"Smart people who don’t believe in God" by Stephen M. Miller Bible blog of award-winning bestselling Christian author, Stephen M. Miller. for Thursday, 14 April 2016
"Smart people who don’t believe in God" by Stephen M. Miller
EVEN ATHEISTS HAVE FAITH. Atheists rally in Washington DC. Some wear T-shirts with messages like “You can be good without God,” and my favorite, “I think, therefore I’m dangerous.” (Christians could wear that shirt, too.) While Christians have faith that the universe was an act of God, many atheists have faith that the universe was a random act of kindness by nothing in particular. It takes faith to believe in either one of those. Photo by Jennifer Boyer, flickr, CC2.
SOME OF THE SMARTEST PEOPLE I know of say they don’t believe in God.
These are people who would score doggone high on an IQ test.
They’re smarter than I am. They probably seldom use the word “doggone,” if ever.
But I’ve discovered that smart people don’t know everything.
Some of them don’t even have common sense.
And you know what I mean, because you know some of those people, too. Right?
Most of the people I know who say they don’t believe in God don’t really seem to care about otherworldly, spiritual things. It’s just not something they think about.
They say they believe in science: in what they can touch and see and smell. Things they can measure in a cup or blow up with a bomb.
I get it. I, too, wonder what’s up with this spiritual dimension and why it doesn’t seem to want to interact much with the physical dimension.
I mean, for heaven sake, we’re supposed to love Jesus more than we love ourselves because he died for us – but he has never even shaken my hand. I’ve never met the guy face-to-face. I’ve never seen him on the road to Damascus, or on State Route 64 as I’m headed to Bennett Spring State Park to arrest some trout for my freezer.
So I really do understand why smart people who love science ask this question, “So you seem like a reasonably smart person. Do you really believe that stuff?”
In response I want to ask, “Since you respect science, why is it easier to believe that creation just randomly happened instead of believing that creation has a Creator?”
What’s unscientific about a Creator? And what is scientific about creation just randomly, accidentally happening?
I have trouble building a simple coffee table, even when I have a plan and a YouTube how-to instructional video. I’m really supposed to believe that something as massive as the universe just popped up out of nowhere?
Jeepers.
I’m looking out my office window, while Buddy the Dog lies on the floor behind me and catches another nap. Lavender buds and green leaves are popping out on the redbud tree. Just beyond it, there’s an ash tree we keep treating every two years so the Emerald Ash Borer doesn’t kill it. The tree has big brown buds all over it. No green leaves yet. But they’re coming. And when they come, they will be beautiful.
I don’t have any trouble believing that Someone somewhere came up with the idea for a redbud tree and an ash tree. I’m not so sure about the Emerald Ash Borer, though. That one sounds like an idea from a Republican in heaven who thought it might be a good way to create jobs for tree service companies.
I respect science. And I respect people who trust in science. But if science and Christian faith are not compatible, I don’t yet understand why. To me they seem perfectly comfortable together.
I wonder if someday scientists will discover a gateway into the spiritual dimension and then realize that though it might not be something they can measure in a cup or blow up with a bomb that it’s every bit as real as the love they have for the person they go home to every night.
For more about creation
- NASA’s Creation story
- Why some read Creation as a poem
- A Visual Walk Through Genesis, coming in July
- Charley Power
- Dale Leslie
Randomly selected subscribers to this free blog or to my free quarterly newsletter get the option of choosing my newest book: A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible – among about half a dozen other titles.
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