Science, Glory, and all that stuff.

Science... Ssh, don't say that.

In church today,  I think that science has become a dirty word. For many people and this is also true in the church it would seem that Christianity and science are in conflict. It seems to have been thrown into the realm of politics and religion. You simply don't discuss science with religion in polite conversation. I think this is due in large part to the association that evolution has with science in general. I won't get into evolution here, I might later, but that would be a long multi-part post.

First let us define the term science for the sake of discussion. I am sure that one could come up with many varying definitions for science, but I will use a simple one.

Science is the study of the observed. Science helps us draw conclusions from our environment and for that we are able to define and understand what may not be so readily observable.

There are many things about science that the vast majority of people simply do not understand. String theory is an excellent example. I am not a scholar of physics so don't quote me on this, but if I understand the theory it goes a little something like this. The knowable universe and our four (or six or ten or infinite depending on who you talk to) dimensions are composed of an infinite (truly innumerable) number of tiny one dimensional loops. Many times these loops are explained as if they are rubber bands. This illustration is okay for the uninitiated, but it isn't actually true. While these single dimensional loops do vibrate and move they don't have anything inside them that we would understand as matter. Also to refer to them as rubber bands or even as loops as I have is still not accurate. This is simply a one dimensional space as it exists. It is space bending in upon itself in the only way that it can. If it were to behave any differently it would be, I think, violating what we consider the laws of physics. The way these SDS's (single dimensional space, a more accurate term I think) vibrate is how particles such as quarks and photons are in existence. At this point it should be noted that it is vibration in conjunction with truly unseeable space is what composes matter, light, and perhaps even energy.

The point of that rather lengthy (and almost certainly flawed) explanation is that very few people even scientists do not understand this theory. I think that it would even not be too far fetched that a few of the many who have played a part in sculpting this theory do not properly understand it themselves. The other point is that while we cannot physically see these SDS's we can discern their existence or at least theorize that they exist from what we can see.

A couple days ago a friend of mine said something to the effect of science not having the ability to explain the "paranormal." While she is right in that the study of what we see cannot explain many things relating to God and or the paranormal I think that it gives off a false impression that these subjects are not related. When I truly believe that the subjects are so intertwined that dividing them into separate subjects just might be... inaccurate.

This brings me to my next subject. Glory. Of of the biggest if not the single greatest purpose that any single human being has is to glorify God. At times when information is incomplete or even at times false it can seem as though we should ignore it entirely. This is a mistake. If this is done and at a later time the information is completed or proven false one has missed a wonderful chance to give God glory. Let us look at the age of the earth. There are many who would stand behind the idea that the earth is billions of years old. I don't personally buy this. There are certain inconsistencies that get in the way of my believing it. I don't fully understand it, to be honest, but I can say that I am supremely confident that eventually the age of the earth will in one way or another line up with scripture. I think this was the case when people held the belief that the earth was flat. While it really wasn't as popular an idea back in the day of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella as many think; it was a fairly prolific idea. The Bible says, "and hangeth the earth upon nothing."
Job 26:7
Now we know for a fact that the earth is an imperfect sphere that "hangs on nothing." Funny how that works, huh?

Let us look at an unpleasant subject that relates to this very well. The crusades. I am not going to go into all the differing crusades, but I do want to recognize that they were horrific. Hundreds if not thousands of people died. Are we to ignore the ugly and disgusting side of life? No, we are to recognize it and move on. My favorite author writes the villains in his stories as particularly dark characters. Why? Because this puts contrasts and amplifies the apparent goodness of the protagonist.
The people, the men, women, and children are not heroes. They are not villains. They are the slaughtered. This is not something that can be ignored. To do this is to merely continue what was started in that day. Let us acknowledge that men made horrific decisions and used God's name to rationalize their actions. When we are told not to use the Lord's name in vain this is what was spoken of. I do not understand how something like that can eventually bring God glory, but I am confident in that it will be used in the long run to do just that.

Just what was on my mind today.

Revision January 19:

In regards to the "explanation" of String theory.

So far no one I have spoken to has understood this; hence the quotation marks. It seems as there is some confusion regarding my mention of two dimensional spaces. I have no clue how such a "space" would exist or behave (I am sure it would be interesting) and it is not something I am attempting to address here in any length. Also, when thinking of how a SDS would behave try to think out side of the box. Chances are you perceive everything in a thread of time progressively moving forward. When contemplating anything regarding this subject one should remember that we do not live in a three dimensional world. We have more than just three dimensions with which we interact in. There are four that we can observe readily. There are the dimensions of space that are length, depth, and width, but there is also the fourth. That fourth is time. This is not a new concept, but something we have known for some time. Well, these SDS's exist outside of time. At least so far as I am able to discern they do not seem to be influenced by it... At this point it becomes fairly difficult to contend with if one is disregarding the math behind it all. I, however, am terrible at math and while I may have delusions of grandeur advanced mathematics is not part of those. The point is that these singular dimensional spaces are what compose our entire universe. If this is true an amazing thing is occurring all around us that very very few even recognize. These spaces that are made up of only a single dimension are actually producing four (and almost certainly more). I just thought it was worth mentioning that everything that you see and feel and touch and eat and hear is made up of stuff that doesn't even adhere to the same physical laws that we do. :)