Vibrant Dance: Not Just Origins

The first plenary on Wednesday was by Deborah Haarsma from Calvin College, on “Not Just Origins:  Engaging Science in the Life of Your Congregation through Creation Care, Worship and Education.” It was designed to give the audience take home ideas for applying science to the various ministries of the local church—outreach, worship, and discipleship. As Haarsma pointed out, science and faith intersect on more than origins. As stewards of Creation, what we learn about it through science, illuminated by the practice of our faith inspired by the Spirit, should impact how we take care of the parts of the world with which we have influence.

Creation Care:

Many Biblical commands have a scientific component: care for the poor, sick, young, old (i.e. “least of these”), species extinction, deforestation/agricultural issues, pollution, sea level rise, natural evil, AIDS, global access to health care resources, cloning, etc.

Many Christians, when faced with this laundry list, ask, ‘what can the church do?’ The first answer is ‘not everything.’ However, every one of these issues is complex and neither end of the political spectrum has ‘the answer.’ Politics and media love sound-bite solutions, but the church uniquely understands that human issues are extremely complex, and should be equipped to bring a compassionate voice to minister to multiple parties.

Take deforestation/agriculture for instance. Third world farmers are trying to improve their standard of living and would like to do so quickly so they can enjoy the benefits we now take for granted. It is not reasonable, much less compassionate for us as the first world to dictate to them environmental policy for sustainability and biodiversity. Their justified response is that who are we to talk—we already raped our landscape, and can afford to go back and fix things. They are just trying do to more than survive. What the developed world needs to do is to come alongside with solutions to accomplish both purposes and get our hands dirty with them to help lift them up in a way that preserves the beauty and biodiversity, potentially helping them to capitalize on their unique biodiversity rather than just copying what works somewhere else.

The first step for us as believers is of course, is to pray. Second, get educated on an issue, really educated. Too often we shoot off our mouths on topics we have only a 30 second news bite understanding of things and we react. It is appropriate to respond rather than react. Start by reading 2-3 books on a particular topic that is on your heart. Prayerfully read from different perspectives to get a sense of the various issues involved and different takes on them, without neglecting those outside of Christendom.

A second step is to partner with ministries of denominational groups who address science issues. For most issues, there is already someone working as Christ’s hands there. Don’t start from scratch; help multiply what they are doing.

Remember, Creation Care is the application of stewardship-a response could result in changes in lifestyle, not just a collection of ideas. Don’t make it political. By reading even one competent book on a subject will make you more informed than pretty much everyone else, yet it is still only one book. Humility with a teachable spirit is key here, too.

Worship:

Science and faith should not be primarily about controversy or apologetics. In fact, most Biblical references to the natural world are in the context of worship and understanding God’s character—the ‘sense of the divine’ we experience when we look at the natural world. Therefore, we should encourage Christians to enter all fields of science. As Kepler said, we get to “think God’s thoughts after Him.”

There some pitfalls Haarsma warned against. 1) Don’t make a sermon a science lesson. Instead, weave it into one’s preaching/teaching. Use science in illustrations. She gave the following example—when describing the Holy Spirit as breath, describe what happens in lungs when we breathe air. Also, nature is a revelation about God—i.e.-a supernova explosion as a demonstration of God’s power. We can use science to discuss loving the poor with appropriate technology. Focus on God. Use science to illustrate points.

Science stretches the imagination. Seeing the wonders of nature inspires worship. One site to use as a reference/for inspiration—www.seasonofcreation.com She also recommended www.biologos.org/blog/categories/worship.

Science itself speaks of nature in neutral language. Some scientists will use atheistic language, yet Christians will speak of nature as God’s creation. It helps to understand the vocabulary. Science and technology reveal parts of nature that we cannot detect with our unaided senses and illustrate God’s attributes even more dramatically. Haarsma offered the idea of using science illustration/terms in congregational prayer that worships God as Creator.

Ptifall #2: Scientific explanations do not replace God and conversely, do not worship the god-of-the-gaps—i.e.- praising God mainly for things that science can not explain. The danger here is that when a scientific explanation is found, faith is reduced/damaged. Instead, praise Him for all of Creation, both what science can and cannot explain currently.

Haarsma pointed to Psalm 104, which sees things occurring both ‘naturally’ and by the Hand of God, and what’s more, does so interchangeably. Above all, she begged repeatedly and emphatically, “Please, PLEASE, do not praise God for your scientific ignorance!” (Pitfall #3!)

Education:

Other ways to include science in congregational life include going on a nature walk after a church picnic and ending with a song of praise, host a star party after evening worship where a local astronomer can set up their telescope and show what is in that season’s sky, use scientific images in sanctuary banners, work with local health care resources, convert vacant lots near church to gardens/parks, and so on. 

Regardless, always connect activities back to Biblical principles. Showing an informed interest in science will help break down barriers to the Gospel. It can also help equip our youth to better hold on to their faith when in college science classes. It gives us more opportunities to let Christ’s light shine to the world and gives opportunities to praise God for the Glory displayed in nature. Of all people, it is the Bride of Christ who should be the best steward of Creation.

Haarsma concluded with the admonition from Micah 6:8—“Do justice, and love mercy.”

RJW note:  I have very much merged my thoughts and extrapolations with Haarsma’s in this post, more than in others. The nature of the topic and length made it a bit pedantic to keep them fully separate. One thing I do want to add is a strong caution that some of these areas are sufficiently controversial that sincere believers are deeply emotionally connected to different sides of an issue, and just bringing up some topics can trigger strong responses. I recommend before embarking on a science-inclusion campaign that church leadership spend several months preparing a congregation for this, through occasional messages, notes in bulletins, emails, etc. Even bringing the topic of science up can invoke reactions because of the strong anti-science bias even on some elder boards. This is not meant as a discouragement, but an encouragement of a critical area of ministry—moving God’s people from darkness to light, milk to solid food. There will likely be growing pains, so extravagant love and grace are needed.

Similarly, particularly in environmental related issues, there is much that is popular but scientifically uncertain or even disputed or debunked. As you are getting started, stick to principles rather than concrete recommendations and as you learn more, gradually shift. Science is dynamic, and some ‘discoveries’ made one day are shown the next to have significant holes. Think about how often the medical journals report something as healthy or dangerous only to have it reversed in the next study.

For example, one area of which I am highly skeptical is that of the CFL lightbulbs. My experience is they rarely last significantly longer than traditional bulbs. Also, their manufacturing is much more involved, taking more resources to make them, use much more hazardous materials (primarily mercury) which are disposal hazards, are typically made in parts of the world where manufacturing standards are not as environmentally friendly, which makes them more dangerous than incandescent bulbs for the manufacturing environment, and the price difference is not offsetting for the supposed benefit. It is important to consider the ‘cradle-to-grave’ impact of ‘green’ technology, not just the user’s impact. I have a lot of hope in the new LED light bulbs. They are cheaper, more versatile, simpler, and less hazardous. Their key drawback now is brightness. In time, this should be corrected. In the meantime, I’m stocking up on incandescent bulbs before they are banned in 2012. There are similar issues regarding the electric and hybrid cars. Start with awareness and principles, love and grace, glorifying God, and see where He leads on specifics.

SDG

Vibrant Dance: The Nature of Nature

This post is both exciting and frustrating to write for you. The topic is exciting and the talk was excellent, yet the slides and topic were so information rich, I had to focus exclusively on listening and couldn’t take any notes, so this will be really short and more of a teaser.

Bruce Gordon (Discovery Institute and King’s College) was the speaker in one of ten breakout sessions to end the first day. The title of his talk was, “The Nature of Nature. Some Implications of Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Particle Physics, etc., For the Essence of Our Universe.”

Given the topic, Gordon was obligated to give a summary of Quantum, Relativity, Particle Physics, etc. in a way that was as approachable as possible for a lay audience, no mean feat. As a physical chemist, most of it was at least conceptually familiar to me, though I did learn a lot of unfamiliar details, and it was a nice summary of both the science and the history of how these fields developed.

The meat of the talk was essentially that these areas of science impinge so heavily on metaphysics that philosophically, a Causal Agent is the only reasonable option. In fact, what he presented was in some ways the most convincing evidence to me scientifically of God’s existence. As I am fairly hypersensitive to ‘god-of-the-gaps’ type hand waving among creationists, it is significant that I did not immediately notice any. In the absence of notes and the density of the talk, I can’t say that it is impossible for any of Gordon’s arguments to be taken this way, but it did seem to be an argument that was internally and externally consistent in its logic.

As I recall, the basic premise is that two or three of the fundamental axioms of these fields are paradoxical and lead to impossibilities in a naturalist universe, and require something/one outside of spacetime to resolve these conflicts. In an attempt to create a naturalistic mechanism, physicists developed string theory, which is falling into more and more disfavor as more and more data come in. Does that mean that a naturalistic mechanism is impossible? Not necessarily. It does seem to mean that a theistic mechanism is the most reasonable so far. Therefore, perhaps it can be used as a model to predict new discoveries in particle physics that our current models struggle with.

Gordon is coming out with a paper in the near future that discusses this topic. When I get a copy of it, I will come back and fill in the many gaps.

SDG

Vibrant Dance: Worship and Artistic Interlude

There were a couple of ‘features’ throughout the conference that I have heretofore ignored: several sessions of “Worship and Artistic Interlude” and testimonies of various speakers. I tended to miss some of these due to volunteer activities and frankly due to being unimpressed with some of the ‘artistic interludes.’ Several involved a liturgical dance group, and of all the arts, dance speaks to me least and can be distracting. However, some sessions were quite enjoyable and worshipful, and when I could hear the testimonies I tried to take notes, and will share them.

The evening interlude was a non-dance one—Deborah Haarsma from Calvin College (Astronomy) shared with us a worshipful devotion based on the beauty of the heavens and sharing in course various Scriptures, including the classic idea of the heavens declare His glory, power, and faithfulness.

Let’s ourselves take an interlude of worship and meditate on Scriptures that compare God and the astronomical Glory He has displayed there.

This is what the LORD says: ‘If I have not made my covenant with day and night and established the laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.’” Jeremiah 33:25-26

Yet their voice[a] goes out into all the earth,

   their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

   like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens

   and makes its circuit to the other;

   nothing is deprived of its warmth.

                                Psalm 19:4-6

LORD, our Lord,

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

   You have set your glory

   in the heavens.

Through the praise of children and infants

   you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

   to silence the foe and the avenger.

 When I consider your heavens,

   the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

   which you have set in place,

 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

   human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

   and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

   you put everything under their[g] feet:

all flocks and herds,

   and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky,

   and the fish in the sea,

   all that swim the paths of the seas.

 LORD, our Lord,

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

                                Psalm 8

Praise the LORD, my soul;

   all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, my soul,

   and forget not all his benefits—

who forgives all your sins

   and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit

   and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things

   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The LORD works righteousness

   and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,

   his deeds to the people of Israel:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

   slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,

   nor will he harbor his anger forever;

he does not treat us as our sins deserve

   or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

   so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

   so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

 As a father has compassion on his children,

   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

for he knows how we are formed,

   he remembers that we are dust.

The life of mortals is like grass,

   they flourish like a flower of the field;

the wind blows over it and it is gone,

   and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting

   the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,

   and his righteousness with their children’s children—

with those who keep his covenant

   and remember to obey his precepts.

The LORD has established his throne in heaven,

   and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the LORD, you his angels,

   you mighty ones who do his bidding,

   who obey his word.

Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,

   you his servants who do his will.

Praise the LORD, all his works

   everywhere in his dominion.

   Praise the LORD, my soul.

                                                Psalm 103

SDG

The Nature of Natural Law

I’m taking a break from my review of the Vibrant Dance conference. The grad student ministry with which I am involved had their monthly meeting tonight. The speaker was J Budziszewski from the UT departments of government and philosophy, and author of a number of books.  I thought it would be a topic break to discuss his talk on Natural Law, one of his areas of expertise.

Natural Law has been defined as “set of principles which govern human interactions, which are built into the structure of the universe, as opposed to being imposed by human beings.” One of the first questions J posited was, “what is nature?” It sounds banal, but is a revealing question. We often hear folks excuse bad behaviour by saying that “it is natural,” or “animals do it and we’re animals, so why not?” Our understanding of the word ‘natural’ reveals something about our perception of what it means to be human. J suggested that a Christian view or definition of nature is that it is that which is created, both the substance and the non-physical/material characteristics it may possess. {This is my wording, not his.} By this definition, not only do the stars, dirt, plants, animals, and humans constitute nature, but also the systems and rules that either govern or describe their interactions and behaviours.

Thus, there are some things that intrinsically limit, define, or describe what is human behaviour and gives us boundaries of various kinds, including moral, of which we are or should be aware at some level, regardless of our knowledge of Scripture. In fact, Scripture itself assumes we have some kinds of knowledge that it doesn’t cover explicitly—things such as a concept of justice or fair play, number systems (mathematical awareness and application to life, usable scientific knowledge that allows us to manipulate our environment in our roles as Creation’s stewards), the law of gratitude, a conscience, and so on.

In a similar vein, the Bible doesn’t list every issue about which we encounter in life (take for example the ethics of stem cell research). Furthermore, the Bible assumes a common or general revelation on many things made known through the very structure of creation. In short the Bible assumes an awareness of natural law. (J pointed out during Q&A that there is a difference between having a latent or unconscious awareness and use of natural law versus being conversant with the “theory of natural law”—the consciously created philosophical framework that defines and describes various aspects, axioms and implications of natural law. i.e.- the difference between a quarterback throwing a Hail Mary touchdown pass and being able to explain the physics formulas at play and quantifying the various forces involved to the n^th decimal place.)

As an example of natural law, its universality and the awareness by pagans of it, he talked about the “intrinsic goodness” of Creation, in spite of the “incidental evil” in it (hurricanes, avalanches, etc.) He talked about rains and fruitful seasons and the beauty of Creation. Even Nietzsche wrote about being overcome with gratitude in natural surroundings. But gratitude requires both a giver and a recipient, so who is the recipient of his gratitude?

J said there are four things taught through nature that serve as four witnesses of God.

1)      The Law of Deep Conscience (Romans 2—God has written aspects of His law on our hearts—hardwired, if you will). Our culture denies the existence of this, saying that all we know is learned through our culture. This is obviously not true as evidenced by the fact that some values are universal to all human cultures, as is the inclination to violate those values—both testify to the hardwiredness of the deep conscience, one is from God’s action in our design, and one an expression of the Fall.

Even our excuses bear witness to the knowledge of right and wrong. J spent some amount of time showing how many ways we justify violating our conscience by appealing to other aspects of natural law, which shows that we acknowledge it through our denial of it.

2)      The Law of “Designedness” (Romans 1:18-23—what may be known about God is plain to them). This and other passages throughout the Bible repeatedly say that Creation testifies to the Creator, and that created things have Purpose, not just a purpose (function). J admitted he was oversimplifying a very complex issue. He commented that this witness upholds the witness of the first law, and that God’s existence matters to natural law, because we are created and therefore are subject to someone else’s authority. If we just appeared, then we are the creators of our morality, but since we are Created, then moral authority belongs to the Creator.

3)      The Law of the Detail of Design (Romans 1:21-32—foolish minds and hearts are darkened and thus they behave unnaturally). J’s primary point is that there is an ‘order’ or ‘fit’ to the Creation and the details bear this out. His primary example is the inherent complementarity of men and women, not just physically, but also in the concepts of masculinity and femininity that offset and complement each other.

4)      The Law of Natural Consequences (Galatians 6:7—God is not mocked, we reap what we sow). If I am unfaithful to all of my friends, then I lose my friends, and so on. It is not God actively driving our friends from us, but the natural consequence of our actions. Other consequences of violating natural law can be that our minds become darkened and we do increasingly dumb things and we quench the light/Spirit of truth that may be within us and descend from the nobility and dignity we were created to carry. Lindsay Lohan, ‘nuff said. It is possible at times to push these consequences off onto others, but the consequences do not go away. They still occur (fatherless children, others paralyzed/killed by our drunk driving, etc.).

“We are always dreaming of systems that are so perfect no one has to be good.” T. S. Eliot

People thought that ‘safe sex’ would reduce ‘unwanted pregnancies’ yet since the sexual revolution the number of fatherless children has exploded, so then we promoted abortion, and so on…

These four witness link and flow into each other and point to the existential necessity of a Creator.

The talk ended here, but some of the Q&A was interesting enough to describe here. Someone asked if someone sears their conscience as the Bible discusses, is it gone? J compared it to searing meat—you make the outside hard and dry, but the inside is still there, tender and raw, and when the exterior is pierced, a profound reaction can occur as the inside is freed.

The next question was whether our consciences are infallible. J indicated that there are two types of conscience but modern English does not distinguish them, though medieval scholars did. One is called the synderesis (or deep conscience) and the other is (‘surface’) conscience . Synderesis basically is what tells us to do good and not do bad. It is infallible, but can be suppressed. On the other hand, the surface conscience can be lead astray by our rationalizing will or by culturally accepted evil. He gave the example of years ago when pay phones were simpler and cell phones basically didn’t exist, there was a way to get a dial tone and make a call without putting money in. It was stealing from the phone company, and it’s wrong to steal, but “’they exploit people’ by charging too much or being the big evil corporation, so we are stealing from the thieves, so that makes it ok.”

Even though this is a ‘break’ from the Vibrant Dance review, I think it is interesting that this topic is so complementary to the issues discussed at the conference. It is almost an orthogonal argument to the hard science evidence of a Creator, and the more orthogonal data streams that lead to a conclusion, the more sound the conclusion. Maybe, just maybe, God wants to be found.

(Isaiah 45:19 “I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.” {Read the whole passage (verses 18-25)-what a treasure!} cf. Colossians 1:27-29 and Psalm 25:14)

SDG