Last time I began with this quote:
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen:
…….not only because I see it,
but because by it
I see everything else.”
– C. S. Lewis
So, each of us must decide what is our sun? What is it, not only that we see, but by it we see everything else?
Let me give an example. These days an increasing number of people have chosen Science as their sun. Not only do they believe science tells them about the physical world, but all other claims are tested against those of science. So if science tells us the universe is billions of years old, that must be true. Not only do they accept that claim, but they must then reject any claim that entertains a shorter time span.
In the same way, if science tells us that life evolved from the simple to the more complex, then that must be true, and any claim for a different origin must be rejected. You get the idea. That’s the nature of the “Sun” at the center of our belief system. Everything else revolves around it. Everything else must be in harmony with it.
Now, people who choose science as the “Sun” of their belief system are not necessarily stupid, or unlearned. They might be, but they also might be highly intelligent and have earned multiple advanced degrees.
And science cannot be dismissed lightly. I am writing this via computer. I say “via” because in a real sense I’m not writing on anything. The letters I’m typing–using my wireless keyboard–is sending hexadecimal numbers to my computer and from there to a wireless router, on to the internet, to be stored on a ‘server’ somewhere in the cloud. These are not simple things.
I’m writing without glasses because a highly trained surgeon removed the cataract from my left eye, which had rendered that eye legally blind, and inserted a corrective plastic lens in that eye. For the first time in my life, I can drive without corrective lenses. All of these things, and so many more, have been made possible by science. Science can perform what our ancestors would have considered miracles.
And that’s why it makes a convincing Sun. If something is going to compete with God for centrality, it has to look a lot like God. And certainly, in what it makes possible in our everyday lives, science fills that role. Weather radios can warn us of bad weather; weather satellites can monitor weather around the globe. Medical science can do many things unimaginable only decades ago. So putting the Sun in the center isn’t stupid. It makes a great deal of sense. Until we realize and recognize that, we won’t be able to answer those who deride a belief in, say, the Genesis Creation narrative because it is — or so they will say– contrary to science.
Increasingly, those who have put science in the center of their belief system are our neighbors–and our own children. If we want to encourage them to put something else at the center, something other than science as the Sun in their belief system, we’re going to have to understand what should go there, and why. And that will shed light on why science doesn’t satisfy us as that by which all things are seen, and why, in the long run, it cannot satisfy anyone.
