United Church of God

Letter From Dan Preston - March 16, 2018

Letter From Dan Preston

March 16, 2018

Good evening brethren, I hope this Sabbath finds you ready for your weekly rest!

The passing of a giant in the scientific world

Theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, died on Wednesday of this week.  Hawking was known as a leading physicist, mathematician and profoundly deep thinker.  He was prolific in his works, despite serious health complications from ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.  He was 76 years old.

A confounding question

Hawking was known for his non-creationist views.  While at first his views allowed for the existence of God, over time, he became a complete atheist.  In a 2010 interview with Diane Sawyer, Hawking stated, "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."  The question behind this statement was an age old one: Is there any way religion and science can co-exist?  To Hawking's thinking, the answer was no. 

Although I don't question the late Mr. Hawking's scientific intelligence, I do believe his view contained a fundamental error - that science and religion are mutually exclusive.  That the answer must be A) The universe can have its origins explained by math or B) The universe can be explained by the belief in creation by God.  It's a classic argument, that one must be true or the other, which ignores the possibility that both can be true.

Indeed, even Hawking himself said in an earlier interview in 2008, "I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science.  The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."  Of course, this particular view denies the ability of God to perform miracles, but even Hawking at one time acknowledged the idea that God and the laws of nature can co-exist.

A clear answer

When Elihu was talking to Job about God's majesty in Job 36:27-28, he states, "For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man."  Elihu doesn't seem puzzled about how the water cycle of our planet works.  In fact, he clearly understands this scientific process and explains it quite well in just a few words.  It doesn't lead him to think there must be no God, just because he could use reason and logic to understand the process.  In fact, it leads him to the opposite conclusion.  Seeing and understanding the water cycle proved to Elihu and the people of his time that God indeed existed!

While the scientific world might struggle with science and God co-existing, the Bible doesn't.  This is just one example of how science and the Bible agree.  As we listen and learn about the science and discovery of our day, let us never forget that any and all of our understanding does not prove God doesn't exist!  In fact, the opposite is true:  If a logical process exists and can be explained with math and other forms of reason, then a logical Thinker who understood math and reason must have created it!