This is a reaction to Bad-Astronomers’ post on faith and science.

I do not intend to prove you wrong. But there are other points of view – not particularly antagonistic to science – that are rarely heard.

I don’t think we have to split faith and science dualistically. When splitting like this takes place, the result is immediate polarization, and any attempt at communication breaks down into shaking fingers furiously at one another. Then, all anyone can do is shake harder…or make a fist and shake it, because that’ll show ‘em.

[Science is] a method, a way of finding this knowledge. Observe, hypothesize, predict, observe, revise. (emphasis mine)

Defining science as a method is well put. It amazes me how rarely people understand that concept, and in an ideal situation, anyone trumpeting under the banner of science would first have to submit to this method. Granted, I do not like talking about science totally in this way, merely because “submitting to the method” reminds me of some freaky cult – which isn’t science. Engineering, maybe, but not science.

Baseless insults to engineers aside, there stand at least two huge barriers in the way of finally putting an issue like this to rest. From the way I see things, the first problem is in the fact that both sides’ uppity-ness has little to do with the conclusions made and more so in the assumptions about the other party’s assumptions. (what an obnoxious sentence)

If a person has grown up in a spiritual culture that makes a big deal about the Earth being flat, and then a scientist comes along and points out that it is, indeed, round, that person’s entire life becomes shattered. So when Chuck Darwin started spending too much time looking at finches and comes to some astonishing ideas that result in even more astonishing conclusions, does that force any implications on others in a non-scientific realm?

Maybe – or maybe not – but the immediate knee-jerk by everyone opposing C-Dawg might indicate that they merely assumed an imposed-conclusion about their spirituality. Plus, if those who aren’t scientists feel threatened and want to respond to science-based claims with their own science, do they violate their existential integrity in doing so? I say yes. Scientists can say that humanity descended from purple boogers shot from the nose of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but to what degree would that effect the notions of spiritual revelation? And if I decide that it does effect my religion, am I still religious by attacking back with more science?

There’s the rub.

The second of the huge barriers I mentioned is the strange polarization that has come to plague our intellectual realm. The one point on which scientists and creationists seem to agree is that we must choose one or the other.

Why?

Why not both/and?

Scientists might say that using both/and violates the methods on which their work rests. Theologians (conservative Christian, typically) often say that without a literal 6-day creation, then systematic theology states that “faith in Jesus” suddenly reduces to vanity.

I think the problem is that I can at least understand what both sides are saying. Spiritually, I have gained more out of life than I would have thought possible (though that is not necessarily the goal), and yet my fingers tap-tap-tap on the keyboard of my MacBook Pro – a pinnacle of science (fan-boyism aside).

Westerners love the comfort of either/or.

Tension that comes from both/and can be unsettling.

But somehow I think that the both/and tension might be the best way to go…

My mentor, Kyle Lake, was killed in an accident on a Sunday morning, two weeks after I was diagnosed with Leukemia. The following is the message he would have given, encouraging us to live life to the fullest.

Live. And Live Well.
BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now.
On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.
If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE.
Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.
If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well.
Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed.
If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own.
If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well.
At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift.

–Kyle Lake, RIP.

This was found in his desk a few days after he died:

“No one can understand Virgil’s Georgics unless he has been a farmer
for five years. No one can understand Cicero’s letters unless he has
busied himself in the affairs of a great empire for twenty-five years.
No one can presume to have indulged in Holy Scriptures sufficiently
unless he were in charge of all the churches for one hundred years
with the prophets Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ, and the
Apostles. Do not seize hold of this divine aeneid, but adore its
tracks with humility. We are beggars, this is true.”

He wrote it in Latin, except for “we are beggars.” This he wrote in
German, to give it emphasis.

Happiness in life doesn’t come from attaining something. Striving, seeking, hard work, and extreme dedication will only earn you more of the same.

Happiness itself is really just a myth. A friend’s 10-year-old son died in a helicopter accident a few weeks ago. I will fight leukemia for the rest of my life. People are forced to live in a cyclically defeating system known as “poverty.”

All of life is absurd, and it hangs by a thread.

And yet, there is something very peaceful in that awareness. Contentment is truer joy. Being content with life means that you accept that which you cannot control.

The sooner we agree that life is hard, full of struggle, quiet desperation, pain, frustration and sadness, the sooner we can actually live our lives. Stop trying to avoid pain, and you can embrace it. If you embrace pain, you embrace life.

That is Tentatio. It is inevitable struggle, but its existence does not ensure a life dominated by pain. In fact, it guarantees a certain freedom from it.

In the summer of 2003, I found myself on an overnight ferry going from Belfast, Ireland to Liverpool. Our group had been over seas for a few weeks by this time, and we were exhausted. But before I popped a Dramamine and let the rocking of the giant ferry drop me off to sleep, I stepped outside. It was windy and frigid; the English Channel was a deep gray in an essentially dark surrounding. I stood there for a few minutes listening to the wind hit the water and spray upwards. Then I slept deeply.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. And the Earth was formless and darkness was upon the waters. The Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the deep.” For a minute, step away from controversy over intelligent design, Evolutionary theory, and every philosophy in between. In the Beginning… The Earth, the one on which you are sitting right now, this exact Earth, had no form. There was only a primordial sea. Darkness struck the face of the waters much like the light would strike it at God’s command. His living spirit hovered above the waters. But not just the waters… he hovers over the “surface of the deep.” I see a dark, tumultuous ocean much like that night I was leaving Belfast. Its depth is unfathomable, shrouded in pure mystery and unwilling to yield its secrets.

The Spirit of God hovers over the deep. He fathoms the unfathomably deep water. He is not afraid of the violent surface. God hovers over his creation. The sun had not been born yet, but it will come into existence soon. Waters have not yielded dry land, but it is only a matter of time. God still hovers over the water, taking it in. He knows what it will look like when he finishes, when the sun shines on trees and dances through a waterfall’s spray. But not yet. First, God’s spirit hovers above the water.

By his spirit, God surveys and continues his creative work. He forms our continents, sets the galaxy in motion with the life giving sun. He creates life. Things live and grow. Birds fly, gazelles run, and flowers bloom. Beauty takes pure and physical form, and we get the sense that as the Spirit of God hovers over this great, dark sea, he knows what is coming. He hovers in anticipation.

This powerful Spirit that created and witnessed the beginnings of the Earth, planned what it will be like, smiled when beautiful things grew to be a part of it, and even hovered over it in its crudest, primordial state, also breathes life into every human being in existence and is present even there in your room.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’

Some may have seen the show called “The O.C.” I never really watched it, but it helps my illustration. The ‘poor’ character on the show was supposed to be from a city called Chino Hills, CA. When I heard someone mention that, as they talked about the show, I laughed. You see, I grew up in Pomona, CA, and then in Ontario, CA. Residents of Chino Hills called us poor. Especially in Pomona where there was a large racial mix, the area also had a problem with gang activity. And since we lived in the shadow of the beautiful Laguna Nigel and San Diego, our status was fairly obvious. I mean, even Texas has more attractive landscape.

Now, in spite of its deficiencies, I would probably smack you if you made fun of Pomona or Ontario, unless you also lived there at some point. It’s still my hometown. In the small section of John above, Nathanael has the same outlook that someone from Laguna Nigel would have about a resident of Pomona. Or, in terms I am more familiar with, someone from Chesterfield and Ellisville, MO would probably say the same about someone from East Saint Louis. Of course, let’s be honest. Depending on what was specifically said, they would be right. The same is true for Nathanael. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Well, no… not really.

Many have probably asked the same questions about the church in America. Sitting in cozy, separated chairs, sipping $9 lattes, and remembering that they have to wash their 40-foot suburban after the service, the ghettoized Christian church has left most of us in spiritual bankruptcy. This is especially true with the suburban, republican clubs that have the word ‘church’ in their names. Can anything good come from there? Or is it time to stick our heads in the sand and give up?

I think that the very beginning of John has something to say. We’ve all heard it before: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Ok…am I just being trite? What does that have to do with Pomona, Laguna Nigel, and a venti, extra-hot, white chocolate, double shot, half soy, light whipped cream, mocha with a hint of cinnamon?

Well, do you remember the last time you took part in the Sacrament? When you went up to receive the bread and wine, God’s actual, spoken Word was there in those elements. The Word That Was Spoken to Create the Universe actually walked around in sandals for a while. As painful as it may sound, this Word is present even in the places that spiritually abuse members of its congregation. Because, after all, this Word became flesh, bones, teeth, hair, and blood so that even Christians might be saved.