The big news today (in my world) is Stephen Hawking's theory of spontaneous existence. He theorizes that the big bang existed outside of time and therefore didn't need someone/deity to light the match. Not being a brilliant astro-physicist I'll take his word on this. Being a theologian (not brilliant) my response to this big news is well a great big cosmic yawn.
In other news, evolutionary theorist have been asking how it is that humans around the world in different cultures came to have this common belief in gods/God? The hypothesis is that for a complex social structure to exist there needed to be someone/thing outside the system who could keep us in line respecting the good of all. In other words, the clans that believed in a god were able to advance evolutionary because they had a leg up on social order due to this moral policeman in the sky. This sounds interesting, and makes me wonder if the lack of belief in a god who makes any judgment on our choices will lead therefore to moral decline?
So what? Stephen Hawking argues for an amoral cosmos whose existence is the result of spontaneous action of matter (and since there is no constraint of time therefore there is no need to determine a prior action to define this action?). The evolutionary anthropologist on the other hand argue for a morality or order that comes from...where? It seems the physicist believes all is random, and the anthropologists believe that we in some way determine a morality of right and wrong. Hmmm... In one sense we are very small, and in the other we play a very large role.
Now I'm out of my league I know, but I've always believed that God exists outside the dimensions that define us, including time. As I read scripture the message is less about the origins of the universe, but the why of the universe, and the reality that God continues to invest in the creative work in our midst. As for how we come to believe in God, scripture suggest that there is this mystery, this Holy Spirit, that is defined by what it causes within us. Could this Holy Spirit create within us a desire for a more orderly society that acknowledges a hunger for righteousness?
Like I say, I'm not that smart, but I don't see in these reports the demise of God. Do you?
God has shown himself to those he wishes to know him.
ReplyDeleteNo one comes to the Father through any other door than Jesus.
Stephen, meet Carl Sagan, he did better works with his science and his knowledge supports the ability to have faith forward lifestyles.
Too bad that many dont know history, but use a telescope and remember, that we see what we want to see, and hear what we want to hear.
God Bless
Liz