4/21/17 - "A Spell Identified" "God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night..." (Genesis 1:16) Although the Story of Creation is clearly a mythological interpretation of how we got the given reality, its hard to respect the opinion that it simply isn't true. The argument from an atheistic scientist always goes, "Life is the result of scientifically identifiable processes, the interplay of which goes ungoverned by anything but natural laws." I find this much more difficult to believe than the idea that a God orchestrated everything. If, in fact, reality is not controlled by any living entity, why does it clearly arrange itself to the service of creatures who live at its mercy? If reality is an arbitrary construct resulting from elemental factors and forces, we are extremely lucky. The conditions of Earth actually must be perfect in order for life to form on it, and maintain a process of advancement through a 6-billion year history. The "two great lights" are a revealing example. The moon, a perfectly sized, reflective-white rock, rotating around the Earth such that it provides reflection of the sun at appropriate times, is certain evidence that reality is strategically designed. It provides just enough light for animals to hunt, or generally conduct business. It's not too bright for sleep, but an animal's eyes can work with the amount of light that it provides. Why would you assume that we got lucky, to have such a convenient utility? I am certain that God wants his creation to function well, and He uses the day and night to effectively manage the motions of His life. That is the most reasonable explanation. Scientific rationalism doesn't actually have any ground in reality when it tries to explain things purely in terms of chaos and order. Obviously, the concept of natural order can go a long way in explaining why things work out, but the idea of chaos misidentifies what is actually an illusion. Things seem chaotic, but if God's mind is in control of it, it isn't actually "chaos". What seems to be a stand-alone, self operating system is actually an incomprehensibly real imagination. The imagination of God is as real as it gets. When God sleeps, this is what He dreams. Ever have nostalgic feelings for a town, a road, some place you often visit? What if your experience of those scenes is actually an artistic construct, and the entire thing was created just for you? Your environment helps you to generate specific thoughts, and all your thinking directs what you actually end up doing on a day to day basis. The chaos theory says any small thing that happens in reality can affect much larger outcomes. I agree with that, I just don't think it's truly chaotic. God might be making tiny, unidentifiable adjustments in His creation to yield specific outcomes, and you would never know that everything is in His control - You can't see it, you would never be able to scientifically identify His influence, but all things are subject to His will. Ideas like "chaos" and "luck" are imaginary concepts that we used to identify phenomena in the illusion. The Earth arises out of "chaos"... The moon's reflection at night is the product of "luck". Very lucky indeed. What if we hadn't been so lucky?? Lots of luck involved in evolution, apparently. You might not have been you! I might not have been me! It's all controlled by a roll of the dice! Ahhhhhhh!!!! (That's a scary idea when you find yourself in trouble, because if things were not predetermined, you might actually BE IN TROUBLE.) Or, we have a good God. Believe the scientific babble if you want. You can still think that our "luck" is the product of infinite chance. Say this life were the product of chances resolving in a success. Wouldn't that mean that there's no guarantee of continued success? It might all fizzle out after all those billions of years without having had a meaningful purpose! It could end abruptly, forever disappearing without having told a real story. It's a sad belief to have that your life doesn't necessarily have an mindful intention behind it. Life is more alive when you start to believe that the thing itself is living. Modern science isn't really interesting when you start to consider the implications of there being an All-might Being who created your reality. Moving on... |