Beliefs and Colleagues

What is the greatest problem in societies relative to balance for the purpose of caring for the needs of all the people of earth?  The question is important because there are enough resources, or we believe there are, when management is well ordered to care for the consequences of God’s original creation of conscious life as parable to his conscious life.  His heavenly throne is related to his earthly footstool.  Christians or non-Christians are interested, or ought to be, in the world not only for their own countries or communities in the welfare to peace and survival.  In this context we honor the creative act of God that offered something of the environment for life and the image of God in human beings.  That image is invisible, but it is real and present in mankind possessing divine worth.  We know there is something, but we are wary about what it is, whether or not it has reality in it, since there is no material substance that is sufficiently persuasive.  We tend to manage it by relating to our hearts.  We say it is heart-felt rather than mind-felt because it projects us beyond our brains and substance.  If we go it alone, the complexity of it all tends to overshadow us.

We want to fix things that are broken, but there are some things that are too complex for us.  We need help. This is partly related to the difference between an element and a compound.  The element is rather easy to manage, but when it is joined to other elements matters become more complex.  Life is a compound of compounds making problem solutions sometimes difficult to find, and when found difficult to apply.  Currently the world is being troubled by what is called terrorism.  That terrorism is partly held together by religious beliefs (compounds) – that are at odds with compound religious beliefs of other persons/societies.  Matters are so complex that there appears to be warfare between God and god/man – divine and secular.

At this writing there is intense warfare (with words and politics in the weaponry) between political parties in America, but the similar thing is happening across the world.  In fact the warfare can be seen in the exchanges between some scientists and some persons of faith.  Creation is made the battlefield.  An article I reviewed included the following statements (equating with many reviewed during many decades): Religion shapes faith in science. The belief in the Big Bang Theory and the beginning of earth 14 billion years ago is not believed by half of the American population.  More than forty percent of persons polled doubted Darwin’s theory of natural selection.  More than 70 % of respondents believed that the universe is so complex, there must be a supreme being guiding its creation.  The survey found that evangelical Christians and those who regularly attend religious services were most skeptical about scientific explanations.  One scientist responded: Values and belief trump science.  Further the collision of religion was found in politics, a compound which clouded understanding.  There was, however, high agreement exceeding 90% on scientific studies showing that smoking causes cancer, and there is a complex genetic code that helps determine who we are.  The Associated Press, commenting on the survey stated that: the survey highlights the iron triangle of science, religion and politics.  People wanted to believe science.

If I were a scientist in the academic context, and also a naturalist denying that there is a God of interest to the universe, I would respect those persons, especially scientists, who did believe there is a God.  We know little about beginnings, but, for the sake of search we will leave it – that at the beginning there could have been an Intelligence that gave us what we have inherited.  I would leave it to those researchers who believe in God to discover how faith in God makes any difference to our research and conclusions.  As a Christian, I would presume that the naturalist is helping me in the discipline of making human conclusions from hard evidence, and that if we follow the evidence with care we are likely to arrive at proper conclusions about the contexts of mankind in nature.  That is honorable enough, why tilt with faith persons?  We are friends in the search, not strangers on different planets.   Growing out of the cooperative effort might be to discover that faith concepts in God have aided us in common (mutual) grace.  If they do lead to variances, those variances may be keys to unlocking some mysteries we all face.  Peaceful searchers ought to be friends.