Roseyland

I was in church today, which is weird for me because I’m not the church going type, but that is another story. During the sermon, the pastor mentioned that he had prayed before to experience something divine. Something miraculous that would would prove to him that his faith was real. Of course this divine experience did not happen, and there was more to the sermon after that, but I forgot what it was. If you really want to know, you can listen to the sermon yourself here.

This got me to thinking. I think a lot of the tension between science and religion stems from the fact that many religious people insist on believing in a supernatural God. When it comes to science vs. religion, I’m a science guy. I don’t believe that Jesus literally walked on water, or healed anyone, or even that he was immaculately conceived. In other words, I don’t believe that there was anything supernatural about Jesus. In fact, don’t really believe in anything supernatural at all. That being said, I also don’t believe that life is just a side effect of matter and energy interacting according to randomly set physical laws. I believe that miracles happen, but they don’t happen outside of our reality. They happen within our reality. Our existence itself is a miracle, we shouldn’t feel like we need to look beyond our own universe to experience something divine. This all reminds me of a story I have heard a number of times in a number of different ways. I found the version below here.

The Flood

Once upon a time there was a man of great faith. The man lived in a small town. One day it began to rain. The rain continued until the streets in the town began to flood. The mayor sent police officers through the streets, knocking on doors and shouting through bullhorns for the citizens to evacuate their homes. But the man said, “No, I will not evacuate. God will save me.”

The waters continued to rise until the man was forced to climb the stairs to the second floor of his home. Soon the mayor sent the fire department on rafts through the streets of the town. They called to the man to get into the raft. But the man shouted from his second floor window, “No, I will not get into a raft. God will save me.”

The rain fell heavily and soon the water rose above the second floor. Now the man had to climb to the roof of his house. The mayor sent the rescue squad in a helicopter. They dropped a rope ladder and shouted over the din of the propeller blades for the man to grab onto the ladder. But the man called back, “No, I will not take hold of your ladder. God will save me.”

Soon the flood waters rose even higher and washed the man off his roof, and he drowned in the raging current.

When the man reached heaven, he angrily banged on the gates and demanded to see God. After some negotiation, he was taken to the Throne. The man said, “I am a man of great faith. Why didn’t you save me?’

And God replied, “Well, I sent you police officers … the fire department … the rescue squad …”

– Author Unknown

The man in the story above was so focused looking for a supernatural miracle, that he overlooked the obvious solution right in front of him. Let me switch gears to evolution. I think the biggest problem creationist have with evolution is that they are obsessed with a supernatural God, which is not required by evolution. Evolution is still a miracle though. The fact that the same laws of physics that allow for atoms and molecules, also allow for stars and planets, and also allow for DNA and multicellular organism that can evolve into the diversity of life on this planet, is a miracle. If you really take the time to think about it, evolution if far more miraculous than a supernatural God *poofing* the world into existence. I don’t know for sure what form of God I believe in, but I believe that he (or she, or it) is an integral part of this reality, not something beyond it.

The image in this post is “Miracles Can Happen” by joesflickr and is licensed under creative commons.