The Language of God

Here is a thing I do not wholly understand. Some of my Christian bretheren fear rational thought and scientific knowledge.

There are a few reasons for that. A good number of unbelievers depend on science and logic as a personal philosphy and are hostile to matters of faith. Any discussion is an opportunity to try and disprove the existence God and denigrate those who have faith. Not all rational thinkers and humanists are like this, but there are enough of them out there that many Christians have developed an automatic defense response. Understandable.

Of course, the idea that rational thought precludes matters of faith and spirituality is a fallacy. Certainly one does not need faith to pursue temporal knowledge. Yet why does the pursuit of knowledge seem to cut across the grain of faith? For the faithful, I think it is because there is too much emphasis on defining the science of the world by the tenets of the faith. The bible was not given to us to help us understand the natural world, it was given us to lead us to an understanding of God and our own spirituality. For the unbeliever, I think that the possibility of a creator, of a personal God, of a Supreme Being to whom we can relate, threatens their rationality and their sense that there is nothing unexplainable in the universe, and that those things that seem unknowable are made so only by the separation of time.

It is different for me. Like most people, I'm pretty sure I'm right about what I believe, so I think I'll share it.

I believe that all truth is God's truth. I believe that scientific knowledge is simply a continual discovery of the complexity and depth of God's creative power. I believe that science is the language of God.

I don't believe there is anything in science that threatens God. Even the bible says that what is true about God is visible in the grand beauty of creation. He would not have said so were it not true.

If that means that Genesis is an allegorical tale that illustrates man's separation from God, then so be it. God is not diminished. Christ's sacrifice is not denied. We do not have to deny one to celebrate the other.

This great schism is only in the minds of those who insist that what they know is all there is to know.

I think I will choose to continue to learn what I do not yet know, and find in each truth a greater wonder of the Majesty of God.