Scientists are mad, and who can blame them? They are upset that state school boards and legislators with little knowledge of science are trying to get public school teachers to teach their religious beliefs in the classroom instead of accepted scientific truths. The actions of school boards from the state of Kansas to Cobb County, Georgia, to Dover, Delaware, which have attempted to replace instruction on the scientifically solid theory of evolution with the latest version of creationism, called intelligent design, fly in the face of conscientious education. Such guardians of outdated orthodoxy threaten the minds of our students, the future of our national science programs, and the reputation of our country. A group of scientists wrote a series of essays critical of recent trends which have been published in a book called Intelligent Thought: Science Versus the Intelligent Design Movement. For the most part the essays are well thought-out and scientifically based. However, a few contributors felt the need to reach beyond the realm of science and make assertions concerning the nature, or even the existence, of the divine. When scientists make such comments they have exceeded the boundaries of their discipline, and they are in danger of doing the same thing that they rightly accuse the school boards of doing: trying to promote religion in the guise of science (although at least they don't advocate teaching their views on religion in the classroom). Only a few of the contributors to this volume made the mistake of straying from science into theology; others acknowledged the inability of science to judge such matters. God asks Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" "[Who] said [to the sea], 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther?'" Science has answered many of the questions that God asked of Job. We know the approximate date of the foundation of the earth, we know its measurements, and we understand much about the oceans. Nevertheless, there remains much that we don't know. How exactly did life come to be? Is there a single unifying theory that ties all known forces together? What causes gravity? Are there multiple universes? Why does our universe have the universal constants that it has, without which life would be impossible? What is the nature of human consciousness? Science may one day explain some or all of these questions, but it will never answer every question, because it has no way to do so. What is God like? Is there meaning in the universe, and if so, what is it? What lies outside our universe? What is the nature of eternity? The specific questions that God asks Job are not as important as the overall question: can anyone really understand God? For all our scientific inquiries and for all our theological investigations, the answer is no. We can only acknowledge God's greatness.
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When a spider builds a web, it builds it in such a way that it is able to maneuver around the web without difficulty, even though other small animals will be trapped in it. An ant lion digs a hole that an ant will slide down, but the ant lion itself does not fall down the hole. Humans aren't always as smart as spiders and ant lions. We sometimes contrive elaborate plots, only to find ourselves snared by our own creations. The Leopold and Loeb murder case is a classic example. Two teenaged boys in 1920s Chicago decided to commit the perfect murder. They selected a fourteen year-old boy named Bobby Franks and killed him. Believing themselves to be Nietzschean supermen, far superior in intellect to those around them, including the policemen investigating the case, they left an abundance of clues, including a pair of eyeglasses that belonged to Leopold next to the body. They wove a web of deceit, but they were unable to keep from being caught in it. The psalmist says, "The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands." Despite this affirmation, and despite ample anecdotal evidence supporting it, many people and nations continue to act with impunity, as though there is no chance that they will be caught in their own trap. Such shortsighted thinking explains why the U.S. continues to support repressive regimes in countries that they consider to be of strategic value. Past disasters like the Vietnam War, the Iranian hostage crisis, or Gulf Wars I and II don't deter us from making deals with dictators in Saudi Arabia or Uzbekistan or with war lords in Somalia--aren't these the same guys we were fighting in the movie Black Hawk Down, based on an actual incident? Similarly, we continue to insist on our need to increase our nuclear arsenals. How long will it be before one of our own nuclear weapons, or one at one time controlled by one of our allies, is detonated on American soil? We set snares for other people, and we get trapped in them ourselves. The problem lies in our wicked motivations. We don't care about the oppression of people living in the countries with repressive dictators, and it comes back to haunt us. We don't think about the thousands or millions of people who could be harmed in a nuclear attack--whether on our own soil or elsewhere--so we continue making objects whose sole purpose is to kill as many people as possible. All nations, not just the U.S., must learn to act on the basis of sound moral principles rather than short-term expediency.
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What keeps your neighbors, your friends, your family members from committing their lives to the pursuit of a deep relationship with God? It might be that they doesn't see the need to do so. It's possible that they don't really believe in God. Or it might be that someone has put an obstacle to faith in their path. Obstacles to faith come in many different forms. For some people, a faulty explanation of the path to God keeps them from seeking God further. If they see too many unnecessary hurdles, they might decide it's too much trouble to enter into a relationship with God. For others, an anti-intellectual presentation of the divine-human equation sours them on the pursuit of the divine. For still others, the hypocrisy of Christians who say one thing and do another keep them from making a commitment themselves. In the first two cases, we are trying to draw people into a relationship with God, but we complicate matters because of our own misunderstandings about God. To some extent, one can argue that these problems are unavoidable, since we all have misunderstandings about God. On the other hand, if we avoid our insistence that people have the same experiences or the same beliefs as we do, we will clear the path for many to follow. In the third case, hypocrisy, it is our lives that inadvertently turn other people away. We say one thing but do another, and those around us notice. Again, a certain amount of hypocrisy is probably inevitable, since we are all imperfect, but if we will commit ourselves to living lives that are authentic and honest, we will minimize the obstacles that we put in the paths of people who are honestly seeking God.
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"Why did you let my mother or father die?" "Why didn't you get me the job I wanted?" "Why don't you heal me of this disease?" Despite the many things that God has done for us over the years, when disaster strikes we promptly forget all of them and focus exclusively on our present distress. Jesus' disciples were the same way. Despite Jesus' prior astounding feats, when a storm arises at sea, all they can say is, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" A moment of perceived inattention, and our faith wavers. "What have you done for me lately?" we ask God. The truth of the matter is that God cares more for us than we care for ourselves, and God always has our best interests in mind. Despite appearances, God is not asleep at the wheel. If things aren't going exactly as we think they should, we should consider the possibility that God is trying to teach us something through the current situation. Maybe God is trying to steer us in a different direction, or maybe God is just testing your faith. Regardless of the exact reason for your current difficulty, rest assured that God is not asleep in the stern.
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