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| RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER AT SUNSET |
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| Charles Darwin |
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| DE NILE RIVER |
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| Greek Temple |
Here endeth the lesson.
PS: Although my name is Rob and I am always Right, I am still an imperfect man, a sinner and every bit in need of God's grace and love as the next guy. I struggle with the exact issues above, by putting my own selfish desires above His. God loves and cherishes everyone, even those who do not agree with me.
As I finished reading your latest blog post on God and Chaos, I couldn’t help but think of the major problems your argument contains. I hope to address a few of these concerns of mine in this response, so that you may learn not to fall into the traps they set. Let me begin by saying I am an Episcopalian from the greater Richmond area, and I fully understand the overwhelming sense of purpose one feels when they stare at the setting sun over the James (or Rappahannock) river. It’s one of those few indescribable moments that a person can really get in touch with their ‘inner self,’ or feel the immense power of the universe.
ReplyDeleteThe first problem I have is connecting this feeling of purpose to the theory of evolution. First off, Darwin never claimed his theory as antagonistic to the existence of God; creationists and poorly informed Christians have made this connection. Darwin’s theory, rather, is a theory of how life has changed, not how it came to be. Although I know I will have no chance at changing your opinions on evolution, please know that it is possible to acknowledge the existence of God and of Darwin’s theory of Evolution. In fact, Darwin himself was a stark Christian his whole life. He struggled with the same doubts in his own theory that you yourself struggle with. But when he was confronted with the overwhelming data that supports his theory, he had to acknowledge its validity. So have nearly all ‘serious scientists’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution#Scientific_support).
Now, as a ‘creature of reason,’ you should also know that it is mathematically possible for the origin of life to derive from simple chemicals (and seemingly, from accident). The renowned chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey demonstrated in 1953 that given the elementary chemicals and conditions found during earth’s beginning, more than 20 different amino acids could be produced spontaneously (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment). Amino acids, as you may know, are basically the building block of all life. They are what make up proteins, and proteins are found in all known life forms. Of course, from here you might have two questions: the efficacy of their experiment and if their results actually mean life could have been created spontaneously. In regards to the former, it is held in high regard in the scientific community as it has been shown to be reproducible by third parties with comparable results. The latter question is more difficult to accept, and even harder to explain, yet I will do my best.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it, chemically or physically, that allows life to persist? After years of study in the subject of life (I have a B.S. in Biochemistry), I can truly say I don’t know. Sometimes scientists, myself included, have a surprising ability to understate the powerful forces of the Universe. We use words like ‘electromagnetism’ to explain concepts that humans have an extremely hard time fully grasping. But although we use an overly complicated vernacular, I believe we may have more in common than you think. Isn’t it possible that the natural forces that govern our universe and that scientists study year after year are really just our own way of perceiving God’s connection to the physical world? It is entirely plausible that scientists are looking at the same picture as you, just describing it differently based on logic and our understanding of the physical world. Perhaps you are correct in stating that life did not begin accidently. It could be that life will always come to be (in some form) due to the laws of the universe, and that could be God’s will. Or it could be chance. All that we know is that the precursors to life seem to occur spontaneously.
Nevertheless, it is disheartening to hear from such well educated individuals in my community a sense of closed-mindedness. To completely dismiss a unique idea before learning about it, thinking about it, and talking about it is one of the greatest tragedies humankind has ever committed. It is this line of reasoning that will continually lead you astray. As a Christian, you should be well versed in the virtue of acceptance. This may be a time to really contemplate what that means.
ReplyDeleteMy second problem is the idea that humans must submit to ‘God’s will.’ This is a fallacy. Would you agree that humans have free will? Maybe a better question is if you believe you have free will. You may be able to discredit free will for the rest of humanity, but nearly everyone who does this will still believe that they make their own choices. When the rapture finally calls us to our eternal home, won’t Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father, come to judge the living and the dead based on their physical lives and choices? If we have no free will, then God has predetermined who will be good and who will be evil. A benevolent God could not be able to do this, as it would force evil into our world and commit eternal punishment on souls who had no ability to better themselves. Sinners who have lost their way should be able change (take, for example, the prodigal son). I believe at the heart of Christianity isn’t the strict adherence to the laws stated in the Bible (a text written by men and therefore has inherent biases), but rather an almost indescribable force to do good in the world. True, we should not be able to do whatever we want, but we can.
Instead of focusing on this aspect of life, however, we should focus on the teachings of Jesus: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is a reason that this idea pervades every religion ever seen on the earth. This lesson tries to get us to acknowledge that helping others is more important than focusing on what not to do (set up by an unperceivable entity and written in a book by men 2000 years ago.)
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, it should be reassuring to you that you don’t have to submit to ‘God’s will.’ For me, times in which I have sinned have been more of a lesson of what to do than plainly ‘doing the right thing.’ If we all were born with an innate ability to know right and wrong, then there would be no evil in the world, no despair, and no meaning to the word ‘good.’ We have to sin in order to learn; it’s human nature. That is also why Christianity preaches forgiveness. What is to forgive if there is no evil?
You’re right in saying that often these issues are obfuscated by people, but how often does the general person understand the whole picture all at once? They can’t. That is why thousands of philosophers, teachers, and religious students have broken down these topics into elementary terms. It helps us to understand what is really going on. When you lump together something as dense as this subject into a statement like “you must submit to God’s will,” you run the risk of making assumptions that will lead you astray.
ReplyDeleteLet me provide an example of this. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Westboro Baptist Church before, correct? (If not, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church) I’m sure all of their members believe, as you do, that they are following “God’s will,” but don’t you think they’ve gone too far? They intentionally seek to cause distress and pain to people. This is opposite of Christian teachings, but they justify it by blindly following what their church says is “God’s will.”
What about the persecution of Jews during the religious Reformation in Europe during the 16th century? God’s will. What motivated extremist Muslims to fly planes into the World Trade Center? God’s will. What caused the dark ages to last so long? The Church corruptly used God’s will to enslave generations of Christians. Do you see how this can be a problem?
ReplyDeleteLet me continue to your next argument. This is the point in your blog post that persuaded me to respond. You use the etymology of the word ‘chaos’ to connect your views to the similar views of a Greek myth of the origin of life. In effect, you told me that your views are very closely related to a myth that people haven’t believed in thousands of years. Very effective. Do you want to know what else the Greeks recognized as “natural law and divine order?” The idea of four elements, geocentrism, and countless other myths people used to believe (because of, you know, God’s will). It took us 2000 years to get to where we are now in science, philosophy, etc. Why would you ever want to go back?! We were able to create iPads, TVs, and yes, thirteen years of government paid education by continually rethinking things, reimaging what could be, and enacting our ingenuity to achieve success! By what I can infer from your post is that we shouldn’t be doing these things. How would you be able to post on the internet without people who rethought how to use a computer? Did the constitution get written on its first try? Was democracy the first government ever created? NO! We must continually be able to question and change our beliefs as a species in order to survive in this world.
This ideal is the basis of education. The reason that judges have continually ruled against teaching creationism in school (Edwards v. Aguillard, Hendren v. Cambell, McLean v. Arkansas, and Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District to name a few) is because it teaches young people NOT to question things, but to take what the Bible says for granted. Also, if we did force schools to teach creationism, would we force young Jewish or Muslim students to believe in it? Why is it hard for people to keep God away from education? A school is a place for learning a way of thinking, a church is a place for God. Darwin’s genius wasn’t only his unified theory of evolution, it was also his ability to even question that things might have happened differently.
ReplyDeleteThis leads me to the London riots. I agree, the riots were horrible, and most things that happened are unjustifiable. But let me ask you this, wasn’t the American Revolution eerily similar? I can just imagine the British during the 18th century being just as horrified as you are. They might even say that it was the “inevitable result of the moral relativism espoused by modern liberalism.” Gee, that’s interesting. Maybe we should have continued being slaves to the British Monarchy? Or maybe we could acknowledge that sometimes we have to do what seems wrong to most people to make a change for the better. This can only happen by constantly questioning authority. Our founding fathers did. Jesus Christ did.
By the way, what does religion have to do with the London riots? I really do not see as big of a connection as you seem to. And attacking liberalism in America from this? I’m sure that of the 40% of people having children out of wedlock, probably half are conservatively minded. Or maybe Bristol Palin is a liberal. I don’t know.
ReplyDeleteIn closing, I do not believe atheism leads to any of the things you claim it does. Have you met many atheists? Many are kind, hardworking individuals who don’t believe they need to be told how to do good, they just do it. The absence of God does not necessitate a life of sin and debauchery; remember: you make your own choices. To claim that liberalism is the sole reason for corruption of the soul is flat out wrong. If it were true, conservative people would do no wrong (http://gatsome.com/2009/09/01/glenn-beck-raped-and-murdered-a-girl-in-1990/). Alright, so that last example was obviously a joke, but seriously, Liberalism isn’t the end of western culture. It was the beginning of western culture.
Think of it as the evolution (LOL!) of human thought. Don’t just sit there, keep thinking about things, keep questioning.
Sorry for the multiple posts. My argument took too much room than they allow in one post.
I guess my comments warrant no response? I was trying to garner a discussion.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, you make it very complicated but you seem to create chaos of the mind when it could be very simple.Glad to know that you think of yourself as imperfect and in need of God's graces. Otherwise, one might think it is your ego and pride that keeps you writing your opinions with such sarcasims.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, intellectual thoughts can get a bit boring because there is no end.
PS: Although my name is Rob and I am always Right, I am still an imperfect man, a sinner and every bit in need of God's grace and love as the next guy. I struggle with the exact issues above, by putting my own selfish desires above His. God loves and cherishes everyone, even those who do not agree with me.