God, I Love Science

The title of this piece references not just one thing that I love, but two: God and Science. Science is the premier tool that we humans have developed to actually read the mind and will of God. This is important because he’s not talking to us. Instead, he surrounded us with mysteries and subtle clues and gave us a brain with which to figure them out. Religion never has done it and cannot do it. For instance, all of the religious teachings in the world never revealed one of the most fundamental realities of our existence, that ordinary matter is composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons. They also never taught us how to quantify gravity.

A priest didn’t write the equations of electricity and magnetism. A physicist did that. Look at the myriad technological advances that we enjoy as a result of that single insight. If we relied solely on religion to understand our place in the universe, we would still think that disease was caused by possession of an evil spirit. Instead of providing the sick with life-saving medicine and treatments, we would tell them to repent. “Repent yourselves to death.” I shudder to think where we would be without science. Even in our supposed enlightened world, some religions still think that infidels should die merely for believing differently.

Richard Feynman was a physicist who made great and notable contributions to many areas in the field. I can deeply relate to his thoughts on God, science, and inquiry in general. He said:

What we’re looking for is how everything works… But it’s curiosity, it’s the way we are, what we are… [Scientific explanation] is a much more exciting story to many people than the tales which other people used to make up who worried about the universe, that we were living on the back of a turtle, or something like that. They were wonderful stories, but the truth is so much more remarkable. (YouTube Source)

In a later interview, Feynman said:

I can’t believe the special stories that have been made up about our relationship to the universe at large because they seem to be too local, too provincial. He came to the earth, one of the aspects of God came to the earth, mind you. And look at what’s out there, it isn’t in proportion. How do you find out if something’s true? If you have all these theories, the different religions have all different theories about the thing, then you begin to wonder. Once you start doubting–which I think to me is a very fundamental part of my soul, is to doubt and to ask–when you doubt and ask it gets a little harder to believe. I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things that I don’t know anything about. But I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things. By being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose which is the way it really is as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn’t frighten me. (YouTube Source)

Feynman’s holy meekness of knowledge is utterly refreshing after listening to religionists claim absolute knowledge. An anonymous source once suggested that, “philosophy is questions that may never be answered; religion is answers that may never be questioned.” Well, like Feynman, questioning is a fundamental part of my soul. The state of not being able to question sounds like death or hell to me. It directly conflicts with God’s endowments to man, those of sense and reason. As I’ve said before (Open Letter To My Children) questions are more important than answers, anyway.

You don’t have to be a scientist to have a profound respect and appreciation for our bewildering condition, that of searching through vague mists. Van Gogh said, “I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” Well, thank-you Feynman and thank-you Van Gogh, for fearlessly grappling with the darkness. You have taught us to ask better questions. You have taught us to be better humans.

Ariel Hammon
Author of JACK