Monday, October 27, 2008

God vs. Science

There is a forwarded email that has been going around for a few years. It is an email about a Christian student standing up to an atheist professor’s argument that there isn’t a God. I have received this email a number of times and it goes like this:


"Let me explain the problem science has with religion." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand. "You're a Christian, aren't you, son?"


"Yes sir," the student says.


"So you believe in God?"


"Absolutely."


"Is God good?"


"Sure! God's good."


"Is God all-powerful?


Can God do anything?"


"Yes."


"Are you good or evil?"


"The Bible says I'm evil."


The professor grins knowingly. "Aha! The Bible!" He considers for a moment. "Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?"


"Yes sir, I would."


"So you're good...!"


"I wouldn't say that."


"But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't."


The student does not answer, so the professor continues. "He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?"


The student remains silent.


"No, you can't, can you?" the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.


"Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?"


"Er...yes," the student says.


"Is Satan good?"


The student doesn't hesitate on this one. "No."


"Then where does Satan come from?"


The student falters. "From God."


"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"


"Yes, sir."


"Evil's everywhere, isn't it" And God did make everything correct?


"Yes."


"So who created evil?" The professor continued, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil."


Again, the student has no answer.


"Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?"


The student squirms on his feet. "Yes."


"So who created them?"


The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. "Who created them?"


There is still no answer.


Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized. "Tell me," he continues onto another student. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"


The student's voice betrays him and cracks. "Yes, professor, I do."


The old man stops pacing. "Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?"


"No sir. I've never seen Him.'


"Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?"


"No, sir, I have not."


"Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelled your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?"


"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."


"Yet you still believe in him?"


"Yes."


"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?"


"Nothing," the student replies. "I only have my faith."


"Yes, faith," the professor repeats. "And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith."


The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of his own. "Professor, is there such thing as heat?"


"Yes."


"And is there such a thing as cold?"


"Yes, son, there's cold too."


"No sir, there isn't."


The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested.


The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain, "You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it."


Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.


"What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?"


"Yes," the professor replies without hesitation. "What is night if it isn't darkness?"


"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?"


The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester.


"So what point are you making, young man?"


"Yes, Professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed."


The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. "Flawed? Can you explain how?"


"You are working on the premise of duality," the student explains. "You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is t o be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it. "Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?"


"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do."


"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"


The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.


"Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?"


The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean." The student looks around the room. "Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?"


The class breaks out into laughter.


"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelled the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?"


Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.


Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. "I guess you'll have to take them on faith."


"Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life," the student continues. "Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?"


Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course, there is. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."


To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."


The professor sat down.

The student was Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein did write a book titled God vs. Science in 1921.

Okay, now…

First of all, this actual discourse never really took place between Einstein and a professor. You can read more about that at Snopes.com.

Second, I have yet to read in any Bible that it says mankind is evil. The Bible does say that mankind is “sinful”; meaning falling short of the mark or highest standard, but not that we are “evil”.

But my greatest problem with this email comes at the very end of it when it says:

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

There is a big problem with that statement because it clearly states in Isaiah 45:6-7:

"That they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one apart from Me; I am YHWH, and there is no other. Former of light and Creator of darkness, Maker of good and Creator of evil. I, YHWH, make all these things."

and it also says in Colossians 1:14-17 (in speaking of how God created *all* through Christ):

"Who is the Image of the invisible God, Firstborn of every creature, for in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him, and He is before all, and all has its cohesion in Him."

The Bible clearly states that God did create good and evil; He created *ALL* through Christ. It also states that “faith is an assumption of what is being expected, a conviction concerning matters which are not being observed (seen)” (Hebrews 11:1).

For a very interesting and meaty exposition on the subject of Evil, you can read The Problem of Evil and the Judgments of God by A. E. Knoch.

In the arms of a much bigger God than we can fully comprehend…

Friday, October 17, 2008

God of Life

For the last couple of weeks I have been rebuilding what I too easily had given up. I have been rebuilding the times of intimate fellowship with the Lord each morning. When earthly “to do’s” and other thoughts or worries try to creep in, I have to intentionally put them aside. Having faced the consequences of not connecting with the Lord first thing every morning and instead tackling those things, I now know better. It’s been wonderful to reconnect and refocus on what’s really important.

Life has certainly not been a “relaxing picnic” lately. I find it totally ironic that life at this age and season seems to have become more complicated. Maybe it’s my mindset or emotions, or having three children in their teen years (!!), or what all is happening in our world…I don’t know. Maybe it’s all those things combined together. Whatever it is, earthly life just seems to be more and more complicated. Even trying to express myself tends to be difficult. There are many things within me which I am sensing, discovering, and understanding that I want to express and write about, but they seem all jumbled up together.

A few days ago, I realized that there was a God-theme having its way with me in the last couple of weeks. It has to do with “LIFE”—HIS life. HIM being my very life and breath. I experienced the feelings of drowning and death without being intimately connected with Him every morning, and for the last couple of weeks I have been experiencing the revival of my spirit. It’s not an overnight thing; but each day I feel more alive, more hopeful and peaceful.

Last week the weather was so gorgeous and I was able to go for my walks. I take much more pleasure in walking now that I have an IPOD and am able to listen to praise and worship music. It’s very hard to control myself and not sing out loud (it’s so out of tune when those earbuds keep me from hearing my own voice!), and it’s also very hard not to raise up my arms in worship as I’m walking. Early on during my first walk last week a song came on and my heart resonated passionately with it. It became my song for the week, and I listened to it on every walk for the rest of the week. Each time, it was a truly special and intimate moment between God and me. The song calls out to God and praises Him appropriately calling Him the God of Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIc9N1OBgrk

This week as I was reading the book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jake Colson, the “Life” theme continued as I read the following on page 31:

“You know what this whole thing is about, Jake?...It’s about life—God’s real life filling your own. He moves in so that you will no longer entertain any doubts about his reality. It’s the kind of relationship that Adam tasted when he walked in the garden with God…It is the kind of life Jesus lived that was more than sufficient to meet every need he face, from feeding multitudes with a little boy’s lunch to healing a sick woman who touched the hem of his robe. This life is not some philosophical thought you can conjure up through meditation or some kind of theological abstraction to be debated. It is fullness. It is freedom. It is joy and peace no matter what happens—even if your doctor uses the ‘C’ word when he gives you the results of your MRI. This is the kind of life that he came to share with everyone who will give up trying to control their own lives and embrace his agenda…It’s certainly not what so many have come to believe, like working hard, building big ministries or new buildings. It’s about life that you can see, taste, and touch; something you can frolic in every day that you live…”

Amen! to those words.

Because Christ came from God

“For us there is one God, the Father, out of Whom all is…”

(1 Corinthians 8:6)

and because God has chosen to do all through Christ

“…and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom all is…”

(1 Corinthians 8:6)

I have LIFE! I have been given LIFE! We all have been given LIFE!

"The first man, Adam, became a living soul"; the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving spirit.

(1 Corinthians 15:45)


Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

(John 10:10)

God of Life, Oh Lord of all

Hear my prayer, Oh hear my call

Take this life, Take it all

And let it burn, and let it show

And let this life down here on earth

Echo in return


He is THE LIFE…there is no other true life. True life is not lived just when everything (spiritual or earthly) is going like *we* would like it to be. TRUE LIFE is lived in spite of…

Thursday, October 16, 2008

My Redeemer Lives and Brings Me Joy

Yesterday, my morning hours were spent crying anguished and uncontrollable tears regarding the circumstances with one of my children. I spoke of all my sorrows to my Lord and wrote them in my journal as the tears just kept pouring out. I spent most of the day fighting to hold the tears back from flowing at the most inopportune moments—they did not want to stop. I haven’t had such lengthy and emotional tears like this in a long time.


Then, as the evening hours came along, God began to redeem my tears. First it was just a little thing here and there with regards to that child which brought such blessings to my heart. Then by late in the evening, God granted me a whole hour of pure, blessed joy!!! And some of the treasured moments I had cried about in the morning, feeling I had lost them for good with this child, were given to me, again!


The Lord surely did BLESS MY SOCKS OFF just before I went to sleep for the night. All the tears—the gut-wrenching tears I cried yesterday for most of the day—were suddenly healed by the events God ordained in the evening hours.


I know in my mind and by faith that God leaves NOTHING wasted in our lives. He will take EVERY single thing and REDEEM it beautifully as only HE can do; all in its perfect and ordained time. I have seen this multiple times looking in hindsight at my past, and I experienced it in my present last night. So all that sorrow I felt for most of the day yesterday seemed but a small thing compared to the JOY and BLESSING I received in the evening hours.


Weeping may last for the night,
but a shout of joy comes in the morning.

(Psalm 30:5)



As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

(Job 19:25)