Is Modern Science Refuting God, Or ‘Revealing’ God?
“We don’t need to find reason, because out the same door that it came, well it’s leaving…”
Jack Johnson, No Other Way
If you are like me, and a Christian, you are looking for ways to objectively strengthen your faith. Would you like to do it in a way that resonates not just with yourself, or those that believe like you, but resonates with culture that often disagrees with you? Would you like to make an tangible impact into changing the world? We can do it in many areas of culture today if we understand the new tools available to us. The Bible states that God uses, “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” It’s time to discover the powers of the foolish beyond using chapter and verse.
We’ll start with one of the most well-known stumbling blocks to Christian Faith in historical time.
“On the Origin of the Species” — the seminal 1858 book of world-renown naturalist and biologist, Charles Darwin — appeared to be one of the biggest blows to the Christian faith and its claims of Providential creation. For well over a century, its impact was felt vast and deep. It seemed to place a nail in the coffin of authentic Christian creation beliefs and certainly squelch any science claiming that viewpoint.
Science has advanced by epochs since then.
Because of it, God hasn’t been pushed to the background, but revealed in dynamic and relevant light, if we take our heads out of the Book and gaze into the real world. Again, Jack Johnson (yes, that Jack Johnson) sang it best.
“Puzzle pieces in the ground, but nobody seems to be digging, instead they’re looking up to the heavens.”
Jack Johnson, Traffic in the Sky.
Since this article is about Christian impact and not just my favorite singer-songwriter, let’s put up a series of Biblical verses that almost directly correspond with Johnson’s lyric above.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” — Romans 1:20
“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” — Ecclesiastes 11:5
“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter until the fullness of the day.” — Proverbs 4:8
“In those days, men and women of insight will arise… As for you Daniel, seal this up in a book, many (eras) will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.” Daniel 12:3–4 (abridged)
There seems to be a pattern here; a progression of spiritual insight correlating directly to our progression of understanding creation and the advancement of knowledge itself. We could delve into all these scriptures, but for the sake of brevity, let’s just take this one in Ecclesiastes:
“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” — Ecclesiastes 11:5
At the time these words were written, the passage spoke of the infinite wonder of God by revealing how the ancient reader couldn’t understand how God had designed His creation. But we have to realize that this scripture was inspired by God’s Spirit and written so that we, many millennia after it was inscribed, could hear and process these words for ourselves. Why is this important, especially for our particular moment in historical time?
Because we do now know the path of the wind and we now understand how the body is formed in the mother’s womb.
Let’s get technical for a moment.
The first successful weather satellite was TIROS-1. It was launched by NASA on April 1, 1960. TIROS was the frontrunner to most of the Earth-observing satellites NASA and NOAA subsequently have launched.
These satellites accomplish some very particular assignments.
Consider the following quote from Wikipedia:
Visible-light images from weather satellites during local daylight hours are easy to interpret even by the average person; clouds, cloud systems such as fronts and tropical storms, lakes, forests, mountains, snow ice, fires, and pollution such as smoke, smog, dust, and haze are readily apparent. Even wind can be determined by cloud patterns, alignments, and movement from successive photos.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_satellite)
We also have also been able to peer into the body using ultrasound machines and, like the weather satellite, that technology is far less than a century old. The ultrasound machine was first used as a medical tool on the human body in the late 1940s. The computer technology to enhance ultrasound imagery was introduced in 1979 by Samuel H. Maslak.
We’ve become even more detailed at peering into the live, functioning human body since then. Instead of just understanding the internal body in motion, we now can observe how the body thinks. Technologies such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow scientists and doctors to peer into the brain as it processes thoughts and actions. While ultrasound already allows us to see how the bones are formed in the womb, PET and fMRI technology uncover how the brain functions during formation and action.
Why is this important?
How is this relevant to a verse, written millennia before this moment in time? If we take this verse in Ecclesiastes and add in the logic that, “If A=B and B=C, then A=C,” then we can rewrite the verse in the following manner:
Just as you now know the path of the wind, and how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you now can understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
Now, before I continue, I did not say that because of these technologies we understand God. That is a mystery that science, academics, and religion will never discover. He is omnipotent and omnipresent — He cannot be wholly known by man. Yet we can now, at this moment in time, most fully understand the “work” of God. And (carefully analyzing the phrasing from our verse above) we can understand God, as the “Maker of all things,” with our greatest historical clarity.
How?
Because of the historical advancements of science.
Science is a study of reaction. We use our research tools to determine the cause and effect after any action has been committed. What we observe after those moments of action is called science. The more advanced our technologies, the closer the time between action and reaction merges.
Let me give you an example of tobacco smoking and its historical advancements through science.
For centuries, science has been able to determine through autopsies that the devastated black lungs of a smoker are the direct result of his habitual smoking habit.
Forty years ago, we could create an internal snapshot of the lungs through an X-ray machine and show a living man how cigarettes had impacted his body over the length of his habit.
Twenty years ago, we could see how cigarette smoke entered the body and observe its immediate effects on the lungs and other organs.
Ten years or so ago, we uncovered how at the moment the first puff of smoke enters the mouth, nicotine enters the brain, causing the brain to release the neurotransmitters dopamine, acetylcholine, and glutamate across the brain’s synaptic pathways, creating a sense of euphoria and physiologically accelerating the addiction process. From the first inhalation, the body is pushing toward addiction and thereby leading the body toward cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and stroke. As I already have stated in other articles, we now can see how these outcomes are, in part, the deliberate intent of these actions.
Instead of just knowing that smoking kills, we now can expose the strategies of the process.
In the same manner, we now can mine new and relevant depths to God’s declarations and many of the statements made by Christ. We can even deeper understand why Jesus said, “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” because of how the brain reacts at the moment of visual arousal, building synaptic pathways that the body then “feeds” or strengthens.
We can see why Paul would declare that a war rages within his members, because of how our independent bodies react after we allow them certain stimuli. Science has discovered that pleasure doesn’t just feel good to us, but also to our independent physical bodies. Paul wouldn’t have known that two thousand years ago, but God’s Spirit did.
We have new revelation into Jesus’ statement, “Be slow to anger,” because we can see in real-time the stressful effects of anger on the heart, brain, and other internal organs.
We can see how promiscuous sex among young people often intentionally leads to cervical cancer, based on how sperm imprint themselves into the human body.
We can see that through drug usage such as meth, the body lowers dopamine levels in the brain after the first intake, and from that moment forward, the only thing that once again leads back to normal, healthy dopamine levels is… meth.
We can see how charity and selflessness lead to better brain chemistry, increase mood and function, and promote organ health.
We now can see that God’s creations, such as fruits, vegetables, and fish are not only beneficial for sustaining life, but also that the natural compounds and enzymes in many foods immediately benefit areas of the brain, heart, lungs, and eyes. We can see that these same foods are important for skin and follicle health. We can see that fish oils such as Omega 3 accelerate learning and brain function and health.
The examples go on and on. You just need to know how to look.
“Puzzles in the ground, but nobody seems to be digging.”
Jack Johnson, Traffic in the Sky
Aware of it or not, science has not disproved the reality of God. Instead, it has further validated both the possibility and intentions of the Creator through its advancements. Every discovery, from the latest natural cosmetic treatment to natural cancer-reducing fruit, to brain health natural enzymes and oils further his reality. All of these naturally created entities, all benefit a single organism. The single organism created in the image of the One that created it: the human being.
The bottom line is that we can now understand more of the work of God because we now have the technologies to understand how He created us (“the Maker of all things”) to function from the moment of any action.
Think this is too farfetched? Should we just “keep our eyes on the heaven’s.” This revealing of insights and understanding is part of your royal mandate:
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. To search out a matter is the glory of Kings.” Proverbs 25:2
These discoveries aren’t just meant for you to internalize. It’s now time for you to carry these revelations forward. To not only see the factuality of the Biblical worldview and the God of it, but also the responsibility it carries. The tools are available, the landscape is ready, and the fields are ripe for “harvest.”
Intentionally or unintentionally, Darwin removed God from His Creator role in much of the culture. In so doing, we lost wonder. Wonder of creation. Wonder of humanity. Wonder of God’s wisdom. Wonder of the Creator Himself. Science has advanced since then.
Now is the time to get it back.
“in those days, men and women of insight will arise and shine brightly like the expanse of heaven and lead many to righteousness.” Daniel 12:3
Live inspired.
For just a taste of the inspirational practicality of this article, read here: https://medium.com/@DavidWLitwin/you-are-a-masterpiece-a-metaphorical-and-scientific-discovery-495292e1da97
