This is a complete summary of how I came to be where I am when it comes to faith and science.
I wear glasses, and I am proud of it. However, this also means my eyesight is very poor, and I depend on my glasses to see properly. This has given me a tremendous appreciation for sight, since every time I take my glasses off, I get a small glimpse into what a sightless world might be like. I therefore am a very visual person, and put a lot by what I can see, and struggle to accept that which I cannot. This basic attitude of mine gives me a strong tendency to believe generally accepted scientific theories as true, since they can physically show me the evidence. This also would give me a bias against religion as most of it depends on evidence not seen, if it were not for one major factor, being the circumstances of my birth.
I have long concluded that had I not been born in a religious family, I would be an atheist, or at most, generally agnostic. But alas, both my mother and father belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, otherwise known as Mormons. They raised me well, giving me everything I needed to grow and learn intellectually and spiritually. They taught me what they believed, and took me to church regularly to learn from others who believed similarly. As I was a child, I initially accepted, out of pure trust, that everything taught at my church to be true. It was not until my teenage years that a few of those beliefs began to be threatened in any way, and I came to a crisis.
My freshman year of high school, my seminary teacher shared an excerpt from a talk given by a since-deceased prominent church leader. This excerpt explicitly condemned the theory of evolution in all its forms. I assumed that this was the position of the entire church (even though, it turns out upon further investigation, that it is not officially) and thus I accepted it as truth. Within months, I was in my sophomore-year biology class, when the subject of evolution came up again, but with an entirely different hypothesis: that evolutionary theory is true. This is the first time in my memory that two of my fundamental beliefs, that my church was true and that science was true, were contradictory to and challenging one another. And it was very unsettling. Both arguments were thoroughly convincing, and both seemed fundamental to everything else in my belief system.
I do not recall exactly how, but I concluded that I did not need to settle the debate at all, and that I could accept both as true for the time being, and one day I would find the answer to the question of how the two could be reconciled. As a side note, that continues to be my stance to this day specifically with the theory of evolution, however, since I never did like biology much due to a lack of mathematical basis, I refuse to argue for either side when confronted, since that would require me studying biology again. But that issue gave precedence to the many smaller contradictions that would follow. Those smaller ones I will not mention here, as I could fill a book with them.
Another issue later on, though, hit much closer to home for me, as it challenged my favorite branch of science: astronomy. My bishop, with all the good will in the world (and I truly mean that, no sarcasm), asked me if I believed in the scientific view of the Earth’s creation, from the Big Bang Theory to current day. I responded to the affirmative, and he assured me that view would have to change once I learned what is taught only in the most sacred location to those of us called Mormons, the temple. For some background to those who do not share my religious beliefs, the temple is a place where we worship in a special and sacred way, outside of our normal worship in church meetinghouses. Due to its sacred (not secret) nature, only those who are found to be worthy, active members of the church are permitted to enter. I went for the first time shortly after my bishop’s comment, and have been many times since. I am sure my interpretation of it is different from his, since I have yet to find anything that directly or indirectly challenges the generally accepted astronomical view of the creation of the Earth.
However, upon researching the matter further, I found many of my fellow churchgoers shared my bishop’s view, and that I seemed to be in a minority. While I was on my mission, this seemed to be confirmed, and I was challenged on multiple occasions with regards to my scientific beliefs, both regarding evolution and the big bang theory, as well as many other issues. This culminated to a crisis of unprecedented proportions, when I so thoroughly desired an answer to the question of all human questions: Does God exist? I needed the answer, more than I ever had before. It was fundamentally important, especially at a time when I was purporting to be a representative of Jesus Christ, that I have the answer to that question.
The experience I had at that time due to that crisis is very sacred to me, and it is not something I intend to share here, but suffice it to say, I found the answer. I have undeniable, personal evidence of the existence of God. I know it, and I cannot deny it. If you wish to know more, please talk to me personally and I will share what I can about this.
But to continue my story, this led to the second-most fundamental question I needed to ask myself: what does this mean to my scientific beliefs? The answer to that came much more slowly, and in some cases I struggle with it to this day. I will conclude this with my best, though incomplete, answer to that question.
Science reveals the beauty of God’s plan and creation. We learn, through science, fundamental laws that govern everything from the motion of the stars and planets to the trillions of creatures that crawl on this Earth, and perhaps other worlds. Science reveals to us how things come to be, be it the storms that pound rain on our roofs or the small babies we hold in our arms. I believe God created all of this to remind us of our place: we are among His creations. Yes, we show intelligence beyond any other known lifeform, but we are still His creations. His laws, the laws of motion, the laws of nature, and any other laws, govern us as much as them. If we approach our study of those laws through the methodology of science (which I believe he inspired early on in the minds of mankind) correctly, then we will only find ourselves awestruck and humbled at the magnificence of the universe He has put us in.
For those of you who may be curious, I have not found a generally accepted scientific theory yet to be in full contradiction to my religious beliefs. Therefore, I have thus far accepted them all in their entirety, until enough reasonable evidence against them be presented to me.
Please comment below or on Facebook any thoughts you have on this! I write blog posts to generate a discussion, so lets discuss.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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