iGod

Science versus Religion. Really?

 

Tom Waits, the American singer wrote: “Like all great things in the world, women and religion and the sky…you wonder about it, and you don’t stop wondering about it.”

I think I have a curious mind, but it wasn’t always that way. My younger me resonated more with another American singer Sam Cooke who sung: “Don't know much about history. Don't know much biology. Don't know much about a science book. Don't know much about the French I took. But I do know that I love you.”

Yet, now science fascinates me. I mean, where to start? It turns out that the universe is still expanding much like Pound stores. The edge of the universe is estimated to be some ninety billion trillion miles away.

The solar system we live in fills less than a trillionth of available space. It is part of the Milky Way and takes some 200 and 250 years to orbit just once.

Apparently before everything was anything, there was a point, called singularity and then there was a bang involving inconceivably high temperatures, loaded with enough energy and potential and possibility to eventually create what you and I know to be life, the universe and everything in it.

Let’s now talk about time. I know this is going to sound like a script from Doctor Who, but time is not consistent. It bends, and warps, and curves.

And if you stand outside on a clear night and see stars, the light you see from the stars is as they were when the light left them. You are looking literally into the past.

Coming a bit closer to home, on a summer’s day you are enjoying the sun as it was eight minutes ago. And techno geeks talk about real time!

Now science does a brilliant job of telling me why I don’t have fins or fur, but what about the soul?

One of the problems science faces is that theories turn into assumptions. And we are often none the wiser when they do. The universe is complex, wonderful and, let’s be honest, just a little scary.

Friends have said to me: you are an intelligent man, how can you believe in the concept of God? (Okay, I made up the ‘intelligent’ bit!) Surely once we have enough knowledge of the universe the notion of God will be redundant and it will have to reside in the history book?

But that belief rests on a very deep faith indeed. One mathematic physicist (not a Christian) deduced that God has to exist because singularity comes down to such a knife-edge you are forced to fall one way or the other. His conclusions led him to believe in God.

Some talk simplistically, and even derogatively, about God being a ‘friend in the sky’, or a cosmic-mythical story for the weak and uneducated, but that attitude betrays all sorts of problems. We have to adopt the same open-mindedness as we do with the pursuit of science and be willing to engage with the possibility of an omnipotent divine being.

So when I talk about God I am talking about the source of all truth, the foundation of all life, the mystery of the soul and the universe, the one who instils the desire to create art, music, dance, poetry, to show compassion and inspire others to greatness.

I just can’t believe that this is all there is and that we are simply collections of neurons and atoms. In fact, the possibility that there is more - a supernatural power - makes life even more awe-inspiring.

Of course, the problem scientists have is this ‘crazy little thing called love’. It is just plain irrational and really should not have a place in our rational, reductionist modern life. And yet, incredibly, it does!

To believe in a God of love who sent his only son into the world is an outrageous thing to suggest. But is it any less believable than some of the grand theories of science. What’s my proof? After all, God can’t be seen. True. But then I haven’t seen a gamma ray. Have you?

I find myself pondering the lyrics of Sam Cooke: “And I know that if you love me too. What a wonderful world this would be.”

The Reason for God – a quick review

I am afraid this week has been one of those weeks where there has been too much to do and my health has not been great. Hence the paltry lack of posts.  Anyhow, in the midst of it I have been finding time to enjoy Timothy Keller’s book The Reason for God.

It is very much an up-to-date apologetic for our times and is being hailed as one of the most significant books on the subject since Oxford don CS Lewis wrote his Mere Christianity and his other classics in the 50s.

However, unlike CS Lewis, Keller is a church pastor theologian in cosmopolitan New York City. He addresses all the tough questions put to the Western Church today and, from what I have read so far, I have been deeply impressed by the linear logic of his reasoning. Mind you, you can undoubtedly hear the whispering voice of CS Lewis in his thoughts.

One of the common arguments he respectfully takes to task is that religion was the stop gap until science came along to supersede it with more superior worldview. Ergo, religion has now has outlived its usefulness. The argument goes on to say that religion has been a historic conditioning.

He says that to view religion in this way requires an objectivity in itself, but how can anyone really achieve objectivity as we all live in society?  We are all affected by our environment. In short, if we are conditioned by religion what is to stop us being conditioned by secularism. If the West is marked by its self critical attitude and individualism, how can it be truly objective?

It is often said that if we were born in a country like Saudi Arabia would we not be conditioned to be a Muslim? Therefore, how can we know for sure there is no God when we suffer from subjectivism just like any other person?

So the truth has to be established in other ways at which Keller’s book goes on to set out.

ASD

Quote by Michael Ruse

I have been reading an fascinating article by British-born atheist philosopher professor Michael Ruse, who interestingly has little time for neo-atheists such as Dawkins and co. (Mind you, it probably isn't helped by Dawkins laying into him in his book The God Delusion.)

But it is this quote that grabbed my attention, bearing in mind he doesn't believe:

"I have little time for someone who denies the central dogmas of Christianity and still claims to be a Christian, except in a social sense. No God, no Jesus as His son, no resurrection, no eternal life - no Christianity."

Now is it just me or does that sound like something St Paul might say?

ASD

Are you a pioneer or settler?

I have been musing over something that the 18th century Scottish moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith said: to paraphrase, an established clergy is not willing to fight very hard to leave their church buildings and to go out to declare what it believes in.

It has been given as one of the reasons why we are seeing church attendance decline in this country, compared to the vibrant Christian faith that abounds elsewhere in the world.

Where Christianity has had competition it has been forced to reflect what it actually does believe and work out whether it is worth dying for. It makes a good reason why the Church of England may have a better future ultimately becoming disestablished.

Coming from the Church of England, I have seen how people like 'mild Anglicanism'.It keeps things pleasant and not too challenging. I have had conversations with people who have said to me, in so many words, ‘have a conscience by all means, but don’t put your convictions in my face please.’  And that is just fellow Christians!  

Of course, every denomination has its struggles, including my own tribe Vineyard, but it does need us to think movement, not establishment. Having said that, I recognise that 'established' is another word for rooted. And to be rooted is not such a bad thing, just along as we plant as well.

Or to use another analogy with a Western theme, we can identify that there are two types of Christian: the pioneer and the settler.

The pioneer loves to go out and do new things, they enjoy the frontier experience, the adventure, moving into uncharted territory. It’s what makes them feel alive and sharpens their faith in Jesus.

The settler, on the other hand, likes to arrive when things are established and when it feels safe enough to bring the family with them. They aren’t necessarily starters of new ministries, but they know how to manage them and are hugely important in bringing stability to church life. They can share the vision for a missional church just as much as the pioneer type.

Interestingly, I was talking to another pastor recently and we were discussing how church planters (pioneers) can often feel rootless. They have no compunction about moving around. Home is spiritual and relational, not necessarily geographical.  The only consideration for not moving more is probably the pressure of a spouse saying, ‘Hey, honey, think about the children!’

The truth is, whether we recognise ourselves as a pioneer or settler, we all have to get out and ‘fight the good fight with all of our might’.  We need to be outward-focused and allow ourselves to be continually challenged by the competition, whether it is secularism, atheism, Islam or plain and simple apathy.

However, importantly, we need to remember that our enemy is not a person, but a spiritual being.

God is love. Our weapon is not judgement, it is mercy. We are called to love all, be generous to all, but it does require us to leave our pews and come out fighting to do it.

ASD

 

Flea in your ear

If I say 'Kylie Minogue', what song comes to mind? “Can’t get you out of my head”? Now try getting it out of your head. This is what an academic in the US calls an earworm. What’s more, 99% of us suffer from it.

The term earworm is a translation of the German word Ohrwurm, used to describe a “musical itch” of the brain. The musical earworm actually works like a virus, attaching itself to a host and keeping itself alive by feeding off the host’s memory.

Now you may be forgiven that this sounds like a plot from the much enjoyable new series of Dr Who. It all sounds a little sinister.

An American philosopher Kenneth Burke once asked: “When a bit of talking is taking place, just what is doing the talking?”

Researchers at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire have discovered that the talking is done by the auditory cortex – the “brain’s iPod” – that earworms choose as the centre of their activity.

What triggers the earworm is a little uncertain. No doubt a catchy tune will do it. In fact in the bizz this is imaginatively called ‘the hook’, which usually comes with the chorus. Of course, this is not the sole domain of pop music as classical music and jazz, not to be outdone, can also cite their catchy numbers.

Diane Deutsch, a professor of psychology at University of California, San Diego comments, “People sing along with something internal, so music reflects what is in the back of a person’s mind, serving as some kind of reminder.”

For me personally, music is often related to a situation or circumstance. When I hear a tune it also reminds us or something or someone. Though come to think of it, I don’t know if The Tweety Song reminds me of anyone!

Now I have a small confession to make, I like Church liturgy. For me, ritual is reminder. I can walk down the road and something will trigger off a hymn or a worship song in my head. Sometimes it can be dead annoying. I don’t always want to be reminded of an eternal truth. because of where I am at. An earworm can go on for days. Could this be the work of the Holy Spirit? Maybe. Maybe not.

Can you erase an earworm? You can try.

Maybe you could try some words from Kylie’s song: “La, la la, la, la-la-la-la-la…”

ASD