all history as we know it is filled with witnesses to the God of Heaven.  Unlike manmade systems of belief, these witnesses point to a Truth greater than any man or manmade institution.  Instead of demanding that we submit to some human structure or order, we are exhorted to “Taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man who trusts in him.” – Psalms 34:8  There is an infinite difference between knowing of the Truth and knowing the Truth.  It is when you know Jesus for yourself that all of His words become alive with meaning.  When you have met the Lion, all the descriptions of the Lion begin to make sense.

Is The Bible A Storybook?

Some of the most gifted teachers I had in grade school were really able to make history come alive through their storytelling.  The stories of Columbus sailing the ocean blue and George Washington crossing the Delaware evoked fanciful images in my young mind of a beautiful history where the good guys always won and there was always a lesson to be learned.  As I grew older and leaned more I soon discovered that those stories were actually highly edited and sweetly packaged versions of actual accounts that often contained very grim details never presented to me as a child.  History itself is amoral in the sense that it that only is a record of events that happened before.  While we can and should glean moral lessons from those events, the lessons we glean are not part of the events themselves.  Oftentimes we confuse the lessons we have gleaned with the history itself, and in effect distort the history by omission of details that weren’t relevant to the lesson.

It is truly unfortunate that the vast majority of public knowledge when it comes to the Bible is confined to the stories they heard in Sunday school growing up.  Just like the stories I was told in grade school, if I never learned the actual history behind those events my understanding of history would be utterly distorted.  The Bible is not a storybook, but an ancient record of historical accounts whose details are often grim and difficult to wade through.  People who attempt to read the Bible as if it were merely a book of stories will wind up hopelessly confused.  From the very beginning they will encounter details about the times and locations of events, seemingly endless genealogies, and an ancient legal code that is like wading through an IRS document.  The accounts that you will come across include brutal details involving rape, murder, incest and gory details you would never dream of presenting to a child.  For the most part the Bible makes no attempt to attach some moral lesson to these details; it merely provides a record of what happened.

All of this however is what makes the study of the Bible so fascinating – it literally is a collection of primary sources with endless detail that can be studied in numerous contexts.  The details present in the Bible have enabled archaeologists to find ancient cities and locations once thought only to be legend – and proof of the accuracy of those details has only increased with time.  Anyone who spends time reading the Bible will come out with a working knowledge of world history, as the prophetic books speak not only of past but future events as well.  Literally all western civilization from our understanding of law to morality is built on concepts presented in the Bible, and history itself is measured and centered on the person of Jesus Christ.  The Apostle Paul’s statement to the Colossians that in Christ are hid “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” is not mere hyperbole.

Just like any other subject, the Bible is best understood when viewed with a big picture perspective.  Oftentimes people take a narrow approach to learning and get caught up in details without understanding how those details point to the main idea.  The main idea of the Bible is The Messiah – the redeemer of a fallen mankind.  All the details of the Bible from the beginning of creation, to God’s encounter with the patriarch Abraham, to the redemption of captive Israel from Egypt, to the intricate details of temple worship and sacrifice, to the fall of Israel – all point to and foreshadow the coming of a Redeemer.  Just as Jesus Christ is a central focal point in world history, He is the central focal point throughout the Bible and ties everything together.  Jesus IS the seed promised to Abraham that would bless the whole world, He is the redeemer of mankind from the bondage of sin, He is the sacrificial Lamb who cleansed us from sin, and He is the One who will restore our fallen world.

The study of God’s Word will be a lifetime effort for anyone who picks it up and calls out to the One it speaks of.  From the accounts of Israel’s rise and fall to the poetry of Kings to the letters written by the Apostles of Christ, you will find that more knowledge will only reveal how little you know.  You will also discover that what you are studying is incapable of having being created or put together by any man.  As Peter you will realize that “…we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…” -2 Peter 1:16

God and Equality

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” –Galatians 3:28

When our founding fathers wrote, “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” they were referencing a spiritual truth that is exclusively the product of Christian thinking.  Much like our understanding of science, the values of equality that we hold so dearly in the western world are built on the assumption that all things were created by God.  After all without God in our thinking there is nothing self evident about everyone being equal – and thousands of years of oppression against the weakest members of our societies has proved that.  Cold logic dictates that the most valuable members of society are those that can contribute the most in terms of raw power; but the Word of God turns that principle on its head declaring that, “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.” – Matthew 20:16 The Apostle James rebuked the church of his time for favoring the rich over the poor, and condemned its leaders for speaking against the weak saying, “Therewith we bless God, even the Father; and therewith we curse men, which are made after the image of God.” –James 3:9

The Biblical model of thinking when it comes to equality is radically different from any other model, where the weakest members of society are regarded as deserving the most honor.  Members of the church are compared to components of the Body of Christ.  Different parts of the body have varying purposes, but all are necessary for the proper functioning of the whole.  If even the smallest member of the body is hurting, the whole body should hurt with it if the body is properly functioning.   Although some parts of the body are more visible, those parts that are not visible are no less important!  The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For our comely parts have no need: but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked:  That there should be no schism in the body: but that the members should have the same care for one another.” -1 Cor. 12:24

God’s model for equality is not one of ‘sameness’ but of diversity!  The natural world reflects God’s love for diversity – with infinitely varying forms of life occupying vastly different habitats.  In the same way every human being is the glorious design of his Creator, and deserves the respect of all the other creations.  Even our circumstances and position in society are given to us by the Creator of heaven and earth, and it is therefore our responsibility to respect others in whatever circumstances they may be in.  King Solomon wrote, “Whoso mocks the poor reproaches his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.”-Proverbs 17:5  For us to belittle or look down on others is like slapping God in the face, and it will certainly bring judgment to our lives.

Just as the disciples of Christ strove against one another trying to decide which one of them would be the greatest, people are naturally consumed with their own self motivated desires.  As long as we are driven by our own interests, true equality will be impossible to achieve.  Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” –Phil. 2:3-4  Most of us spend our entire lives trying to prove ourselves and establish our own worth, but what would the world look like if we spent more time trying to prove the worth of others?

The freedom of any society will always be measured by the value it places on the least of its members.  Without God in our thinking, society will progress toward governments that only value those who can contribute in terms of raw power.  The practices of abortion and infanticide are only the beginning of the devaluation of human life, and if we can kill the least then others will follow.  Equality is a value derived from Spiritual Laws, and to omit God is to remove the basis for it.  Take a good long look at the godless societies of our world today and their human rights practices – and you will see where we are headed as a nation.

The God Who Sees Me

Pregnant and alone, Hagar wept at a fountain in the middle of a desolate wilderness. Where would she go and what would she do? There was not a soul on earth that could possibly understand what she was going through, and in her devastation she crouched down and waited for death. She had been the handmaiden of an older woman who was barren and never had any children of her own, who in desperation asked her to sleep with her husband. All she wanted was to be faithful to her mistress, but when she became pregnant it produced a rage of furious jealousy that seemed unquenchable. Instead of receiving support from the father of her growing child, he allowed his wife to continue in her abuse until she felt the need to flee for her life. Feeling both used and abused, she stared hopelessly at the gravel beneath her feat through blurred tears. 

Even though there was no one on earth that could understand her, there was Someone who understood – and saw every tear as they fell to the ground. The angel of the LORD who was none other than the preincarnate Jesus appeared to her in that lonely place and spoke words of encouragement and direction. The angel assured her that she would have a son and that because He had heard her cries she would call his name Ishmael, meaning ‘the LORD hears me’. Filling her heart with hope and allaying her fears, He assured her that if she returned to her mistress everything would be alright. Hagar didn’t know the LORD before then, and she decided to call the name of the One who spoke to her, ‘The God Who Sees Me’. –Genesis 16:13 

Even though we may not be searching for God, there is a God in Heaven who sees us and understands us like no other. David of ancient Israel wrote of Him, “O LORD, you have searched me, and known me. You know my downsitting and my uprising, and you understand my thoughts far off.” –Psalm 139:1-2 The same God who sees every sparrow that falls to the ground is also mindful of every tear that is shed, and David wrote, “You tell my wanderings: put my tears in a bottle, are they not in your book?” It is as if God has written a book of the story of each one of our lives, whose detail goes down to every last tear. Jesus Himself assured us, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” –Matthew 10:30 

The heart of God is very different from what the world thinks of Him – He is drawn to the poor and the weak of this world, and builds His Kingdom with those whom the world has rejected. Psalms 147:2-3 reveals His character, “The LORD builds up Jerusalem: he gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. He tells the number of the stars, and calls them all by their names.” The prerequisite for entry into the Kingdom of God is not strength, or wisdom, or goodness – but a broken heart that is aware of its own need. When God saw Hagar broken and alone in the wilderness, he saw a perfect candidate for His Kingdom. 

When God made Himself known to Israel, it was when they were at their very lowest point – having been enslaved with cruel bondage by Egypt for over 400 years. The Apostle Matthew was called by Jesus as a tax collector who was hated by his own people and the religious rulers. The woman caught in adultery, while condemned by the world was ripe for entry into the Kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul who himself was an aid to the murder of innocent believers, was called by Jesus out of the lowest darkness into light. Jesus told the religious elite who were filled with pride and self-righteousness, “I tell you the truth, that the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.” –Matthew 21:31 

Scripture tells us “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him.”-2 Chronicles 16:9 A perfect heart before God is one that is fully aware of its own need, and calls out to God in that need. Although God may seem distant at times, He desperately longs to be close to us and Comfort us with His Presence. Romans 10:11-13 declares, “…Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 

Why Is There Any Good In The World?

The thought has often occurred to me, 'Why is there any good in the world?' The world seems to be a confusing mix of beauty and chaos. There is an element of consistency in the world and in the course of nature that makes it habitable. The sun will invariably rise in the morning and set in the evening. As the world spins on its axis and progresses around the sun there are seasons that allow for agriculture, planting and harvesting. Life on earth is adapted to the cycles of nature, and life is interdependent and weaved together in such a way that if this delicate balance were only slightly altered all life would cease to exist.

From the structure of atoms to galaxies millions of light years away, the universe is ordered at every level with complexity that boggles the mind. There are times however when the order of the universe seems to be upset by what can be regarded only as chaos. Natural disasters have all but destroyed life in the past, and life itself is so riddled with potential problems and disorders that one can only wonder why life should exist at all. Why should there be any order in the universe if it is governed only by the laws of chance? It seems that in a world where randomness should rule as law that the very presence of any order or beauty is like an impossible oasis in the desert.

The only answer to the problem is simply that the universe is not governed only by the laws of chance, and that there is something else at work that moves constructively instead of destructively. Scripture says in Genesis 1:2 that in the beginning of creation the earth was “without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” This is the kind of description you would expect of a world ruled by chaos, as the very randomness of everything could only allow for shapeless and empty masses to exist. This description however is followed by the statement, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” After this begins the formal description of creation as God speaks it into existence. From this it can be gathered that the Spirit of God is the constructive power of creation in the universe.

If it is true that the Spirit of God is responsible for order in the universe, then it must be the case that disorder is the law where God's Spirit is not present or active. In Jeremiah 4:23 the prophet describes the land of Israel after its long rebellion against God, “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” It is as if the people’s willful abandonment of God caused the land to revert back to a pre-creation state – one of disorder and chaos. If it is the case that the absence of God’s Spirit results in chaos and destruction, it is imperative that we strive for God’s presence! Psalms 16:11 says, “…in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

The book of Genesis describes a time in earth’s history when God allowed total destruction to come upon the earth in the form of a flood when “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”-Genesis 6:5 However of all of the earth’s inhabitants there was one man who found grace in the sight of God. When the Spirit of God stopped striving with the inhabitants of the earth (Gen 6:3) all chaos was let loose, but Noah was preserved. The Bible says after the worldwide flood Noah offered sacrifices to God, and when God smelled the savor of those sacrifices He made a promise to the world, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” –Genesis 8:22 This gives us a little insight into why there is any good in the world, and it all revolves around the symbolic Sacrifice of another...

Relative Morality

During college it was not uncommon for me to hear professors and fellow students invoke the principle of relativity to justify the premise that morality is a purely relative concept.  The argument was that because nature is not subject to absolutes, there should be no justification for the idea that morality is subject to absolutes.  Most of these people however were only familiar with the principle of relativity in name, not understanding that it is built on the idea that the speed of light will always be constant in a vacuum.  What this means is that all natural observations are relative to a single absolute standard!  The principle of relativity is what makes the natural world rational, and without it there would be no basis for the scientific method.  Science is only possible because nature will always behave the same way under controlled conditions when all variables are held constant.  If whatever we are observing is giving us unpredictable results, we assume it is because there are variables we haven’t accounted for or can’t hold constant.  This assumption is grounded on the principle that nature is always subject to a single absolute standard.

 It is interesting to me that some of the same people who deny spirituality altogether have drawn parallels between the natural world and morality, which itself is a spiritual concept.  If morality were only a vague and ever changing manmade creation why use the natural world to explain it?  Perhaps the reason for is because we see the world through our spiritual concepts.  If we believe that there are no absolute spiritual standards that govern the Universe, it is only natural that we should believe that the physical world be ruled by chaos and chance.  It is not surprising that Christian theologians were responsible for our modern scientific view of the world; an ordered and predictable natural world was the logical conclusion of a spiritual reality governed by absolute standards.

Science could be thought of as our understanding of physical truth, where morality could be thought of as our understanding of spiritual truth.  Different nations and cultures all over the world have different degrees of understanding when it comes to science, but all people have some intuitive understanding about the way nature works.  Any child in any nation will expect a rock that they throw to eventually fall to the ground.  They arrived at this understanding through observations while growing up, and eventually accepted as an axiom that rocks thrown will fall to the ground.  In the same way different nations and cultures have different degrees of understanding when it comes to morality, but all have some intuitive understanding about the way spiritual reality operates.  The concepts of love, respect, and injustice are purely spiritual concepts that are intuitively understood by every culture on earth.

Moral principles are not owned by any individual or organization, just as scientific principles are not.  Truth is an absolute and objective quality that serves to benefit all mankind without the promotion of any particular group.  For example to bring scientific knowledge to underdeveloped nations for the improvement of their infrastructure and technology is not to demean those cultures, but to show the highest respect.  Even more important than scientific principles, moral principles form the foundation of any society and without them human civilization is impossible.  Sharing moral understanding and principles is necessary in a world where civilization itself is threatened by the worst abuses of mankind by oppression and cruel injustice.  Without an understanding of spirituality, the words – abuse, oppression, and injustice have little to no meaning.

Oftentimes when we think about morality we think about a long manmade list of restrictions and taboos.  Jesus however instead of defining spiritual law by what we shouldn’t do defined it by what we should do, “That you should love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”-John 13:34  Jesus defined ‘sin’ not as failing to meet some religious standard, but failing to love.  If Jesus Himself is the example of what that love should look like, that means laying down our own interests and desires for the sake of others.  The Apostle James wrote, “From where do wars and fighting come from among you?  Do they not come from the lusts that war within yourselves?” –James 4:1  The problems in our world all begin with the self motivated desires of every individual, and the only solution to the problem is love.

Self Judgment

t“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” -1 Cor. 11:31

The Ghost Rider is one of the most unique comic book heroes I have come across lately and has a very unusual superpower.  Besides for the fact that he is a chain wielding, Harley riding, undead creature with a flaming skull – his power over villains comes into action simply when he touches them.  Upon touching them they will personally experience all the pain they have inflicted on others.  If the villain was a murderer they would feel the pain and emotional anguish of their victims collectively in a moment of time, and the result of the experience would invariably be death.  If there really were such a character roaming the streets, who could possibly survive the touch of the Ghost Rider?  Although most of us aren’t murderers, we are all creatures who look out for our own interests – and all of us have hurt others along the way.  When we are hurt by other people it is easy to demand justice, but when we hurt others our natural tendency is to either ignore their pain or justify ourselves by claiming that our behavior is just human nature.

When it comes to sin, all of us are guilty.  Sin however is not a failure to live up to manmade religious standards, but the failure to walk in love towards others.  The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “Love works no ill to its neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” – Romans 10:13 Sin is not a personal preference, but a social disease that is responsible for all the evil in our world today – and every one of us have contributed to that evil.  If the Ghost Rider were to touch any one of us, the outcome of that touch would most certainly be death.  In the same way scripture tells us that the judgment for sin is death and that all of us have sinned.  David wrote of mankind saying, “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that does good, no, not one.” –Psalms 14:3

When most people think about Christians they think about people who are confident in their own goodness and are quick to condemn others.  Scripture however shows that the exact is opposite true saying, “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?”  Most everyone on earth is confident in their own goodness, and they feel secure in this confidence by looking down at people who are ‘worse’ than them.  Instead of taking a good hard look at themselves and their own sin, they find others who have committed worse actions and by the comparison feel justified.  The most tragic thing about this is that the only way to escape judgment  is by judging ourselves – by deciding that we personally are in need of mercy and forgiveness.

The only way to enter into the Kingdom of God is by humility.  The people who come to Jesus are those who have acknowledged their need for a savior, and out of that need have cried out to Him.  Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.”  God has purchased our freedom with a great price, and those who deny their own need for that mercy are in effect denying the need for God to have paid the price.  Galatians 2:21 tells us, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”  Ultimately the only thing that will keep anyone out of heaven is their own pride by choosing instead to trust in their own goodness.  Those that do will be met with the righteous judgment of God, where all the pain and suffering they have inflicted on others will be laid out before them – followed by death.

As Christians we should be the least judgmental people on the earth, because we know there is no goodness in us apart from Christ.  We are fully aware that a perfectly innocent and spotless Lamb laid His life down to cleanse us from the evil we have committed.  Jesus spoke in a parable of a servant who was forgiven a great debt that was impossible for him to repay, who then condemned someone else for a small debt owed to him.  The Master of the servant then rebuked him and sent him to prison saying, “O you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt, because you desired me to.  Shouldn’t you also have had compassion on your fellow servant, even as I had pity on you?” –Matthew 18:33  We are the servant who was forgiven a great debt, and as God has extended mercy to us – we need to extend mercy to others.

The Greatest Sinner

A young man named Saul watched approvingly as an angry mob of religious leaders took Stephen outside of the city where they would stone him to death. Stephen like Jesus was renowned as a miracle worker among the people; and also like Jesus was accused of speaking blasphemous words against the law of Moses. How could anyone approved of God be so opposed to the elders and scribes of the temple? The man was clearly a threat, as his eloquence and glowing countenance were such a convincing testament to the words he spoke - that the elders themselves plugged their ears as they brought him to his death. Saul however heard the haunting last words of Stephen, "Lord, don't lay this sin to their charge..." -Acts 8:60

One of these two men would go down in history as one of the greatest men of God to have ever lived, and ironically- it wasn't Stephen. How could this be? The young man Saul had just participated in killing someone that was so pure and holy that even his enemies stood awestruck in his presence - as if he were an angel of God. Saul however was so hardened in his ways that it took an encounter with Jesus himself before there was any change. What was it about Saul, who later became known as the Apostle Paul that made him so effective?

Paul never forgot the days of his youth and the hardness of his heart. He understood that he didn't deserve the relationship with God that he had; after all if Jesus hadn't appeared to him he would have spent eternity without Him. Paul once wrote, "...I am the least of the apostles, and am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."- 1 Cor. 15:9. Paul was also convinced that without Jesus there was nothing good in him. In a letter to the Romans he wrote, "...I know that in me,(that is, in my flesh), dwells no good thing." -Romans 7:18

After his encounter with Jesus, Paul must have spent many quiet hours wondering 'why me?' There were so many other people who were better and more qualified... The answer to that question would ultimately form the basis for his ministry, and change the world forever. In a letter to his spiritual son Timothy Paul wrote, "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should afterwards believe..." -1Timothy 1:16

Paul understood that his life was meant to be an encouragement for us! God chose someone whose past was so shameful that it would forever be a demonstration of God's Love and Mercy through Jesus. Paul was so consumed with the knowledge of God's Love, that he passionately spread that message all over the known world until his death. At the end of his life Paul knew he had been effective for God, but also knew it was only because of Jesus. He wrote to the Corinthians, "...by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." -1 Cor. 15:10