Southwood Lutheran Church

Proving God?

I've shared my ongoing fascination and struggle with faith and reason here and here. And suddenly I'm feeling hit from all sides by the topic. Here's a list of things I've read (or read about) recently.

Some have stretched my thinking: 

• Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?  A Professor and a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity   ----   This book reminds me of Letters from a Skeptic (one of my all time favorites)/ This book is a series of emails written back and forth between Preston Jones, a history professor and Greg Graffin, lead man for Bad Religion, over several months. It reinforced my belief that religion gets in the way of God for a lot of people...and reminded me that many questions have more than one reasonable answer (depending on what you define as reasonable).

• Life of Pi   ---  A novel by an artful storyteller...finished it 2 days ago and I'm still thinking about it...raises lots of questions about the meaning of religion and our ways of interpreting reality.

Others have stretched my patience:

• This blog post (good in its own right) about ABC's recent airing of a debate between Christians and atheists on Nightline.  Be sure to check out all the links on this post to get a sense of the two perspectives.  Honestly....  It's arguments like these that polarize people and clutter the path of real dialogue between Christians and atheists, between people who believe in God and people who don't.

• This story , found on an aggregator I really like, Faith-Science News about a book, The Physics of Christianity, (read the 1st chapter here).  This book's author claims to prove, through physics, the existence of God -- the Judeo-Christian God, to be exact.  Poppycock!  I can put holes in his unsupported-by-references assertions about the Turin Shroud with only cursory research (a Google search turns up a reputable resource), and I'm sure a careful reading of the rest of his book would yield much more of the same.  Using pseudo-science to "prove" the existence of God doesn't help!

The good news is...the discussion continues.  And books like Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?  A Professor and a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity and Life of Pi, each in their own way, give me hope that intelligent people can engage in fruitful dialogue, conversation that stretches each to a deeper understanding of what they believe and why. 

The Pursuit of Happiness

Americans are obsessed with happiness....and everyone from Bobby McFerrin to the Dalai Lama has a theory on how to get it. Biblical texts ring in with promises like these:

• Happy are those who deal justly with others and always do what is right. (Psalms 106:3)
• Praise the LORD! Happy are those who fear the LORD. Yes, happy are those who delight in doing what he commands. (Psalms 112:1)
• Happy is the person who finds wisdom and gains understanding. (Proverbs 3:13).

And science weighs in, too.  Studies on identical twins suggest that about 50% of a person's happiness is determined at birth by a "genetic set point".  So winning the lottery might not help that much.  In fact, a classic 1970's study showed that one year after receiving their winnings, lottery winners were no happier than non-winners.  Researchers agree that even major improvements in life circumstances have only a short-lived effect on overall happiness.  They estimate that life circumstances explain only about 10% of a person's overall happiness.  So much for the idea that I'll be so much happier if only I have (you fill in the blank)!

So...if 50% of my happiness is determined at birth and 10% is determined by my life circumstances what accounts for the other 40%? Experimental psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky has found that exercises in gratitude, kindness, and optimism can make people happier...but exercise means the same thing for happiness as it does for physical fitness...you have to keep doing it!   Proverbs suggest this kind of regular exercise: Happy are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home! (Proverbs 8:34).

Lyubomirsky has also found some interesting rules for how these exercises work.  For example, people who kept a daily gratitude journal ended up less happy than those who counted their blessings only once a week.  Similarly, people who varied the ways in which they expressed kindness ended up happier than those who were "forced into a kindness rut." I wonder if Lyubomirsky and her colleagues will be looking at regular worship, prayer, and other spiritual practices as possible mediators of happiness? 

Till then, count your blessings today (if you didn't do it yesterday) and practice random acts of kindess.  That's likely to make you a whole lot happier in the long run than buying that great new pair of shoes you saw at the mall last week.

Source article:  The Science of Lasting Happiness by Marina Krakovsky. Scientific American, April 2007.

God's Green Earth

The Christian and scientific communities have long been divided on a number of issues, ranging from the existence of God to questions of biomedical research ethics (and everything in between). Despite the lingering questions about the nature and meaning of global warming, I'm encouraged to see that it could be an issue that has the potential to unite rather than divide!

As Charles A. Radin writes in God's Green Earth, a Boston Globe article, "Differences over such hot-button subjects as the literal truth of the Bible, the validity of the theory of evolution, and the existence of God remain bitter. But a growing chorus of voices on both sides is arguing for saving the planet first, and worrying about other issues later."

Scientists are reaching out to evangelical Christians, young Christians are drafting declarations, and the secular media is engaging Christians in the effort to sound the alarm about global warming. But not everyone agrees there should be a united front on this issue. Read more and you decide---an issue to unite or another point of division?

Balancing Science and Faith

I have frequently struggled to reconcile my faith in God with my faith in the scientific method. Having spent several years of my life as a practicing empiricist, I've had more than a few dark moments when I've asked myself questions like this:

• Does God really exist?
• Was Jesus really God?
• Do I believe in the resurrection?

Not a lot of empirical evidence to go on there....

Science & Religion - It's All a Matter of Faith

I love science.  I got my October Scientific American today, and I found the editorial, "Let There Be Light", intriguing.  The editorial begins:

It is practically a rite of passage that scientists who reach a certain level of eminence feel compelled to publicly announce and explain their religious beliefs.

Two new books The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (Francis S. Collins) and God's Universe (Owen Gengerich) prompted SA's editorial musing.

The editorial goes on to cite statistics (I love statistics too!) that suggest scientists are only half as likely as the general public to describe themselves as religious -- but 40% of scientists DO describe themselves as religious....that would mean 80% of the rest of us do.

Are 40% of the world's greatest minds...out of their minds? (Not to mention 80% of us "regular folk"?)