Moments…

“They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.” Psalm 36:8

When you boil it all down – I simply have a hard time trusting this. There’s too much suffering, too much injustice, hell, there’s too much boredom to make this promise (and the many others like it) seem legitimate.

Oh, I have done the intellectual hard work; I “know” it’s true. I have eliminated all of the other world views: they are either self-refuting, internally inconsistent, clearly fictional, or all three. I find myself left with either materialism, or Jesus Christ; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Materialism takes too much faith for me…there are just too many enormous gaps that must be filled in by sheer imagination, and so in a very real way – I arrive at the Lordship of Jesus Christ by a kind of reductionist path. I am open to someone coming along and showing me something with:

  • evidence,
  • intellectual honesty,
  • answers (not just arguments against everything else; or as I call it: “Nerd Bullying”)
  • common sense.

Some say that eventually science will find an answer to everything. “Just you wait! We will explain away your god-delusion…just give us more time!”

Maybe so. But I have three responses:

  1. Until that day – I’m following the evidence to answers, not just criticism.
  2. We should carefully consider the wisdom of renowned physicist Richard Feynmen who said,

“It is imperative in science to doubt; it is absolutely necessary, for progress in science, to have uncertainty as a fundamental part of your inner nature. To make progress in understanding, we must remain modest and allow that we do not know. Nothing is certain or proved beyond all doubt. You investigate for curiosity, because it is unknown, not because you know the answer. And as you develop more information in the sciences, it is not that you are finding out the truth, but that you are finding out that this or that is more or less likely.”

3.  Therefore – practitioners of “Sciencism” with all it’s certainty, those who call for the “ridiculing with contempt” of those who do not believe as they do, are (in my economy of thought) relegated to the status of Religious Fanatic, and should voluntarily turn in their “science” ID badges.

By all means, doubt. But never mistake your doubt for an answer. And be very cautious about violently forcing your doubts onto those who are simply seeking answers.

So…I’m left with this Creator who claims to have established a “river delights”; I have followed evidence which leads me to His door, but my experiences often contradict the claims this God makes.

“Why can’t I see this river? Why can’t I taste it? Why am I busy AND bored? Tired AND restless.”

Maybe I’m just not looking…maybe not seeing.

When I choose to look, to see, (or as my friend S.E Roon is fond of saying, when I “wonder”) I find these delights plopped along my walk to work the other day:

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Hmm.

This God becomes more likely with every delightful day…

4 thoughts on “Moments…

  1. Yeah right … do you remember “The Far Side”? The goat picture reminds me of something Larson might write a caption for :-)! Something like … Billy goat cops: “Can I see your driver´s license please??” :-)!

  2. Come on now Dan … you photo shopped those goats into the picture … right? 🙂 :-)!!!

    Many people worship at the alter of scientific method, yet science does not and cannot answer all of the deepest questions of life. It is simply a tool that measures natural causes, however folks like Harris, Dawkins, etc. have elevated science to a form of philosophical naturalism that attempts to explain absolutely everything we feel, think, and experience. They are asking science to do what science can never do.

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