Religion? Science?: The Story of Us
Tackling a highly controversial issue such as how the universe, as we know it, was created stirs up a lot of questions and responses. Reflecting on my own beliefs as part of the prep work for the creation educator, geennessy.
How did the universe come to be? For me, I’m not too sure. As a child that was born and raised in a Roman Catholic household, I was taught to believe that “God is the creator of all things.” Having gone through Sunday school and the holy sacraments, I hold these values and beliefs dear to me. However, as I started to learn about Darwin’s theory of evolution and the Big Bang, my thoughts were swayed towards a more scientific approach because there was evidence. However, at the same time, I was taught that “Believing is seeing, but seeing is not believing” (John 11:38–57). So, I have come up with a dilemma of what idea to believe. A religion that I have grown up with and accepted as a part of who I am or a science that has evidence that can back up the claims? Both ideologies, though drastically different, share strong support and arguments from both sides. I don’t see any of these ideologies as ridiculous because I am aware of the claims and support they have in justifying their position as an explanation for why the universe is and came to be. Despite this, it is very difficult to see where I stand in regards to this question.
However, upon thinking about it, I may be leaning more towards the Deist belief.
Deism: the belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe.
From what I remember about what was said about Deism is that God is a sort of clockmaker who creates and then leaves the world to be governed by its natural laws. It essentially acknowledges that God exists and has helped in the creation of the universe, but then, He takes away his hand to let the universe run by itself. How I interpret my Sunday school lessons is that God is the creator of everything, for everything is made in His image. God is the creator of everything, but what is created is affected by the natural laws set by the universe. This goes back to the idea of “natural selection” where evolution occurs to better the survival of the species that God has created. Nature favors those that have the characteristics to adapt and survive in the environment that they live in. Going back to the Big Bang, however, I do feel that it does play a part as well. As the video stated, the Big Bang wasn’t some big explosion that automatically resulted in the universe. It was a development that seemed to be long but took a second or two instead. There could be the possibility that simultaneously as God created the universe, the Big Bang was occurring at the same time or some time after (from the laws of nature) which resulted in not only the universe but the ever-growing expansion of it, leaving the laws of nature of the universe to govern the shaping of it.
I would like to note one thing I noticed in all three of the theories. They all explained how all living things are connected to each other (through a higher being, through biology, through being made of the same material, etc.). I feel that when one is defining the beginning and creation of the universe, they should start from the similarities and work their way through their personal beliefs and evidence as they come to make a theory of their own.
It’s a difficult topic to assess for certain, and some biased explanations may seem to be split or contradictory to come up with just one definitive answer. However, like the assigned video said, what we can do is to continue living on until there are no more questions.
