Day 9: Science and Faith

 

My boys are all pretty well versed in science and so when they have questions about faith,  God and the universe, they aren't usually simple. 

The first time I saw faith co-mingle with science was in Davis while Ulrich was finishing graduate school.  He was getting his PHD, and so was most everyone else in our bible study group.  There was a geologist, an evolutionary biologist,  Spanish,  botanist and a few other disciplines that I can't remember and we decided -- just for funsies-- to read Genesis. I think our discussions would have offended many people.  They were honest,  open and truth seeking while not leaving everyone's respective professional disciplines at the door. We talked about days of creation and nephilim and the great flood. We talked about what we know about the earth and what we knew about the Bible. It was a safe space to search for God and make sense of what we know about the world. 

My first crisis of faith came as I went through university.  Increasingly I felt pressure to segregate my brain. One compartment for things I learned at school. A different one for things I learned at church. But I couldn't do that.  Questions crossed in both directions.  Faith questioning the "western values" I learned in school.  Science questioning answers the church gave me for history,  science and psychology.  Both circles called me to an all or nothing mentality.  Either embrace science and become and atheist or let go of my brain and critical thinking grab hold of my "traditional values. " I wrestled with this for many years until I found a third path.  

Science and faith use different tools to seek truth and I think to be committed to either you have to be ready to change your mind. 

In science,  new data comes and changes our understanding of things. If you are a scientist,  you have be ready to accept new evidence or systemically prove it wrong. We grew up learning that the tongue had different areas for different tastes,  but taste buds,  which are also on the roof of your mouth and parts of your throat are all able to distinguish flavor. If you would like to nerd out on this,  here's a link: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8956797/ Other prominent examples come from nutrition - the old eggs are good,  eggs are bad for you debate.  

In faith,  new interpretations or understandings can, in the same way,  change our view of God. I'll give a small example.  When I was young I used to imagine the "fruit of the spirit, " as a fully formed fruit made by the spirit and handed to me to eat.  Like Pentecost,  the Spirit rests upon me and suddenly I'm more patient. But over time,  I've come to think of this more as the spirit working in me and makes me produce fruit. This shows God working on me and transforming me over a long period and the fruit of a life lived in faith is a demeanor that reflects the nature of God.

People who deeply seek truth often end of in science or faith.  And sometimes,  they can become a fundamentalist.  Fixed in the ways they learned when they were young.  Think of doctors who stubbornly hold on to older therapies that were tried and true when new guidelines have shown  better options are available or people who just say -- follow the science -- while issuing blanket statements. 

Or, in faith, there are folks who get very black and white when discussing mysteries upon which there are a variety of theological interpretations.  

Some of my favorite people to talk to are faithful scientists who can hold empirical evidence with one hand and testimony and 4 different translations of the Bible in the other. They have a willingness to dance with mystery and wrestle a an angel. And often,  the humilty to be wrong.. over and over again. 

 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known

I have come to cherish this verse. I'm never going to grasp the whole truth until the fullness of time. And until then I can do my best with the part that I can know and.... in the meantime... the verse instructs me... hold on to faith,  hope and love. Especially love.