| Well, I am a seeker after truth and believe in God. Until proven (there's that word again) otherwise, I will believe in a possible GUT that accounts both for God and the physical universe as we experience it and ourselves. I have a book on my desk by John Polkinghorne, past president and professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge, that I haven't yet gotten to read. His 2nd, perhaps mid-life crisis? career is now as an ordained Anglican priest. I am willing to assume he could hold his own with the biologist, and find room for compatibility of science and faith. But the biologist is onto something. Before reading your post I was talking with my daughter about the conflict between a real practice of faith, and also being a product of the scientific world view. This may or may not be a faith practice issue, but specifically I confessed a lack of confidence in God in fact coming to the rescue of our friend with acute leukemia. (This is a bigger problem because it comes on the heels of my daughters believing they heard me using scatological language while playing poker online. They and their mother don't approve of either poker, or language expressing strong displeasure at negative outcomes in poker. I have neither admitted nor denied using such language, but I will be quite careful in the future!! In any case they are witnessing an avalanche of evidence for my moral and spiritual deficiencies). I don't think there is ultimately a conflict between God and science (and while we are at it let me add poker to the mix), but the practice of both presents challenges at the present time. That said, I am challenged on so many fronts that i cannot deny the one or the other on the basis that I am challenged by it. If that were the criteria I wouldn't be able to function at all! But the biologist is right that something must either give, or be incorporated into a larger gestalt, or more complete picture of God, ourselves and the universe. I have the feeling that our friend with cancer will be ready to go, and will have made his peace with everything, when the time comes for him to say his final good-byes. That may be a bit cavalier considering he has 3 daughters, the oldest of which is a freshman in college. But as Kierkegaard and existentialism say, we are a mixture of mortality and a longing for symbolism which reaches beyond our physical limitations. Some say in light of that, that we have something within us that fits with God, and will not know peace until we connect with god. My bet is that is right. We all get to place our bets, but that is where I'm placing mine, with all the uncertainties and uncomfortableness I experience coming to terms with modernity and deity. |
