And at some level it makes perfect sense. Certainly in the past things we did not understand were attributed to God, and then it turned out later that they had perfectly reasonable natural explanations. But there is a big problem if we try and apply the definition to origins. I mean we now know from the theory of relativity, that the universe had a beginning. Before that, there was simply nothing there, no matter, no time, no energy, absolutely nothing. So to say that there is a natural explanation for the beginning of the universe, is to say that nothing created everything that is out of nothing. And this clearly contradicts the scientific notion of cause and effect.
In particular since there was a time that the material universe did not exist, then something outside of the universe must have caused it to come into existence! So there is a problem with the far-reaching implications of the word “only” in the definition of scientific naturalism. In fact when you include the word “only” in the definition, then you can only hold it to be true by faith, and by a faith that defies logic and experience. In particular, rather than knowing too much science to believe in God, a person who says such things does not know enough science!
Father, how polarized is your world. And how easy it would be to take the truth of what we are saying here today and hit others over the head with it. “This truth has just struck me, let me strike you with it!” Lord we need, I need, Your help here to speak the truth in love. Thank You that I can be confident of the help I am asking for here, because it is so very clearly in Your will (Ephesians 4:15) in Jesus Name Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment