Month: August 2017

It is often stated that the primary question is whether people believe in God or not. But I suggest that the primary question is whether or not people believe only in the physical, material world.

I do not consider this to be a trivial suggestion, because the jump from nothing to God is often too big a jump for people to make. It is much more sensible to confront people with the simple choice of whether or not the material world is all there is.

In discussing my faith with a group of friends who were somewhat mystified by it, I realised that fundamentally they could not come to grips with anything other than this physical world.

I could see that, while they were not dismissive of my belief, they simply could not comprehend that there might be something more that this world.. And I sympathise with that. There are times when I sometimes wonder if I am not the one who is deluded.

If one believes there is nothing beyond the purely physical/material then the question of God (or anything spiritual for that matter) simply does not arise. And that is effectively the end of the conversation unless one is prepared to attempt to try to change that point of view.

If one believes that there is something beyond the physical world then various possibilities arise.

It is only by examining these possibilities that one can then raise the question of God.

The position of there being nothing other than the material world automatically infers atheism though the reverse is not necessarily true. It is logically possible to accept that there are forces at work beyond the material world that are not God(s) but merely blind, undiscriminating powers. As such they would be beyond being influenced in any way and, consequently, not within the normal understanding of a god.

It is only when one has considered these possibilities that one can logically move on to conclude whether or not there could be ‘a’ God or gods.

Thus the primary question is, perhaps, the nature of pre-evangelism.

It’s About Time – When Science Meets Religion

It’s about time this conflict between science and religion came to an end.

I am sure that the great majority of people accept both science and religion (or at least some spirituality) and there is no need for this rancorous debate to go on.

The bridge between them lies in a proper understanding of the nature of time itself.  Time is not absolute and is tied to the existence of the universe.  This has been accepted scientifically since Einstein.

In addition, both science and religion have their own area of application and each complements the other.

Very briefly, at the Big Bang (Creation) not only did matter and space come into existence but also time came into existence as well. Without matter and space, time cannot exist. Try this little thought experiment. You are in the ‘void’ before creation. You close your eyes and then you open them again. How much time has passed? A nanosecond? A billion years? In fact there is no time because nothing has changed; there is nothing to change!

And since (if?) God made time along with matter and space then God is not bound to time like you and I. God simply ‘is’ simultaneously in the past the present and the future. That reality has significant implications for notions of predestination and prophesy, just to mention two religious concepts.

But formal religion is largely stuck in a medieval mindset, seeking all answers in scripture and ignoring the insights that modern science has to offer.

As for science, it is not on as solid a foundation as it might appear. The deeper it goes the more mysterious it becomes. Quantum mechanics and the principles of uncertainty, at the most fundamental levels of particle physics, have resulted in strange possibilities such as other dimensions and universes. Science’s certainties are melting away and it is becoming increasingly clear that it cannot save the world.

People are now stranded; removed from God by outdated religious notions, but left behind by increasingly incomprehensible science. Now more than ever we need our lives to be brought into harmony if we are to find the wholeness that we all crave.

Perhaps my book ‘It’s About Time’ might help to consider a number of other implications of the nature of time and science as well.