God vs Science. Everyone has thought about
this before, and it seems that in modern times they are in conflict with each
other. As culture and technology have advanced, people have begun to get the
idea that religion is a thing of the past, and now science has taken over. Over
the next few weeks, we are going to start from the beginning and discuss in a
logical fashion various misconceptions and debates over this topic. I will not
use the Bible or Christianity as the foundation, since some reading this may
not believe that these things are true. What I will do is use logic to explain
what I believe, that Science and God really can coexist.
To begin, I would like to make a few
things clear. I do not intend to bash any belief systems throughout the course
of this series, but I will point out some things. Also, if anyone feels like I
haven’t covered a topic completely or missed something, feel free to email me
at christiansoldier007@gmail.com,
and I will prayerfully answer it by email or in the next article.
Initially, I am going to make a statement
that might confuse some of you: I do not have enough faith to not be a
Christian. This may seem odd in the sense that Christianity supposed to be all
about faith, while atheism would be the opposite. After taking a solid look at
the facts however, I find it much harder to be an atheist than a Christian. If
this counter-intuitive statement perks your interest, I encourage you to keep
reading.
Naturally, there are many places to begin.
When dealing with such a complex subject, there is bound to be. First, we will
start with the fundamental question: “What Is Truth?” After all, if the purpose
of this series is to find out the truth, it’s probably a good idea to find out
what truth is first.
Over the past few decades, society has had
a paradigm shift from belief in “absolute truth” to “relative truth.” Absolute truth
says that there is a universal standard for right and wrong, and that standard
does not change. Relative truth takes the stance that what is right or wrong
for one person is not necessarily right or wrong for another person.
There are a couple things that seem odd to
me about relative truth. First, the statement “There is no such thing as
absolute truth” is a paradox. If that statement was true, then it contradicts
itself in the fact that no statement is true. Let me put it another way: say
relative truth was true. Now look at that previous statement. How can something
be true if there is no such thing truth? It is a paradox that contradicts
itself.
This alone, however, isn’t enough to
completely discount relative truth. My other qualm with it is this: what if my
truth contradicts your truth? For example, one person believes that murder is morally
ethical while another believes murder is morally wrong. If it is morally
ethical for the first person to murder the second (think cannibalistic tribes
in Africa), but from the second person’s perspective it is morally wrong, these
two viewpoints contradict each other and have no logical resolution.
Another more realistic example is this: My
truth is that there is absolute truth and a non-changing standard in morality,
while your truth is that truth is relative from person to person. Again, our
truths collide, for my truth says that your truth can’t be true while your
truth says my truth can’t be true as it infringes on your truth. The second
that something is said to be absolutely true or absolutely false, relative
truth falls apart.
One more thing that points to an absolute
right and wrong is the sense of morality ingrained into every human being. Most
of us can agree that there is something in us that urges us to do what is right
and to not do what is wrong. If we didn't posses this moral sense, then
morality would have no meaning and there would be no such thing as right and
wrong in our minds. Therefore, we have this moral sense in our very beings, however this moral sense
must conform to some kind of moral law. If this moral law changes from person
to person however, then our moral senses can’t always be right, meaning that
emotions such as guilt have no meaning.
In conclusion, based off what has just
been said, our only other option is that there is only one truth, and everyone
is subject to that truth just as much as we are to the laws of gravity. If this
is indeed true (no pun intended), then the entire game changes. Instead of a
perspective of “let’s not offend anybody” and “let’s all live our lives as we
see fit”, it turns to a perspective of “we must find the truth” and “if there
is one truth, then everything else must be wrong.” By this last statement I do
not mean that everyone except Christians are absolutely wrong, but what I do
mean is that not everyone is right about everything.
Now that we have established that truth is
absolute and does not change, we are ready to dive into God and Science. Over
these next couple of articles we will go into evolution, the Big Bang Theory,
and the question of “is there a higher being directing the universe.” There is
a lot I will be covering, but eventually we will get to difficult questions
such as “why does God allow evil in the world.” If you have any questions, feel
free to email me. I do not claim to have all the answers, in fact there is a
lot I don’t know. Some things we can’t understand. It’s like if we all lived in
a two dimensional space, we would have no idea what a three dimensional space
was, we couldn't fathom it. Or if we were all born blind, none of us could
describe color. There is a whole dimension of things out there we don’t
understand, and we won’t be able to in this life. Thanks for reading, until
next time, God Bless!
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