Science and Faith: Compatible Universal Law?

Science and Faith: Compatible Universal Law?

In my travels and readings I have encountered many other cultures. Frequently these cultures have different belief systems than my own. Sometimes I agree with sometimes I don’t, but always I try to respect other Faiths without prejudice. In the Arab culture there is a saying , “It is written.” This implies that our lives are in the Hand of God. In the movie Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O’toole, playing Lawrence, famously Says, “nothing is written!”, implying that our lives are our own. This is the essence of what I would like to discuss. Are our lives already written? Or are we writing them? And are these contradictory or compatible?

Determinism , according to Wikipidea is the philosophical proposition that event including human cognition, decision and action, is causally �determined” by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. Or in my words, the Universe is beautiful, majestic, harmonic. Naturals laws govern the Universe in a perfect order. Everything is cyclic in nature (similar to day and night, dream and awakening, life and death). The demonstration of this pattern , evolution, plays out in a circular and repetitive flood of predictable events. Seasons appear at the same times, animals give birth a specific times. There is a biologic, but scientific clock which runs the Universe. “Keith Devlin defines mathematics as “ the “science of patterns”. Then, what about things that have no pattern? “Patternlessness” is itself a pattern, in the same sense as formlessness is a form.”(Craigen)

But a question arises as to whether man is part of this harmonic system or whether he is an exception. If man is part of this ordered scientific system, why does seem so often to be chaotic, full of pain and distress?

In my paper I would like to examine the relationship between science, which is considered to be a system of facts, and Faith, which is considered to be a system of beliefs; and how these are related , and whether they are contradictory or compatible. I will rely heavily on my Christian Faith System to demonstrate that science and faith are compatible, and that man is part of a deterministic, predictable universe which includes both scientific and faith elements.

In the Maus books I was stunned to discover how providence was at work in Vladek life. Vladek was somehow destined to survive through a combination of deployment of multitude of talents and mysterious interventions which bordered on the supernatural. Here are some facts…the Priest read the number of life in his arm, the dream of the Parshas Truma day clarified to him by the Rabbi. Even the therapist, an Auschwitz survivor, stated “But it wasn’t the Best people who survived, nor the best ones die. It was RANDOM”. Vladek beneficiated a countless of lucks. I am caused to wonder by his life it maybe there a supernatural force at work. Are the events of his life, in opposition to the working of the Universe, or if his astonishing life is at one with this Universe, why are there also so many terrible difficulties which he faces, and which he faces, and which seem to be overcoming only by miracles or providence?

It is clear by now to the reader that these subject are not easy to talk about, much to write about. Nevertheless, they are not abstractions to me. In my own life, such questions and circumstances as those faced by Vladek have been as real as the turning of the season to me.

I have explored other faiths and also studied science. I have read about the life of the Muslim Prophet Mahomet. And though I stress that I respect other believes it is very difficult for me to reconcile some of the misogynistic practices which Mahomet professed and which apparently continue today. For example, “Mahomet , at the age of fifty-one, received a revelation from Allah informing him that Aishah would be his wife. Although the revealed bride was only six years old at the time…, the union was not consummated until Aishah was nine (Sahih Bukahri 7.62.64)“ (Caner 38)

So I will limit my discussion to my own discussion to my own Christian Faith. I am an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created man and gave him a perfect freedom. He did not make an automation, controlled by His will. Instead, man has perfect freedom of choice. He didn’t make an automation controlled by His will, instead, man has a perfect freedom of choice. If he choose to obey God he can. If he chose to rebel against God, he can that too. Man has in his possession a sovereignty by which he can exercise his volition. Unfortunately man has fallen, been defeated and his life has become confused. Man has lost the essence of God , which is consciousness. He has lost his spiritual faculty, living by his own will, plunging into darkness and confusion. Man finds himself in a incompatible environment, he lost the communion with the Universe. Take the example of someone who is trying to push his car without gasoline, what extra effort? So has became man struggling to survive.

Fortunately God presents a new life to man. I call here law of life, the

manifestation of that new life. And law of flesh for the old one. Through this law of life

man regain the opportunity to synchronize with God and the universe. This law of life is really a natural law What is a law? Well, strictly speaking, a law is a generalization examined until it is proved that there is no exception. We might define it more simply as something which happens over and over again. Each time the thing happens it happens in the same way.

We can illustrate this both from statutory and from natural law. For example, in England,

if I drive a car on the right hand side of the road the traffic police will stop me. Why?

Because it is against the law of he land. If you do it you will be stopped too. Why? For the

same reason that I would be stopped: it is against the law and the law makes no

exceptions. It is something which happens repeatedly and unfailingly. Or again, we all

know what is meant by gravity. If I drop my handkerchief in Seattle it falls to the ground.

That is the effect of gravity. But the same is true if I drop it in New York or Tombouctou .

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