I know that it is popular to
believe that religion and science are in opposition to each other, and that no
thinking person would also believe the “myths” of the Bible.
My view is that God is a rational
being and that he created the universe and all that is in it to function
according to rational and knowable principles.
Science is an attempt to discover those principles and is in no way
contradictory to a belief in a Creator and Sustainer.
A little research on the history
of the laws of physics places beginning concepts as emerging about 600 years
BCE. Interestingly, this is also the era
in which the book of Jeremiah was written.
A passage I read recently seems to refer to the laws of physics.
If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed
laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David
my servant....(Jeremiah 33:25-26)
The point of the passage is not
the fixed laws, but the fact that the Lord will always be faithful to the
people of Israel and the descendants of David.
But, his faithfulness is as firm as the laws governing day and night and
heaven and earth. In other words, He is
acknowledging that he has in fact set up fixed laws…principles which govern the
world we observe around us. He is not
asking us to believe in some magical or mystical elements that bring about the
order we see. He is not saying that
someone pulls the sun across the sky behind his chariot. He is saying that there are fixed laws which
bring about the sunrise and sunset each day.
We know now that day and night are governed by the movement of planetary
bodies. God already knew that, of
course, and knew we would one day figure it out.
He also understands the mysteries
of subatomic particles and of dark matter and energy. He doesn’t mind if we try to figure out his “fixed
laws.” Belief in him and scientific
inquiry are perfectly compatible.
I believe anyone who genuinely
seeks TRUTH will eventually be confronted with God himself.
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