Today’s Scripture Reading (June 27, 2018): Job 38
I was listening to part of an old lecture
given by Stephen Hawking recently and was
interested in his comment that
scientists, by in large, have fallen out of love with the “Big Bang Theory” of
the origin of the universe largely because of its implications. And by
implication, he meant that the “Big Bang Theory” implies the existence of God or some other “Prime Mover.” For the rest
of the lecture, Hawking contemplated a “Big Bang Theory” without God, but the
truth is that the theory works better with a “Prime Mover” or “First Cause” –
or God.
But the controversy also reveals something
else. The argument reveals that we all have conceptions of reality that shape
our beliefs. No belief statement is developed
in a vacuum. If you begin with the assumption of God, then you will find
evidence of God. If the reverse is true and you begin with an assumption that
the universe just exists without the
presence of a grand outside force, then you will find evidence of that. People
who are angry with the church are often surprised at how easy it is to find
evidence that disproves God. But the evidence is often more due to our anger
than anything else. We are not objective beings. We develop theories that echo
whatever feeling is raging ay the core of our beings. And the truth is that
there is so much that we do not know, on both sides of the argument, about God and this earthly existence.
In some ways, God’s comment here to Job and
his friends is, well, mean. I know that is hard to believe, but consider what
God was saying. Job and his friends believed in a three-tiered universe, with
heaven and the sun and the stars above, and hell below. The earth was simply a
tier of construction; it was a floor in a three-story building. And every
building that stands well is set into something solid. The stronger the
footings and the cornerstone, the stronger the building, at least under normal
circumstances. Job and his Jobites would
have understood this method of construction. In fact, they would have used it
in their own building.
Enter God. And the question he asks is a
simple one. You believe in a three-tiered building of which the earth is the
middle floor but, if that is true, then into what are the footings placed. The
footings of the earth can’t be placed in heaven, because that is above. And
they can’t be placed in hell because that would not be stable. There must be
something else. There is so much that you don’t know.
And the fact that God’s question made sense
is an indication of how much they didn’t know. We, of course, know more. The
earth has no footings that Job would have understood. We know that there is an interconnectivity, an unseen force, that
connects the earth, the sun, the moon, and the planets that hold the earth in
place. But before we go patting ourselves on the back too hard, there is still
much that we don’t know. Stephen Hawking, and people like him, are always
pushing the boundaries of our knowledge
and exploring what it is that we haven’t figured out. And in the process, I
believe that they explore God in their own
way. But of course, I also recognize that that is partially because I am willing to use God as the starting point – and
the one who knows what it is that I don’t know. And while some physicists may
rail against the “Big Bang Theory” because it implies a “Prime Mover,” I am
comfortable with the idea that if we push our theories backward long enough, we
will always reach a place where the answer is God.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 39
Personal Note: Happy Anniversary to my parents. I hope you both
have a great day.
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