Northern Light

No Room for Faith

Today was Earth Day. Lots of people excited to express their appreciation for the planet upon which we live and move and have our being. Unfortunately, and officially, there was no apparent room in the celebration for the Creator of all in whom we live and move and have our being. 

Here’s a quote regarding the March for Science held locally:

“The goal was to bear witness to the power of rational, evidence-based inquiry  that defines scientific habits of mind and practice as the only proven and reliable way to create a healthy, habitable world and future.“

Do you see what they did there? “Rational . . . evidence-based . . . science . . . the only proven and reliable way to create a healthy, habitable world and future.” In other words, only what we can see, touch, taste, smell, hear and duplicate in the laboratory is valid for mapping our social, cultural, physical future. There is no room for faith in the Creator here in this thinking. There is only man and what man can do on his own.

Once again, human beings declares themselves God.

Now, I expect lost, sinful, broken, unredeemed and therefore unregenerate human beings to do exactly this. I expect sinners to love what God does and what God gives while rejecting God. This saddens me but it does not surprise me. What truly disappoints me, and in fact, deeply concerns me, is the number of people who call themselves Christian who also paraded today in support of making science the god of the future.

Christians, two things are good. Inquiry into the nature of things, and stewardship of the things into which we inquire. Two things are not good: making our capacity for inquiry or the things into which we inquire the god upon which we depend for our quality of life in the future. Once again, dear ones, we are faced not with an effort to supplement faith but with a spiritual effort to replace faith. This is not an effort to embrace both science and faith as tools in our search to know and understand God. This is an effort to replace faith with science and make science God.

Is it fair to say that many of those who marched today want to make science God? There are those who would vehemently deny they are positing another religion. In fact, there are likely many who would boldly declare their movement religion free. But they are misinformed, mistaken, and deceived. Placing something or someone as the ultimate authority over human development (science) and then prescribing (and in some cases requiring) that others follow only prescribed regulations (scientific method) to participate or reap the benefits of that authority (future healthy world) is the most basic definition of religion. And endowing that religion/methodology with inerrancy, even when it must draw conclusions without physical evidence, well, isn’t that what faith is in its most basic condition?

I believe it is wise to take care of what God has given us to use. This planet does not belong to us. It belongs to Him. The Bible boldly asserts, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it; the world and all them that dwell therein.” I cannot treat the physical world in which I live as if it is unaccountably mine to ruin if I choose. I cannot take it for granted and treat it however I please, because this planet does not belong to me.

Neither, however, can I take what belongs to God and turn it into God. Not without consequence.

Romans 1:18-25 (ESV) ¹⁸  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. ²⁴  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵  because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Sadly, what Paul reports in the past tense we are seeing in the present tense. I am not suggesting we avoid recycling or repurposing or choosing “green” when we can. I am not suggesting we deny evidence when it is present and act wisely toward any action evidence suggests. I am saying we ought to be those who put faith first and submit both science and faith to the task of knowing, loving, and serving our Creator’s mission to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory.

Happy “Be Aware of the Glory of the Creator Given the Evidence Provided in Creation” Day!