Sunday, October 2, 2011

God of the Gaps?

I recently found this article on Deseret News discussing religion and science and found it quite inspiring and uplifting. It did a good job of explaining some of the controversy and why we should try and clear up some common misconceptions that lead to the divisiveness between science and religion. I especially liked what was said about Intelligent Design and why it is neither good science or good religion:

"ID doesn't make predictions nor does it publish its 'results' in scientific journals, so if it is science then it is bad science," Holder said in an interview with the BBC in June. "If it is theology then it's bad theology because orthodox theology sees God involved in the whole process of the world, upholding and sustaining the laws he has ordained and bringing about his purposes through those laws. God is not to be confined to ever narrower gaps in scientific knowledge. Quite the opposite: God is to be found in what we know from science, not from what we don't know."

One of the major issues I have with Intelligent Design proponents is that they try to use hard to understand biological processes to prove God exists because in their minds, there is no other way to explain their observations. In their minds, God is seen in the "gaps" of scientific understanding, that in this lapses of knowledge we can see God's hand. This is one of the reasons ID proponents are so opposed to science: the more science learns about the natural world, the less important God becomes. I, however, believe God is the author of ALL truth, religious, philosophical, scientific, etc. When we gain greater understanding and light in ANY of these areas, we gain a greater understanding of God and His grandeur. To me, God is not in the gaps of scientific understanding. He is enveloped and interwoven into a babbling stream, a beetle on a flower, the laugh of a child, the morning sunrise, snow-storms, lightning, the full moon, and the countless celestial bodies we see on a dark night. He is a part of all of those things, because He created all those things. And the more we learn about those things, the more we learn about Him.

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