First, I did not mean that the two activities are mutually exclusive. It
was a caution about the tendency of us all to develop that familiarity
that leads to "contempt" with the matters that comprise our daily
work: doctors with their patients, farmers with their soil, writers with
their words, scientists with the objects of their experiments. George
MacDonald was a fascinating man who really never found his
niche. Most of all he wanted to preach, but because he constantly
questioned the status quo of Christendom and challenged tradition
with truth, he was never really welcome within any denominational
setting. So he was compelled to "preach" in his novels and written
sermons. He was also a scientist and made a good portion of his
income lecturing on chemistry and physics. He was an astute
observer of his times and was always aware of what was going on
in the laboratories of his day. Thus I think scientists could use him
as an exemplar. This statement that some took exception to was
not the musing of a sentimentalist; it was the careful judgment of a
scientist seeking to balance worship and research:
"I would not be supposed to depreciate the labors of science, but I
say its discoveries are unspeakably less precious than the merest
gifts of nature, those which, from morning to night, we take
unthinking from her hands. One day, I trust, we shall be able to
enter into their secrets from within them -- by natural contact
between our heart and theirs. When we are one with God, we may
well understand in an hour things that no man of science,
prosecuting his investigations from the surface with all the aids that
keenest human intellect can supply, would reach in the longest
lifetime."
I think it is the particular weakness of scientists that they find it hard
to realize when they are functioning in the realm of epistemology or
hamartiology. It was epistemology that drew Moses toward the
burning bush: "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burned. (Ex. 3:3); but then he came face to face with the
holiness of God that demanded he shed his shoes of sin and
humbly listen. I think we must walk as softly and reverently in the
arena of the general revelation as we do the special revelation.
This issue has often sent me to musing about the meaning of the
"tree of the knowledge of good and evil"[the Amplified Bible adds
"and blessing and calamity"]. Is it possible that in his moral
immaturity man was not able to handle the power that comes with
the knowledge of good and evil? Perhaps the tree was there
because it would eventually come that man would be spiritually and
morally mature enough to "taste" of it. It has always been
recognized that knowledge is power, and for sinful man, such
power is relished to assist in their attempt to unseat God from the
throne -- following the promptings of their "father below" (a la
Screwtape).
I believe it is the hubris shown by some on this forum that turns off
many thinking Christian nonscientists and keeps them from
listening to those who see no biblical problem in adopting, lock,
stock and barrel, the whole naturalistic evolutionary scheme --
because the ungodly have used it so often to declare the end of
theism (aside from the clear fact that the Darwinian idea is not even
hinted at in Scripture). They use it to proclaim the ascendancy of
Man [et al Carl Sagan: "God is not necessary; all that was originally
necessary were the Laws." -- paraphrase].
If the feeding of the five thousand shows us anything, it should
teach us that it is not knowledge, but obedience that empowers us
with God's unlimited resources. Knowledge made the disciples
sceptics; obedience made them miracle workers. What God
demanded of Adam and Eve was not that they learn; it was that they
obey. When we disciple our young children to obey, it is often
because we know that obedience protects them from the
foolishness of immature self-will -- "Don't touch that stove!" They
do not need to know physics to survive and thrive; they only need to
obey. Yes, someday they will have knowledge of "good and evil";
but, we pray as parents, only when they are mature enough to
handle it. [Perhaps some significance there in our early sex
education: are we putting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
in their presence as a temptation too great to resist?].
I sometimes fear that because so much of science is conducted in
the halls of spiritual darkness, that Christian scientists become far
too accustomed to working without the Light. Much of the scientific
endeavor has evolved over 500 years into a system that is marked
as much by sin as it is by truth. This is similar to the evolution of
capitalism -- from a good way to do business to a deification of
dissatisfaction [see the new "Christianity Today," Oct. 7]. O how
much godly wisdom we need to evaluate our present
circumstances.
If you can tolerate a few more lines of poetry, let me quote T.S. Eliot
in his prophetic poem "Choruses from 'the Rock'" (1934).
"O weariness of men who turn from GOD
To the grandeur of your mind and the glory of your action,
To arts and inventions and daring enterprises,
To schemes of human greatness thoroughly discredited,
Binding the earth and the water to your service,
Exploiting the seas and developing the mountains,
Dividing the stars into common and preferred,
Engaged in devising the perfect refrigerator,
Engaged in working out a rational morality,
Engaged in printing as many books as possible,
Plotting of happiness and flinging empty bottles,
Turning from your vacancy to fevered enthusiasm
For nation or race or what you call humanity;
Though you forget the way to the Temple,
There is one who remembers the way to your door:
Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
You shall not deny the Stranger."
And earlier:
"O miserable cities of designing men,
O wretched generation of enlightened men,
Betrayed in the mazes of your ingenuities,
Sold by the proceeds of your proper inventions:
I have given you hands -- which you turn from worship,
I have given you speech -- for endless palaver,
I have given you my Law -- and you set up commissions,
I have given you lips -- to express friendly sentiments,
I have given you hearts -- for reciprocal distrust.
I have given you the power of choice, and you only alternate
Between futile speculation and unconsidered action.
Many are engaged in writing books and printing them,
Many desire to see their names in print,
Many read nothing but the [sports] reports.
Much is your reading, but not the Word of GOD,
Much is your building, but not the House of GOD.
Will you build me a house of plaster, with corrugated roofing,
To be filled with a litter of Sunday newspapers?"
Still earlier:
"The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiments,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust."
Those thoughts are sobering to me. And I find they give me the
humility I need when I go deeply into the sacred hall of God's
general revelation. They keep me alert for His command: "Take off
your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground."
Dean Ohlman
Cornerstone College