Thoughts

[Gregory Matthews]

 

Just a thought:  Any person who knows me will know that I enjoy science and learning about the cosmos and the relationship between the Biblical teachings and what we know about life on this planet.  In my approach to science, I typically find much that I understand in a manner that provides for a creator God.   And I also find that there are published scientists who on some levels believe in the Bible and in God.  

Carol A. Hill, of the University of New Mexico is one such.  She believes in the Biblical record, in a Garden of Eden, In a Noah who built a boat and a flood.  There are aspects of her understanding of the Bible that run counter to traditional SDA belief.  But, she has dedicated her life to espousing a position that accepts the Bible as being truthful.  I wish that more SDAs were aware of her and her writings.

I once took a 48 hour video course in astronomy from the renowned Alex Filippenko. In the last hour of his course, he clearly states that a ”divine creator” is one “possible interpretation” of what we see evident today.  Then he goes on to tell us that such a hypothesis lies outside of investigation by science.  Therefore, in this course he must limit the elements of the lectures to that which can be studied. 

Most recently, I have been taking a 6-hour video course in the so-called Big Bang, taught by Gary Felder of Smith College.  In the beginning he dwelt with elements of time so small that the human mind cannot even imagine them.  Such to me supports the idea that God spoke and things sprang into existence.  At various points in his course he mentions that our observable universe is finely tuned to support life.  If any changes had occurred in a multitude of things, life as we know it today and in fact the Universe itself would not exist. Near the end of the course, he states that it is reasonable to posit that our observable universe today is what it is because God made it that way.  While he will not argue that such is what happened, he will not seek to change the mind of anyone who believes such. He goes on to suggest an “anthropic“ (defined differently from what you will find on the Internet) origin of the Universe that he does not believe to require the intervention of God.  My reflection on that is that his concept of an anthropic origin of the Universe actually can posit the existence of a God who is above and beyond our known Universe.

NOTE:  I am not suggesting that science has authority over the Bible.  And all such positions do have problematic aspects.  In general, my study of science increases my faith.