Significance
Science has taught us a lot. It has learned and told the secrets of the elements, chemical reactions, physics, the relationship between things as big as galaxies and as small as quarks, biology, and the complex systems of life. The divulging of these secrets has allowed us a scope of control and manipulation of our environment which challenges the boundaries of human imagination.
Human technology runs the gamut from a digging stick to mammoth backhoes with a bucket capacity in the 40 cubic metre range, from a rudimentary abacus to a super computer handling trillions of operations a second, from a wheelbarrow to a jet moving at 2000 kilometres an hour. All of this has become possible as science has uncovered key bits of data about our world.
So, hats off to science. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today if it weren’t for the hordes of curious researchers who keep pushing back the boundaries of ignorance, nor would you. But while I respect and admire scientists, I recognize their limitations. While they may have opinions about values, morality, or the supernatural, they can’t bring science to bear when discussing them.
Sadly for the unscientific masses these three areas are hugely important. Science allows us to get a lot done, but doesn’t tell us what is the best thing to do. It frees us from the consequences of many of our natural impulses, but doesn’t tell us which ones to act on. And it simply withdraws from discussions about the supernatural, because, by definition, science deals only with the natural realm. Consequently, when it comes to knowing what’s important, what we should do, and how to relate to God, science can’t help us.
While our generation has seen much ignorance stripped away, we do well to recognize that removing the mystery does not remove the significance of things. Understanding the details of conception and gestation doesn’t make children insignificant. We cannot assume that two cells uniting in a fallopian tube produces nothing more than a growing group of cells replicating a new set of DNA. If so, we miss the unique significance and value of every individual human life.
Understanding that specific parts of our brain are linked to spiritual experience doesn’t render our spiritual experience insignificant. We cannot assume that because specific areas of the brain light up during spiritual experience, that the experience is caused by neurons firing. If so, we miss a significant part of what makes us human - the ability to communicate with, what some scientists are looking for, a higher life form.
I argue that there is an unimaginably high price to be paid for allowing our understanding of what used to be mysteries to rob us of their significance. No one would describe writing as nothing more than marks on paper. Its significance goes far beyond that into the realm of ideas, information, passion and motivation. Yet, some suggest that as we remove “mystery,” we remove the need for God. This “God of the gaps” is only necessary to fill in the spaces that science has not closed.
It’s true that sometimes ignorance has turned to divine explanations, in some cases, it still does. But given the limitations of science there will always be some areas where divine explanations will be the best we’ve got. For years, I’ve been intrigued by how close the far edges of physics are to the near edges of spirituality. Lately, Stephen Hawking, one of our generation’s elite physicists has posited the likelihood of malevolent aliens who would be nothing but bad news for humanity. Others are scanning the skies for wise, gentle beings which could help us overcome our problems. Both might be closer than we think. They sound more than a little like demons and angels to me.
So if life is not working too well for you right now, it could be that you’ve allowed the current thought in our culture to rob you, and some of the things that really matter, of their significance. The Bible makes it clear that there is a spiritual dimension which we do well to be aware of and respond to. Things matter. You matter.
Here’s a short summation of one man’s experience with God: “I waited and waited and waited for GOD. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to GOD. Blessed are you who give yourselves over to GOD, turn your backs on the world’s "sure thing," ignore what the world worships; The world’s a huge stockpile of GOD-wonders and God-thoughts. Nothing and no one comes close to you! I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither numbers nor words account for you. (Psalm 40:1-5 MSG)
