Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Humans are material beings living in a material world, God is pure spirit, existing in both the material and the spiritual world. The spiritual interaction of God in creation allows us to make the metaphysical assertion that our material universe emanates from the mind of God, it does not allow us to fill the gaps in our scientific knowledge with God.

God's existence can be neither proved nor disproved by science, yet. However, until we have a scientific description of how God acts in creation, God cannot be used as a solution in our search for scientific answers. This does not disprove God: it maintains the integrity of scientific knowledge. Taking the position that those scientific questions we cannot answer must be points at which miracles (divine intervention) occur is intellectually dishonest and illustrates a reliance on an anthropomorphic God who can only act in ways we can imagine. When God created us He gave us a marvelous puzzle and an inquisitive mind with which to solve it. As human history proceeds the mystery of our existence unfolds both spiritually and scientifically.

Twenty-five hundred years ago science told us there were only four elements: earth, air, fire and water. God hurled fire from heaven and created flooding rains. Has God grown smaller because we have taken fire from Him? Has He grown smaller because we understand the mechanisms which create large storms? Two Thousand years ago the heart contained the functions we associate with mind. The brain contributed nothing but weight to balance the head on the neck. Was God wasting His breath when He told us He would write His word in our hearts instead of our minds? Do these advances in scientific knowledge make God and His role in our world smaller? Is the fear of losing God to the juggernaut of science what drives such pseudo-thinking as Intelligent Design? If so, then He is already lost. Can the creation be greater than the creator? The subversion of science by Intelligent Design and other "theories" of religiously inspired junk science serve only to reveal a massive lack of faith in God by their adherents. A god who can be diminished by human endeavor is not much of a god. My heart goes out to those whose god is so small and so impotent.

God tells us His ways are not our ways. In other words, we cannot know the mind of God. God reveals only as much of Himself as we are capable of understanding. This revelation is ongoing and never-ending, not static and complete. The Bible contains His spiritual revelation, creation speaks His material revelation. Make no mistake: creation reveals God as surely as does the Bible. God tells us to study His word for instruction in all things. If we are to honor God through this study we must consider all of His revelation. The only aspect of His creation placed off limits to us is the Garden of Eden and He promises to reopen even this when the time comes.

Inside my gut live many organisms that are not part of me. I have a symbiotic relationship with some, others are potentially dangerous to me, and others are passing through. None of these organisms can apprehend me as anything other than the environment in which they live. They know nothing of the bone, sinew, muscle, and nervous tissue that make a human being. They are not even aware of the nature of the gut which provides them a home. They know all they need to know about me to survive. From time to time their environment becomes hostile and they die. This is the experience we have with God. Our range of knowing is limited to the environment in which we exist. Knowledge of our environment is confined to what we can measure. God exists outside this creation in forms we cannot begin to comprehend. God's creative power exists beyond our imagination. To explain a line of scientific enquiry with magic because it may contradict what we think we know of God and creation fails both us and God. God wants us to work as hard as we can and to use all of the tools at our disposal to learn as much as possible of Him given our infinitely small available range of knowledge. Was giving us an overwhelming desire to know a mistake? If so, then how intelligent is God's design? God gave us an infinite book and the desire to open it and read as deeply as possible. Prematurely closing the book shuts the door on God.