Sunday, August 20, 2017

And God said . . . BANG!

Jeremiah 31: 35-37

Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of hosts is his name:
36 

If this fixed order were ever to cease
    from my presence, says the Lord,
then also the offspring of Israel would cease
    to be a nation before me forever.
37 
Thus says the Lord:
If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will reject all the offspring of Israel
    because of all they have done,
says the Lord.

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There is a total eclipse of the sun tomorrow!  Of course, unless you have been living under a rock, you already know that.  A 70 mile wide swath of the North American continent will be able to see it.  The rest of us will have to make do with a partial eclipse.  Darn.   And when I realized that today was the day before the eclipse, I did something I have wanted to do for years!  I declared today “Science Sunday.”   I changed the scripture reading, the sermon title and the music selections, with valuable assistance from Jordan, Jessica, and Leah.   

For those of you who don’t watch network television, the people depicted on this slide are atheist physicist Dr. Sheldon Cooper and his fundamentalist Christian mother Mary, from the popular program, “Big Bang Theory”.  These two could be the poster children for “science versus religion” arguments.    

Most of us know and pretty much understand the scientific explanations of a total eclipse of the sun.  However, if you happen to have looked online to discover what Christian folks are saying about the eclipse, or what the Bible has to say about the eclipse, what you will have found mostly are quotes from the Revelation to John or other prophetic writings which certain Christian “scholars” say mean either the United States is being judged and will suffer some great catastrophe or that the end of the world is coming - soon!   None of the ones I could find said anything about science or the natural order of things that God put into play millions of years ago. I don’t know about you, but I tend to get a bit growly when people predict the end of the world, because Jesus said, “35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 36 “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  (Matthew 24:35-36)  When it comes to predicting the end of the world, I tend to put much more stock in what Jesus said than in what other people say.  When it comes to people saying, “God is judging America” on the other hand, I don’t believe any of it.  Hurricane Katrina was not a judgement on New Orleans because gay people live there.  Jesus said, “for [God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous…” (Matthew 5:45).  Weather happens.  Celestial events happen.  The eclipse does not portend terrible things…although that is what people used to believe.  People used to believe that a total eclipse meant the world was going to end - and they were usually very upset and confused afterward to discover the world continuing on as if nothing had happened.   Or they believed that it predicted a kingdom would fall … before, you know, science.  Although, the ancient Persians - the Magi - and the ancient Aztecs both could and did predict eclipses with great accuracy.  Both of those great civilizations used scientific method long before the “invention” of scientific method.  Anyway . . .

There seems to be a conviction among some - both religious people and scientists - that you can either believe in God or science.   So, either you believe God created the earth and everything in it or you believe that the world and its creatures evolved into their present forms and realities randomly.  Either you believe that climate change is real or you believe that “God is just hugging us a little closer.”   Either you believe in the logic of scientific method or you superstitiously believe that a power which cannot be seen or measured and whose existence cannot be proved in anyway can and does influence your life and the world around you.  I don’t see why it needs to be either/or.  

For example, when I was at camp last month our theme was “Look what God did!” based in Genesis.  One day a counselor asked me if I could mention that science was more accurate than Genesis.  He seemed truly surprised when I responded that a number of scientists have noted the order in which the Bible says things were created aligns very closely with what science thinks, and that I would be happy to mention that when we got to the creation of the animals part.  I already had pointed out to our campers that we no longer believe the earth is flat or that the sky is a great crystal dome from which the stars and planets are suspended.  Although there are still people who DO believe that - who believe the earth is flat, and that the space program is all Hollywood fakery. John met an actual real life Flat Earther just a few weeks ago!  Personally, I don’t think there is a disconnect between science and religion.   And I am in good company.   According to the website “Clarifying christianity.com, “In the last 100 years (and especially in the last [20]) scientists discovered many proofs that confirm the Bible’s accuracy. Since these proofs support the accuracy of the text we can understand scientifically, it makes sense to trust the Bible’s text that we can not yet understand. “http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/science.shtml   copyright 2003.     


When I was a student at Chapman University I was forced to take a biology class. (I know, right?  What does a Religious Studies major need biology for?)  Anyway, one day a classmate made a disparaging remark about people who believed in religion instead of science and the professor responded by saying, “I’m a Christian.  And I am a scientist.  I see no conflict.  In fact, physicists have been able to measure time all the way back to (some ridiculously tiny measurement of time that I can’t even fathom, roughly 10 to the negative 44th of a second.) before the Big Bang, but they can’t go any further.  They can’t figure out what caused it.  So I have no problem believing that God said, “Let there be light!” and BANG!”   I loved that. It is reasonable, and logical.   

Of course, he is not the only scientist who believes in God.
Albert Einstein said, “The more I study science, the more I believe in God.”(1)  and “I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.”(2)  
And
Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., who received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the first known binary pulsar, and for his work which supported the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe, said, A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.

According to the prophet Jeremiah, God said “If this fixed order should ever cease, so too shall Israel cease to be.” Well, duh.  If the fixed order of the planets and stars in their courses fails the universe will fail, and nothing will exist as we understand existence.  The prophet also said, “if the heavens are measured and the foundations of the earth are explored, then I will reject my children.”  While some might take these words to mean we shouldn’t even try to measure and explore, for fear of being rejected, I believe God meant that it isn’t possible to fully measure the universe, or fully explore the foundations of the earth.  For God is the foundation of the earth, and God is the totality of the universe, and no human can ever explore or understand God.  God told Israel over and again that they would always be his children, that he would never reject or disown them, and by extension that includes us, for according to Paul,  “the children of the promise are counted as descendants” (Romans 9:8b).  And “God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love.”  (Ephesians 1:5)    Because God knows these things are not possible - to fully measure the heavens and to fully explore the earth’s foundations - God will therefore never reject the children He created.

Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery, but we can never know the totality of God.  No matter how good our science gets, no matter how accurate our measurements become, we can never measure the entirety of the heavens or fully explore the foundations of the earth.   For we can never know the fullness of God.  We can never fully unlock the secrets of creation, but we can use the intellect God has given us to understand what is possible for us to understand.   We can stand on the space station or on the moon and see this blue and green marble floating in space.  We can see the world God made for us, and have an inkling of how much we are loved, that we have been placed amid all this beauty.   From space, we can see the wholeness of the earth, with no fragmentation. . . no fences, no walls, no borders, no divisions beyond those natural divisions of mountain, desert and sea.  May we reach out to one another across all those artificial boundaries and differences that cannot be seen from space to love one another as God loves us.  May we use the intellect God has given us to use science to create new ways to feed the hungry, end famines, and cure diseases . . . to discover new ways to love each other, and to create wholeness in this fragmented world.  
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(1)  (The Wall Street Journal, Dec 24, 1997, article by Jim Holt, “Science Resurrects God.”)

(2) (From E. Salaman, “A Talk With Einstein,” The Listener 54 (1955), pp. 370-371, quoted in Jammer, p. 123).


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