If I asked you to name the smartest person you could think of many people would probably immediately say "Stephen Hawking", who of course is the brilliant theoretical physicist who helped us to understand black holes and several other very important ideas. This man can ponder complex and multifaceted problems for hours on end, he can grasp ideas that most of us could not even comprehend, yet in all his wisdom he cannot grasp the power of the miracle of the cross of Jesus Christ.
A Reuters article titled "Physicist Hawking marvels at life's existence" explains:
Hawking also said he has written a children's book with his daughter called "George's Secret Key to the Universe," which will be published in September.
The secret key evidently will not be religion.
"I'm not religious in the normal sense," Hawking said. "I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."
This belief is called deism and it is not a new idea. In fact, many of our country's founding fathers are accused of being deist, such as Thomas Jefferson who tore out all the references to miracles in the story of Christ, omitting the virgin birth, the angels, and the resurrection. What did Jefferson find when he looked for the "real" Jesus? Not surprisingly, according to the above linked author:
In short, Mr. Jefferson's Jesus, modeled on the ideals of the Enlightenment thinkers of his day, bore a striking resemblance to Jefferson himself.
It's interesting that Hawking would imagine a God that does not interact with the world (much like he cannot), and Jefferson imagined a God who ended up being a lot like himself as well. It's also interesting that in Hawking's "religion" the laws that govern the universe cannot be broken therefore there can be no sin other than what is defined subjectively.
These men were and are both brilliant human thinkers and have contributed much to our society, however their inability to comprehend the "otherness" of God, and his infinite holiness leaves them empty and continually seeking for that which will fully satisfy the longing of their souls.
Deism rejects the possibly of miracles, thereby rejecting the atonement provided by Christ or even His very existence as the God-man that he was and is. It seems that their rationality is bounded by what they can observe therefore the comprehension of a standard set by a being who exists apart from and independent of everything else is impossible, or more likely this idea is simply undesirable because it does not line up with the god with which they have fallen in love while gazing in the mirror.1 Corinthians 1:18-25:
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
7 comments:
Did you see him floating around in 0 gravity yesterday? He didn't look so smart when he was drifting around with that goofy grin on his face. I'm not sure about deism, but I am sure that if I knew I were going to be on national television I'd brush my hair first. See... now who is the genious?
For those keeping score at home: Chad Morris 1/Stephen Hawkings 0
Oh... and I love Jesus.
Chad 2/Stephen Hawkings 0
Ok now on a serious note.
First, it surprises me that Dax of all people would hold religion and science as two mutually exclusive ideals. It's a very slippery slope, but I enjoy a person who can rationalize their surroundings. Don't take that to mean that I am a deist, but I do think it is interesting that some of the greatest minds in science seem to prove religion. I think it's interesting that Hawkings sees divine law and even recognizes God (even his consciousness to not intervene in his own laws). It seems to me that he has pretty much mathematically proven the existence of God.
This brings me to the counter argument to my own point. I think that this "divine law" is interesting and in no way disproves what I hold in my heart as Christianity. In my opinion, he's reasoned himself to the micro portions of religion. What he's missed is the macro portion. By this I mean that he's missed the importance of Christ. If he could catch that last over-arching view of Christianity, he pretty much has it. I realize that this is kind of like saying that an atomic bomb was a spark, but still it's interesting to me how close he comes to seeing god without actually knowing God.
As for Hawkings and Jeffersons views of God in a personalized way, I think we all do that to an extent. I believe it's human nature to try to apply something that we can comprehend to the uncomprehendable. I doubt that many of us do this consciously but I think if we all really think about it, our views of God are morphed by our own experiences. For instance, when I picture Jesus I picture an image of an actual person. I know realistically that Jesus wasn't white, but he is in my mind... Does that make my Jesus wrong? Of course not, it's just applying our own experiences into the intangible.
I'm on a roll. Here's a good rant:
To The Makers of Jolly Ranchers,
I just thought you should know that nobody (NOBODY) ever eats any of the blue raspberry flavored Jolly Ranchers. EVER. When it's time to re-fill the candy dish, there are always those ugly nonappetizing blue raspberry ones all abandoned at the bottom of the dish.
I have my opinions on why this phenomenon occurs. For one, that color should not be associated with food. It was really a bad idea. That flavor just screws up the whole assorted flavors bag and I was just wondering if perhaps there is a group of blue raspberry advocates somewhere that have convinced you to continue to make these?
What do I do with all these neglected, disgusting, blue raspberry Jolly Ranchers? I almost want to send them back to you, so that you can send them on to the blue raspberry fan club.
Quite frankly, I have never even tasted one of these things. They could taste awesome! Aside from the fact that nobody has ever HEARD of a blue raspberry, I'm sure they taste quite good. I just can't bring myself to put that radioactive nuclear flourescent unnatural color into my mouth. I'm pretty sure my teeth and gums would probably be stained blue.
I think at the very least, you should consider changing the color of the blue raspberry Jolly Rancher. Maybe just eliminate the blue part altogether. By the way, what's wrong with good ole plain raspberry? Now that's a good flavor. I know you already have cherry and watermelon flavors hogging up the red category, but surely you could come up with something.
To be honest, the bright neon blue color really messes with the feng shui of my candy dish, with its appetizing array of purple, green, red and red Jolly Ranchers.
Thank you for your time. And remember, nobody wants to eat flourescent blue candy.
The only problem is that a God without miracles who does not exist apart from and independent of us, would really just be another life form constrained by the same laws and rules that we are constrained by, and that is what Jefferson and Hawking envision. Their god is too small for me.
on the other hand, I really like the Blue Raspberry Jolly ranchers, they are my favorite next to Cherry.
Smart people who love Jesus:
C.S. Lewis
St. Augustine
Detrick Bonhoeffer
John Piper
Mark Driscol
RC Sproul
John MacArther
There's alot more, but these are some of my favorite.
I'm really surprised, and frankly a little hurt, that I didn't make the list.
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