Changeful person that I am, I've switched over in my Bible reading to starting at the beginning of Matthew and ploughing through. Today I came Matthew 11:25 where Jesus says "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children."
This verse particularly struck me because I'd just read, in the dentist's office this week, a fascinating debate in the Nov. 13 issue of Time between well-known atheist, polemicist, and evolutionist Richard Dawkins and geneticist Francis Collins, head of the human genome project and an evangelical Christian. Collins doesn't dispute Dawkin's science, since he, too, believes in classic evolutionary theory. Where the disagreement comes is in whether the findings of science inevitably must lead to a belief in atheism.
In fact the very title of the article,"God vs. Science," was a misnomer, since the debate was not between science and religion, but between one belief system, i.e., Christianity, and another, i.e., atheistic materialism. Neither position can be settled by the scientific method because, for example, the question of the existence of God cannot be either proven or disproven by scientific experiment. Dawkins can no more prove an infinite and personal God is not there than Collins can prove that He is.
Anyhow, one of the truly revelatory moments in the debate (and one which I just discovered to my horror is not in the online version since they cut it short!) came at the end. Dawkins (who was showing evidence of starting to take a liking to Collins and had asked if he could call him by his first name) said that he wanted to say that he wasn't as totally closed minded to the possibility of God's existence as Collins implied. If He ever were to be discovered, he implied, it would be through science and He would be found to be far more "majestic" and unimaginable than the "manmade" versions around today. For example, the idea that the God of the universe could have come down and died on a cross, he further implied, was laughable.
Which just shows how the thinking of otherwise brilliant men can itself be laughable. "Not majestic enough!?" thinks even a moderately informed Christian. "Where to begin?"
Actually, one other passage from Matthew 11 is applicable when it comes to all those who "just can't see it" when it comes to the gospel (and sometimes that includes all of us):
The point here is that those who have their minds made up to disbelieve cannot be persuaded, no matter what evidence, scientific or otherwise, is presented to them. They make themselves the judges of what is worthy of belief, and if the God of the Bible does not "dance to their tune", i.e, to their preconceived notions, then they simply will not believe.
This verse particularly struck me because I'd just read, in the dentist's office this week, a fascinating debate in the Nov. 13 issue of Time between well-known atheist, polemicist, and evolutionist Richard Dawkins and geneticist Francis Collins, head of the human genome project and an evangelical Christian. Collins doesn't dispute Dawkin's science, since he, too, believes in classic evolutionary theory. Where the disagreement comes is in whether the findings of science inevitably must lead to a belief in atheism.
In fact the very title of the article,"God vs. Science," was a misnomer, since the debate was not between science and religion, but between one belief system, i.e., Christianity, and another, i.e., atheistic materialism. Neither position can be settled by the scientific method because, for example, the question of the existence of God cannot be either proven or disproven by scientific experiment. Dawkins can no more prove an infinite and personal God is not there than Collins can prove that He is.
Anyhow, one of the truly revelatory moments in the debate (and one which I just discovered to my horror is not in the online version since they cut it short!) came at the end. Dawkins (who was showing evidence of starting to take a liking to Collins and had asked if he could call him by his first name) said that he wanted to say that he wasn't as totally closed minded to the possibility of God's existence as Collins implied. If He ever were to be discovered, he implied, it would be through science and He would be found to be far more "majestic" and unimaginable than the "manmade" versions around today. For example, the idea that the God of the universe could have come down and died on a cross, he further implied, was laughable.
Which just shows how the thinking of otherwise brilliant men can itself be laughable. "Not majestic enough!?" thinks even a moderately informed Christian. "Where to begin?"
The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty...The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity.
(Psalm 93: 1,2)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Alighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."
(Isaiah 6:1-5)
Actually, one other passage from Matthew 11 is applicable when it comes to all those who "just can't see it" when it comes to the gospel (and sometimes that includes all of us):
To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
"We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn."
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon." The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and 'sinners.'"
(Matthew 11: 16-19)
The point here is that those who have their minds made up to disbelieve cannot be persuaded, no matter what evidence, scientific or otherwise, is presented to them. They make themselves the judges of what is worthy of belief, and if the God of the Bible does not "dance to their tune", i.e, to their preconceived notions, then they simply will not believe.
posted by Ted | 5:57 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting.... A couple of the scholars at the Apologetics conference last month were mentioning Dawkins. You forgot the Proverb "A fool says there is no God."
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