Pesharim

People often tout that science is based upon facts, to the exclusion, apparently, of the supernatural; since science tests only the natural, obviously the supernatural doesn’t pertain. Fortunately for us “religious” types, however, God created the natural. And, to borrow from Isaac newton, “all the rest is the work of man.”

Quite simply, science bases itself not on facts, but on conjecture, -educated conjecture (hypotheses) tempered by the scientific method into modable theories and finally tried by the years into scientific law. Hence such confusion with the immutable “fact”.

By reason of this, then, in a religion where “God” is entirely transcendent, as in Islam, or indistinguishable from the material, as in any form of Pantheism, the identity of “God” cannot be scientifically tested, nor can such a God be said to exist without a nessecary element of faith. Thus, science draws a line at this point and must exclude such ideas from definitive inquiry. Even so, Christianity differs here, appealing to logic -as well as faith- to give it credence. Christ died, was buried, and rose again. By which we believe, and by which we see, also, that science can indeed depend on a supernatural identity, as long as that being manifests itself in an empirical way. In Christianity, the entire Bible is given as a testament to God’s presence, so that while God himself may be exclusive of the material, his presence can still be established, if at least in theory. Yes, that sounds like an assumption, and it is, but testing assumptions is a part of the scientific process. Consider the concept of subatomic particles, whose nature is such that their physical presence cannot be observed in any normal sense. Yet the existence of these particles is a well-established -though unproven- part of modern physics. Likewise, God’s existence can be quite simply deduced from natural phenomena, primarily in the fact of Christ. After all, He created reason too, but don’t worry… you won’t need a hadron collider to study theology.

Oh, and don’t worry if this comes as a surprise to you. It really shouldn’t, of course, but hey, if it does… just buy a stupid offset (see previous post).