In part 1 of this blog, I pondered the challenge for us to “follow the science.” Indeed, science makes our lives safer and more productive. But science is a tool given to humanity, not a governing law of social and inner or intrapersonal dynamics that govern a healthy life. Science does not, nor can it, fill the human need for a place to call home, a people to call family, or a heritage to leave behind.
The word that has now come to my mind is “intuition.”
Looking at “intuition” in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, you will find, in part;
1: having the ability to know or understand things without any proof or evidence
2: based on or agreeing with what is known or understood without any proof or evidence
The scientific method is essential to safely zoom into space and return. Every aspect of propulsion, navigation, and gravity must be known. That is because we are “rulers” of this creation. But to have a relationship with the Creator, we cannot approach Him with a scientific method. He is holy, which means, in part, that we are not like Him. The most significant difference between humans and God is that the latter created the former. He has everything to do with our creation and existence, and we have nothing to do with His.
The scientific method is a part of discovered creation. As we humans subdued and filled the earth, we encountered the laws that govern it. We don’t rule by creating. We “rule” by discovering and adapting to the laws of creation or “natural laws,” as some call them. That’s how humans are supposed to “rule.”
Humans have misruled by taking the created scientific method necessary to rule and subdue creation to understand or eliminate the supernatural, the eternal. Humans do not and cannot really “create” anything. Instead, they explore themselves and their environment to discover what is hidden and then rule over their discoveries to build.
As a woodworker, I do not actually create a piece of art. (The items I “create” are not really of much use other than visual enjoyment.) Instead, I discover the attributes of a particular piece of wood and develop the skills to change wood into an object. So, while I sometimes say I created, I actually discovered how to rule my hands, eyes, tools and applied that to the wood. (Along with a few band-aids to my fingers.)
You might say I created this document you are reading. It didn’t exist, and now it does. But actually, it is seventy-five years of discovering the rules of grammar, reading, study, thinking, and skilled people. It is more of a report of my journey with God. To be absolutely transparent, this document is not my conclusion of an ideal; it is a report of where I am today in that ideal.
Science cannot explain God. Nor can it prove God exists. It can and does expose some of God’s attributes, but science cannot go further. At the edge of science is the “unexplained.” Nothing will ever change that, no matter what science discovers.
Here is a truth difficult for some of us to accept; the eternal trumps the temporal. That fundamental truth can be ignored or reasoned into obscurity, but it cannot be modified or removed. What we can see is temporal because it is temporary. What is eternal cannot be seen because it is not a part of the temporal. The temporal exists inside the eternal. The eternal exists outside the temporal. The eternal can and does impact the temporal, but the temporal has no impact on the eternal.
Jan introduced me to a life axiom, “Action precedes motivation.” (I will likely explore that phrase in a future blog.) In the same way, “believing precedes understanding.” We cannot discover the meaning of life by understanding it. Likewise, we cannot reason our internal void away.
The “image” of our Creator is irrevocably engraved on our very fiber, our DNA. Do not look for reasons to believe in God. Believe He exists and is working in and around you, and you will discover the evidence. Trust the generations of humanity whom He has used to reveal Himself. Trust the Bible. Not so much the one who preaches it, use the Word itself. Follow the testimony of the preacher but trust the Bible.
I know this makes Christianity sound like just another of the world’s superstitions, but it’s not. Superstition begins with human reasoning. Truth begins with the revelations of the Creator.
It’s counterintuitive to the scientific method of ruling creation. But it is absolutely the only intuitive way to get to know our Creator.
Photo – Looking west at a field next to our property following an ice storm.
Baldwin Heirlooms 