Most of you who know me, know of my struggle with faith, and more specifically, the church. From the time I was 14 until I was 37, I stepped into church a total of maybe 5 times, 4 of them for weddings and funerals. I loved (love) Jesus, but it was the church that I found unnerving. One of the things that truly troubled me was reconciling science and religion, because the explanations I was hearing from the church were unconvincing. I got over it as an adult because I can reconcile science and religion, but the contortions some churches go to really bothers me. The Bible is not meant to be a scientific document. It is a spiritual book and a historical account of the Christian faith (and to some extent the Jewish faith).
Last year, I read a great book by Adam Hamilton titled, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White. Although it was disappointing in the end (he voted for Obama as best I can tell), it really sums up our perspective on the world, politics and religion.
I had no idea that the Roman Catholic Church required Galileo to renounce his determination that the Sun was the center of our solar system. Galileo was born in 1564 in Italy. He was a renowned mathematician, astronomer, inventor and philosopher. In 1633, he was convicted of heresy for proclaiming that the Earth revolved around the Sun. He was forced by the Catholic Church to renounce his assertion because it was contrary to Scripture. Imagine that?
As Adam Hamilton says, “To ask the Bible to function as a scientific textbook is to fundamentally misunderstand the intention of Scripture.” What fun would it be for God to have laid out in detail how the Earth and the Universe were formed, or how we were created -- especially since I read the creation story in the Bible as the creation of man and woman that could form thought and discern right and wrong. Six days is God’s time, not our time. Our lives are likely just a speck of a moment in God’s time, yet he knows everything that is happening in every one’s lives. Don’t you think God wants us to discover on our own, learn, debate and grow – a process that must take thousands and thousands of years, just looking at the discoveries and innovations since Jesus lived – or millions or billions of years.
Science and religion are not threats to one another, quite the contrary. To quote Galileo, “The Bible teaches men how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.” Adam Hamilton reconciles the debate pretty well:
Between the black and whiteness of the conflict between science and religion is a place where both are valued for what they offer us as human beings: a place where we don’t have to choose between science and religion. They are not adversaries, but two different ways of helping us understand the universe and our place in it. Those who recognize this have to appreciate the value of gray.
Well said. I am not a black and white person, at all. I am very conservative, especially from a fiscal, small government perspective. But in actuality, I am liberal from a religious perspective. For example, I think gay marriage in the church should not be accepted, but I have no problem with civil unions from a strictly legal (government) perspective – because that is what marriage is to the government, a legal contract. And aren’t we entitled to equal protection under the law.
Sometimes the confines of church and church doctrine, stifle me. I do know Jesus and I love Jesus with all my heart. I want to be like him, although that is an unattainable goal. My struggle is with those that think they have it figured out, or they said the prayer, get dunked in a baptism, or faithfully attend church, so they are good to go and live life accordingly. And sometimes churches say okay they are now saved, so let’s move on to the next lost soul. The thing about that is that person’s spiritual journey is just beginning. Some churches do very little to foster that journey, but rather focus on what I call “Fear Factor” church or trying to scare the hell out of the remaining lost souls to repent.
No one should come to Jesus out of fear, but out of love, because he died a brutal death for each and every person who will ever step foot on this Earth. I question the “judgment” that abounds from churches on a regular basis, either through the people of the church or the pulpit. Jesus was a radical, and he would turn over the tables in most churches today and charge “You don’t get it!” But we are humans so we can’t ever attain that perfection. If you think about it, the closest person to get it (from my life perspective) has to be Mother Theresa. Talk about a selfless servant of the Lord. All of the Popes and smoke and Popemobiles in the world can’t hold a candle to her selfless service to Christ and to the people of the world. She did it with such humility and such gratitude. What an amazing person. I wish and pray I could get to her level, but I know I won’t ever come close. What amazes me most is those who truly believe they are selfless, giving, servants – when nothing could be further from the truth. That, my friends, is the hypocrisy of the church. But I am a part of it, and it has made a world of difference in my life.
Kelli, I understand your sense of frustration when folks pit science against religion. My dad was a biology professor and a lover of Jesus, and from a very early age he taught that they are not mutually exclusive. Even the Bible itself hints that while some parts are to be read in a literal fashion, others are not. 2 Peter 3:8 speaks to time for God vs. time for us and they are not the same thing. Thus, to my simplistic mind, evolution and creationism can co-exist. And even that's not the point since I'm not God and don't have to know how He did everything to love Him and His son. But it goes further for me in the meshing of science and religion because I watched and learned from my dad all those years of his life as he taught students biology and I had the opportunity to see him in action both in school and the church where he was a deacon. It really shaped my views and made them stronger than the garbage which is spewed by both sides as they attempt to debunk the other. I personally like the duck-billed platypus as my favorite animal on the earth ever because it shows God's creativity and our pridefulness. When the first specimen was brought to the men of science in 1799, they first concluded it was a hoax, a series of parts cleverly sewn together to create this animal. However, God has a much better sense of humor than that, and they discovered the platypus was real and really weird! We can't ever know everything from a scientific basis, but we can know God and enjoy the beauty and complexity of His creation. It's as simple as that.
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