Last week, I received an e-mail from a friend. It’s one of those ones which seems to circulate every now and again, but this time when I read it over something jumped out at me as a little different. I’d like to read an excerpt from it, and although it’s not the main argument of the e-mail, I thought that this part was particularly encouraging for me. The story takes place in a classroom, and a science professor is asking questions of his students, trying to demonstrate why science cannot accept the notion of God. It continues:
“Tell me”, he continues onto another student, “do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?”
The students voice betrays him and cracks. “Yes, professor, I do.
The old man stops pacing. “Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?”
“No sir, I’ve never seen Him.”
“Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?”
“No sir, I have not.”
“Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus, or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?”
“No sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.”
“Yet you still believe in him?”
“Yes.”
“According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?”
“Nothing,” the student replies. “I only have my faith.”
“Yes, faith,” the professor repeats. “And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.”
After some further discussion, a student responds:
“Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?”
“If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.”
“Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?”
The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where this argument is going.
“Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?” The class is in an uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.
“To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.” He looks around the room. “Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s brain?” The class breaks out into laughter. “Is there anyone here who has ever heard it, touched it, or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir.
“So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?”
Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers “I guess you’ll just have to take them on faith.”
Now, the most politically-charged portion of this argument is obviously the one about evolution. But I think the portion about the brain is even more interesting. The truth is, we take for granted that every person we meet does, in fact, have a brain. That’s not a simple thing, even in an age when surgery is so advanced. For example, people have seen brains. But it is almost always in the context that the person is dead or injured and requiring the surgery. In that case, perhaps a brain is just a product of injury, and no one walking around right now has anything of that sort within their skull!
This act of taking things on faith is something which we do every day in our life. We are willing to assume that our next breath, or our next heart beat, is going to happen. We assume that our next step will be on solid ground, and that our eyes are good enough to perceive whether that ground is unsafe or not. We assume that customers in our store or our co-workers are generally benign, and until one of them begins to yell at one of us we’re just as happy to assume that they are not out to harm us.
I think this gets to the root of the passage where Paul states that the law is written on Gentile hearts in Romans (Romans 2:15). The concept of God, and the concept of right and wrong, is something which is instinctive to us, and demands either action or rejection. How often do you hear a child asking about God, as if He simply must be? And, ironically, most people spend their lives turning to things like science to try and undermine that natural understanding, trying to do what the science professor is doing: disprove God, so that they can hold onto their idea of self-empowerment. And in so doing, they attempt to bombard us with the same messages their listening to, because our faith is a constant reminder of what they want to forget.
And I think everyone here probably understands what I mean when I say that those messages can sometimes be very challenging. When you hear it often enough, it can become difficult to reject the idea that God is a work of our imagination. But perhaps it can be strengthening to realize just how many things we take on faith every day! The idea of accepting things without “empirical proof” is natural to us… God has hard-wired us to see that he’s there! Just take a look around and it becomes clear that something exists beyond our world. The stars at night reflect the magnitude of God. Things like fireflies, which I was blessed to see with Shoshanna last night, show the creativity that goes into the world – creativity which would make creatures with built-in night lights with no seeming purpose. And creativity to give us the minds to appreciate such things.
I believe that God wants all of us here to have the same level of faith in him that we have in our next breath. In Hebrews, it is stated that faith is the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen” (Hebrews 11:1). Assurance, I believe, in the sense that we keep our eyes open to those things which demonstrate God’s presence, without having to force ourselves to acknowledge it. And that assurance will lead to action, just as our faith in the ground will lead us to step forward without hesitation. For, as James says, “faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26). When God blesses you with everyday faith in Him, rest assured that the way you act will be transformed!
Posted by nebcanuck 
Posted by nebcanuck 
Posted by nebcanuck 
