Science and Religion
Today science and religion seem to remain at odds with one another. We hear the cry that you can’t believe in science and still hold onto your religion. Well, I want to explore that thought in this article. I happen to love both science and religion. Both science and theology probe the nature of reality. Both seek to find an order in the workings of the world. The word “science” is found in the King James Version Bible in two scriptures, Daniel 14 and I Timothy 6:20-21. The “science” referred to in Daniel extended chiefly to music, architecture, natural history, agriculture, morals, theology, war, and the knowledge of future events.
Daniel 1:4 (KJV) – “Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science , and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.”
I Timothy 6:20-21 (KJV) – “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.”
In the Days of Columbus, men believed the world to be flat, but Isaiah wrote: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth (Isaiah 40:22).” The Hebrew word for “circle” refers not to a flat circle on a surface by to spherical shape such as a globe. Ancient men believed that the world was flat and was supported by giant pillars. Only since Copernicus, has science confirmed that no such pillars exist. The earth moves thru space unsupported by solid objects. Non-material forces hold both the earth and other heavenly bodies in place. God told us that fact in the book of Job – “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing (Job 26:7).”
The Nature of Matter and Energy
Recently scientists have unlocked the mystery to the nature of matter and energy. Today we know that all matter, whether solid, liquid or gas is composed of atoms. Submicroscopic particles are so tiny the naked eye can’t see them. Atoms combine to form molecules that combine to form everyday matter. Yet the writer of Hebrews was aware of this scientific principle centuries ago: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Hebrews 11:3).”
Do you remember studying about Sir Isaac Newton in school? In Newton’s time, it was acceptable to mix science with religion. But do you know that Sir Isaac Newton was a Bible scholar and a believer in the Oneness of God? Did you know that Newton studied and wrote about the prophesies of the Bible? This same Newton discovered the principles behind gravity. He made major breakthroughs in mathematics, chemistry, fluid mechanics and astronomy.
Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton was also considered an enemy of the Roman Catholic Church, rejecting outright the doctrine of the Trinity. That is; that the Godhead is composed of three (3) separate and distinct “persons”, who were co-eternal and co-equal. It was Sir Isaac Newton that pointed out that Christianity went astray in the 4th century when the Council of Nicaea pronounced erroneous claims as to the nature of Christ. It was Newton who was among the first to discern that the laws of nature were universal. He found no conflict with his firm belief in the God of creation. Sir Isaac Newton and others of his day found enough mystery left in the physical world that they could imagine God being active in almost every event.
But so-called scientific progress has changed much of that. During the past 300 years, the mechanisms of many of those “mysterious” phenomena have been explained in natural terms. Few men and women alive today can remember when there were no automobiles, airplanes, electric lights, telephones, radios, computers, etc. In 1969, knowledge doubled every ten years. In 1973, it was doubling every five years. In 1995, it was every 2.5 years. What is it in 2015? Science textbooks are almost immediately obsolete because of continuing scientific discoveries.
But to the surprise of science, discoveries starting in the early 1900s have moved ever closer to the implication that the world we see is expressions or manifestations of something as hard to accept as energy. These expressions even include our physical bodies. And that below the energy lies information, a totally non-material basis for existence. Now today’s scientists won’t refer to this information in a spiritual sense. Nevertheless, science has closed the gap between the material and the spiritual.
The “New” Physics
Today, experiments in physics laboratories regularly produce results for which there is no known explanation. Some scientists have even remarked that there appears to be a “ghost in the system”. The “new” physics of today is called quantum or particle physics. This “new” physics explores the relationship between light and matter. In Albert Einstein’s famous formula E=mc2, we have learned that matter and light are just aspects of the same thing. Is matter just frozen light? Is light just matter on the move? We can convert light into matter, and matter into light. We know that the energy in a piece of matter is equal to the mass of the matter multiplied times the speed of light squared. So even minute amounts of matter represent tremendous amounts of energy. Without Einstein’s formula E=mc2, there would have been no Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no atom bomb. So in reality the tremendous damage caused by these horrific weapons started out as an idea, a thought, information, a scientific equation or formula.
Prior to the introduction of quantum physics, the atheistic philosophy of Materialism was widely accepted. It proposes that all of reality is reducible to matter and its interactions. It has gained ground because many people think that it’s supported by science. They think that physics has shown the material world to be a closed system of cause and effect, sealed off from the influence of any non-physical realities, if any there be. Since our minds and thoughts obviously do affect the physical world, it would follow that they are themselves merely physical phenomena. There’s no room for a spiritual soul or free will: for materialists we are just “machines made of meat.”
Light – the Clay of Matter?
Quantum mechanics, however, throws a monkey wrench in the works. Energy can be seen and touched. So we know we can convert matter into energy. We can burn wood and get heat. But the reverse is also true. Energy can be converted into matter. For example, high-energy laser light can be observed to produce particles. Light, X-rays and radio waves can all be converted back to particles. Now these waves can be slowed down. And when they do they obtain mass. Anything with mass is termed matter.
Again, the objects in our daily lives that we take for granted as being solid, our bodies included, are expressions or manifestations of something connected with energy. And that below the energy lies information, which is a totally non-material basis for existence. I like to think of energy as the “clay” of matter. And the building blocks of energy are information. Another word for information is “wisdom.” The universe is the expression of this wisdom. The universe is an expression of an idea. It’s the idea that’s an expression of the mind of God. The more deeply matter is probed, the more bizarre it seems. Particles are composed of lesser particles that in turn are composed of still lesser particles. What’s at the bottom of the pile? We’ll probably never find out.
Mysteries of Physics
Speaking of bizarre, the “new physics” has demonstrated that the outcomes of these wave/particle experiments changes depending on whether someone is looking at it or observing it. The “new physics” tells us that the observer cannot observe anything without changing what he sees. So the old notions of “cause and effect” are thrown out the window. What these experiments imply is thatt by our conscious intent we can and do shape our reality. This concept reminds me of a scripture in Proverbs 23:7 which declares: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
So according to this new scientific thought, all matter including our physical bodies consist of forms of light. Light, of course, is a form of energy. It has a frequency. So then our physical bodies are, therefore, an energy field. This energy field is made up of segments of vibration. Scientists now tell us that all matter has a frequency. Scientists discovered the wavelengths of waves that correspond to matter, including matter that makes up the human body, is itself made up of waves of light. So everything, you and I included, has a wave function. It’s interesting to note that the Holy Scriptures and other ancient teachings saw man and referred to men as children of light. There are four scriptures in your Bible that use the expression “children of light.” Here’s my favorite – I Thessalonians 5:5 – “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”
Which brings us back to Genesis 1:3, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Light is one of the most astonishing productions of the creative skill and power of God. It is the grand medium by which all his other works are discovered, examined, and understood. And I would submit that light was the “clay” or building blocks that God used for the rest of His creation. Light, with its immense diffusion and extreme velocity are alone sufficient to demonstrate the being and wisdom of God. Light has been proved by many experiments to travel in a vacuum at the astonishing rate of 194,188 miles in one second of time!
Oneness
Scientists have discovered that everything in the universe is interrelated. There is a Oneness or wholeness about the universe. Oneness is, in fact, one of the attributes describing God.
Deuteronomy 6:4 – “Here, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.”
But the Oneness in this scripture is not the same as the number one which is followed by the number two. This Oneness is the one whole, the entirety. We read in Deuteronomy 4:39: “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; there is none else.”
Let’s look again at the verse in John Chapter one. It starts with “In the beginning was the Word”. Let’s think about the word “word” for a minute. What’s the definition of “word”? A “word” is a sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning. Another definition is the term “Logos.” “Logos” means the expressed or manifested mind and will of God. Or in other words the ideas or information contained in the mind of God. So we could read that passage as “In the beginning was the word [idea, or information], and the word [idea] was with God, and the word [idea] was God.
If quantum physics is correct, and it has an excellent track record of being on the mark. It points to the fact that every particle, everybody, each aspect of existence appears to be an expression of information. “In the beginning was the word” that is the idea or thoughts of God. From the tiniest grain of sand to the brain of an Einstein, all existence, animate and inanimate, is the product of the same 92 elements. At every turn, there is unity from within the diversity. So now when we read scriptures in light of recent discoveries of quantum physics we begin to see that science lines up with scripture. You see scripture has been there all along. Science needed to catch up with God’s Word.
James 1:17 (KJV) – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
Children of Light
The “Children of Light” have a Father! Our Father is the “The Father of Lights”. The scriptures declare “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5 KJV). In the scriptures, we read God created light, having spoken it into existence. On the first day of creation, light was created.
I Corinthians 1:27 (KJV) – “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;”
Isaiah 55:8-9 (KJV) – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
The simple and foolish things of the world like sub-atomic particles serve to confound the wise of this world. The mind and expression of God is so much higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than the wisest of men. 1 Corinthians 13:12 sums this thought up nicely when it declares “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
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i tell people that we live in a voice activated light particle matrix and you have to be careful what you say with your words because we are made in gods image and he created everything with his words. Its so wildly mind-blowing and unbelievable. Mathew 21:21
I think the idea of “scientism”, that being the faulty belief that science is the only method of finding truth, has lead many people astray in popular culture. The idea that science is the only way to find truth is a self defeating point, for you cannot scientifically prove why this is true. Now, science by definition is the study of the physical and natural world, and thus scientism lends itself to naturalism. But for science to be done, certain axioms which cannot be scientifically proven and should not (or at least are unlikely to) exist under naturalism must be… Read more »
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I share similar opinions to yours!
I’ve been helping a young adult finish her high school education by studying astronomy/modern physics w her. To this point in her life, she has only believed in “science.” Christians like you, who Take the time to write and show how God Is revealed in creation, greatly help those who are seeking to find Him in the discipline. This article was so helpful, in part leading someone to salvation. Thank you! Don’t stop writing!
Thanks for your kind words Deborah!
It’s funny to think that right there in the beginning of the Bible we have light before a sun, yet a lot of people don’t think too far into it.. Great read! needed that.