Science v Faith

I’ve had people question how I can believe in God; how I can believe that He created the universe, the solar system, this planet and the life on this planet. I’ve been called many things because of my faith in God and His creation of everything that is, up to and including, psychotic and crazy. But seriously, let’s look at the amount of faith that’s required to believe in God and what’s needed to believe science’s explanations.

All it takes to believe in God is faith the size of a mustard seed. Even little children, too young to be “taught” to believe, believe in God. They speak about angels and eternity when they’re too young to even realize the enormity of what they’re discussing. And, deep inside each of us, there’s a space within our hearts that has to be shut down in order to believe there is no God.

To believe in science, however, one must put aside logic and one must piece together strings and lines and multitudes of information in order to come to some pretty basic conclusions. Let’s start out with the fact that there is life on earth. In order for life on earth to be possible, one must accept each one of the following things. If even one of these things is missing, there’s no way to reach the conclusion that life exists on this planet.

1. From absolutely nothing, there was an explosion and the universe was born.
2. The universe suddenly expanded for some unknown, unprecipitated reason.
3. Molecules of helium and hydrogen were the only atoms created in the “big bang,” but these atoms began to coalesce together, which created gravity.
4. Gravity caused enough molecules to coalesce that they created vast clouds.
5. The vast clouds began to spin causing them to heat up.
6. Once they reached a certain temperature, the clouds became a star. (Now, it’s important to note that this process has happened apparently billions of times before, and when those stars died, they exploded which created every other element in the universe, thereby giving the contents of our present universe.)
7. Gases coalesced and formed our sun.
8. Other gases coalesced and formed our planets, including earth.
9. A planet almost as large as earth crashed into the earth, knocking part of its material off the surface and into orbit around the planet, but the planet that smashed into earth was obliterated.
10. The material knocked from earth’s surface coalesced and became our moon.
11. Asteroids and comets pummeled earth, depositing water, amino acids and other organic compounds.
12. In the primordial sludge, amino acids came into contact with other organic matter and these were struck by some electrical charge, possibly a bolt of lightning, which caused basic life to burst forth.
13. This lone, single-celled organism split into two different single-celled organisms.
14. After an untold period of time, one of the single-celled organisms decided to become a multiple-celled organism.
15. After an untold period of time, one of the multiple-celled organisms decided it didn’t want to be like its relative multiple-celled organisms so it changed and became something else.
16. After billions of these simple life form organisms decided they no longer wanted to be like their relatives, various life forms came into existence.
17. Eventually, one of those organisms became a fish.
18. Then a fish decided it no longer wanted to live in the ocean, so it climbed onto land and since it was no longer in the ocean, it lost its gills and developed lungs.
19. After millions of descendants from the fish that moved to land had become differing species, one of them became a rat-like creature.
20. The rat-like creature continued to “evolve” until an ape-like creature was born.
21. After many generations, a humanoid was born.
22. After several species of humanoid life had existed, modern human was born.
23. After a million or so years, humans had enough brainpower to decide that there is no God and began looking at the earth to decipher how life came to be.

Now, let me ask you one very important question regarding the above list of things one must believe in order to believe there is no God: why, if life spontaneously burst forth from amino acids coming together with other organic matter and receiving some sort of spark of an electrical charge, why did it only happen just once? Why is it that the “experiment” has not only not happened again on earth, but no scientist has been able to replicate that feat?

**I abbreviated much time and "evolution" beginning in #16, then in #13 throughout to #23 because I realized if I enumerated every step, I would have thousands, if not millions of enumerated steps in this writing, and no one would want to have to wade through so much information.

When Christians Fail In Their Responsiblities

I continue to hear Christians complaining about the federal government of the United States offering food stamps, welfare, unemployment benefits and even disability payments to the citizens of this country who fall below the poverty line. For the life of me, I cannot fathom how they can justify to themselves the idea of allowing people to go hungry or go without the most basic needs of human life. Of course, the standard "party line" comment is, "if a man won't work, he shall not eat," completely taking the scripture written by Paul completely out of context. In the third chapter of 2 Thessalonians, Paul is discussing those in the church who "walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies." These men were able bodied, able to work, and work was available, yet they chose to not work and engage in meddling in other people's business.

Jesus told his disciples, in Matthew 26:11, "For you have the poor with you always." And in many places in the Gospels, Jesus commanded us to feed, clothe, house and look after the poor. What of the man who works but doesn't earn enough to support his family? Shall he, and they, go hungry? What of the man who cannot find work? Shall he and his family remain hungry because he doesn't work? No! In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us if someone asks us for something, we are to give it, if we have it. How else does God provide for those who are in need? Can He miraculously deliver food, clothing, water, housing to those in need? Yes! But, in most instances He chooses to use His people to provide for those in need. Why? Because it's not only a blessing to those who receive, it is a blessing to those who give! And it's our way to give to God. God doesn't need our money! He owns the entire universe! He can speak and create another universe the same way He created this one; so why would He need our measly money?

Much has been made lately about the political speeches about income equality. Sadly, most of the harshest commentary, and misrepesentation of the discussion is coming from Christians. There's no plan, or even talk, of taking away from the rich to give to the poor in the United States. Rather, there is talk of ensuring that those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder are provided with more ways to achieve the so-called 'American Dream.' In the land of plenty, a land that proclaims itself to be a 'Christian Nation,' it's not just a shame, it's a sin that there are children who go to bed at night with hunger pains so bad they cry themselves to sleep. It's a crime that people in this country cannot afford to go to the doctor when they, or their children, are sick. And as for the cries about socialism, we should all remember that the first recorded instance of socialism in history was that of the First Century Church. Yet, even then, there were those who cried about their people not receiving as large a share as others. And when a certain Stephen tried to explain how that program was Divinely inspired, he was stoned to death!

The more times have changed, the more they have stayed the same!