Multiverse, Aliens, but no God?

The following is a quote from Neil Shenvi's book, Why I Believe,

Yet, no matter how counterintuitive, shocking and bizarre the constructs of modern physics become, many in our culture continue to insist that whatever it portrays is "ordinary" while the supernatural is "extraordinary." We balk at the existence of immaterial realities but seem seriously unconcerned with the proliferation of ten-dimensional strings, parallel universes, closed-time loops, and nonlocal entanglement. You can even see this inconsistency in our science fiction, where magical plot devices are barely concealed by a thin patina of scientific jargon. The presence of actual angels or ghosts in Star Trek would be exceptionally jarring. But if the captain announces that a "hyperdimensional tachyon-based life-form has materialized on the bridge," we can suspend our disbelief. Why the disconnect?

 As a Sci-fi fan, I have had this same thought a number of times, while watching Star Trek, Stargate, or Fringe. Why are scientific-minded people willing to believe in the possibility of aliens & multiverses but not even consider the possibility of God?

I have theorized at least these two reasons for this skepticism. First, like Neil says, the God explanation sounds like magic or an appeal to an illogical "faith," whereas the other sounds scientific and they desire to think themselves logical and/or grounded in "reality" by which them mean physical things that they can feel and explain. Of course, the problem highlighted in these shows is that there are many areas of life that are not strictly physical and for which we do not yet have any good explanations, such as morality, origins or destiny. Thus the writers often propose sciency-sounding explanations that are far-fetched or that appeal to some long-forgotten or distant alien culture that knows more than us. I believe that for many scientifically minded people a possible naturalistic explanation, no matter how unlikely, is still better than proposing God might be involved because they believe that God is like Santa or the Tooth Fairy, namely a being that can do anything necessary to fill whatever gaps we have in our understanding. Having "faith" in this kind of God is indeed like magic with no need for evidence, and unfortunately, some Christians behave as if God does desire us to have this kind of faith in Him.

Christians should counter this by explaining that God as described in the Bible is not illogical, nor does He demand faith without evidence. In fact, even in Hebrews 11:1 where faith is described as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," it is still not a faith based on no evidence. In fact, in each of the stories described in Hebrews 11, the individuals had evidence of God's existence and plan, but they still needed to trust Him for the future. All over the Bible, God encourages people to examine the evidence for the truth of who He is and even to compare Him to other gods to see that He is real. He points to the order of the universe as evidence for Himself. Many early Christian scientists believed in the order of the universe because they believed in a God of order who had created with a purpose. The writers of the Bible do understand that humans are limited and do not fully understand the spiritual realm, but they never describe it as chaos or a magical place without rules. Rather it is a place where we do not have access to all the information yet.

But should we fail to believe in something just because we cannot fully understand it yet? Why should a spiritual realm where there exist creatures with purpose and will, not at least be one of the options for helping to explain phenomenon here? I do not assume subatomic forces do not exist or are disordered just because I cannot explain them. Likewise, I do not assume God is capricious or random, just because I cannot yet explain all of His actions. 

Therefore, as Christians, I think we can and should undertake to help skeptics see their inconsistent thinking when they propose theories like aliens or multiverses which have no evidence and really do not have any explanatory power, and at the same time reject even the possibility of a supernatural realm. We can do this by reframing the biblical understanding of supernatural realm from a magical mystical place with no rules, to one which is like another dimension where there are rules, but ones that we cannot access yet.

Unfortunately, even if we could help skeptics reframe their understanding of the supernatural, many would likely still reject God as a possible explanation for anything, because of a second reason which is spiritual and psychological. If God exists, then He not only created the universe with order and purpose, but it also means He created humans with order and purpose. Therefore, if we really wanted to understand ourselves and how we should function in the world, we might have to figure out if God has told us anything about that. In other words, God's existence might impact our existence and how we live our lives. To live our best lives, we might have to learn from and obey someone other than ourselves. Often, people are either afraid of a bad authority, or they simply do not want anyone to be an authority over them. Very few skeptics are likely to admit this kind of psychological prejudice, but often in conversation, I have heard experienced a level of anger at God that seems completely unjustified if the skeptic really did not believe He existed. What about the possibility of God's existence would cause them to be so emotional toward Him or toward believers in God if they did not have some much more personal reasons to doubt His existence. 

The most vocal critics of any belief system are those who have been hurt within that system, and if you hear the personal stories of many skeptics, you will hear many such stories. I am not suggesting that person hurt is the only reason for disbelief, any more than the only rationale for believing is psychological benefit, but it is clear that personal experiences play a large role in determining what we explanations we might accept as possible. 

In conversations with skeptics, Christians can help overcome this barrier in two ways. First, to be transparent about our own biases. If personal experience, such as dreams or some fantastic worship time, is one of the reasons we believe, we need to admit that. If God is real, than having such an experience should not be discounted, but that sort of evidence is not transferable to others, so we should be willing to also have and be willing to discuss other reasons to believe, which is exactly what Shenvi is doing in his book. If we can admit our biases and bring more neutral evidence, we can perhaps help the skeptic to be willing to examine their personal biases and how those might influence their conclusions. 

Knowing these reasons or any others for why someone might not consider believing in God will not necessarily overcome someone's disbelief, but they might help us further the conversation. If we think of sharing our beliefs with someone as gardening or farming, which is a metaphor the Bible uses, then we might simply be tilling the soil making it possible for someone to later on consider believing in Jesus. Ultimately God uses many different means to draw people to Himself, and the more we learn about the world, ourselves, and other people will help us to be available to be one of the tools God uses in the lives of others.

Loving Intent versus Loving Outcomes.

As a pastor, I often get to participate with our associate pastor, Cory Martin, in deciding how to help people who come with a specific financial or physical need. They often make a compelling case for why they need help with rent or utilities, and I am glad to be able to help them when we have the resources to do that. Our church takes an offering once a month to help in this ministry, and I know that other churches do as well. There is certainly a biblical command to help those with less.(see Proverbs 19:17, Luke 14:12-14 among many others).

But as we help we also have to be careful that our help does not end up with bad results in the lives of people who we intend to be actually helping. Just because your intention is to do good for someone doesn't mean the result is good for them. This holds true in any number of areas of life, where people have desires that they want to be fulfilled, and they think need to be fulfilled, such as drug addiction, eating disorders, sexual desires and all kinds of co-dependencies. We sometimes want to help, but if we're not wise we end up hurting the person instead. 

This example of a time when people with the intention of helping ended up hurting someone is what inspired me to write this post. 

 Often times people get themselves into problems because they're following their desires which have led them astray.  If we affirm them by simply giving them more money without helping them understand how to use it properly, or affirm them by telling them that their desires are OK even when we can see those desires are in conflict with reality that will never be changed, we end up hurting them in the long run. In this article, we see how empathy for a person's problems can sometimes be a sin instead of a help.

 A wiser and more loving response would be to examine the long-term outcomes of certain behaviors, or studying what has worked historically and the wisdom of the ages. Then when we go to help someone, our intentions are more likely to line up with actual good and loving outcomes. 

This response takes more time and effort and frequently it also means we have to get more personally involved with someone, which can be scary because unhealthy people frequently wound those around them. We need to stay close to the Lord in the process and have our primary motive be love for and obedience to Him rather than expecting results from the other person who may or may not show appropriate gratefulness. 

God does call us to reach out and help all kinds of hurting people, those poor in physical resources and poor in spirit, such as those who might be emotionally distressed, but He also calls us to be wise. I want to encourage you to be willing to go deep with people that you desire to help, so you are not just meeting their immediate need, but rather are able to be wise and see what their deeper needs might be. This will give you insight into how you can help them in a way that is truly loving by helping without leading to further negative consequences in their lives.

If you are interested in studying this more, I recommend the book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

How I Read the Bible

 

One of my regular disciplines over the last 20 or more years has been to be constantly reading through the whole Bible. I take a whole Bible reading plan of some sort (here is a link for a number of different ones), and just start reading. I have only once in my life read through the whole Bible in a year, but I just keep plugging away and generally read several chapters a day.

I miss some days, but on the whole I have become more and more disciplined so that I read more days than I miss. Furthermore, I also try to highlight passages that are meaningful to me personally and sometimes I copy and paste them into a note along with some of my reflections about the passage. If my reflections get longer they end up being a blog post here. 

Generally, it takes me anywhere from 2-3 years to get through the whole Bible and then I start again. I also like to read different versions to get a different flavor and perhaps see things in a new way, but I have repeated some of my favorite versions (ESV, HCSB, NLT). Right now at the end of 2022, I am just finishing up the book of Revelation and the last of the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. This time through I have been reading through a "Readers" Bible that did not include verse numbers, and I have also tried to read through whole books instead of chapters at a time. This has helped me to see the flow of specific books and themes throughout books. 

I like reading plans that include some of the Old Testament and some of the New Testament, so I have alternated books this time around. When I do this I often see connected themes that run throughout the Bible, especially how the NT authors use OT ideas. Christianity really is a continuation and completion of the revelation given to the Jewish people. 

If you are a long-time Christian who reads other things or went through college, you really can read the whole Bible, but you may have to take it in smaller chunks and build up your reading muscles, especially as you hit some of the less thrilling parts. I know the habit has taken me a while and I still continue to build it and enjoy it more and more. I find great wisdom and joy in reading God's Word.

For those who may find it hard to read the whole Bible, I want to recommend a new plan that I just found and the I am going to try myself over the next year. 

A Bible scholar named Greg Lanier has put together this redemptive history reading plan which focuses on 13 big Bible themes and pairs Old Testament passages with New Testament passage around those themes. It is only about 200 chapters, so not the whole Bible, but it should give the reader a great overview of the big themes of scripture. If you are just starting out and trying to figure out what to read, I want to challenge you to read along with me this next year. I will try to read a chapter a day, first from the Old Testament and then the New Testament. 

I would bet if you learn to regularly read the Bible, that you will grow in wisdom and knowledge of God, the world, and yourself. Furthermore, there is almost no downside. May you be blessed this today and this year!!

God's Part, Our Part, Their Part

Ezekiel 33:7-11 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?"

God wants to save and Ezekiel is responsible for declaring the message God gave him, but he is not responsible for how the people react to the message. There is God's part, our part, and their part. As much as we might desire to change someone else, we can only do so much. Once we have fulfilled our God given role in someone's life, we have to leave the results in God's hands. Likewise, ultimately our lives before God are not someone else's responsibility. When we hear the word of God, we need to obey regardless of what other people did or did not do. 

A bruised reed he will not crush.

My personal scripture reading today included Job 5 & 6. In chapters 4 & 5 Job's "friend" Eliphaz, responds to Job's lament from chapter 4 (Job had many, many bad things happen to him and he was really hurting from them.) To summary what Eliphaz says, he reminds Job that God gives good things to good people and bad things to bad people, but if you repent from the bad things, he will give you good things again. The clear implication is that Job is suffering because of the bad things he must have done.

Now it is in general true that sin leads to suffering and that a righteous life produces better outcomes, so as a proverb about the general state of the world, Eliphaz is correct. God set the world up to be orderly and moral actions just like physical actions have consequences. But Job does not know of any specific or outward wrongs that he has done to justify the trauma that he is experiencing, so he responds.

He who withholds kindness from a friend

forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Job 6:14 

In other words, it is not kindness to rebuke a person in the midst of terrible suffering. Furthermore he asks,

Teach me, and I will be silent;

make me understand how I have gone astray. Job 6:24

If Eliphaz can point to a specific sin that Job should repent of then go ahead and do it. Job would gladly repent if it meant that it would ease his suffering. We learn from earlier in the book that repentance was a regular practice, so he would not even have resisted it. At the end of the book, when God challenges Job about his sin in questioning God, Job is willing to repent. But in this moment, Eliphaz is not aware of any sin, but rather he just makes a general accusation, which adds to Job's suffering. 

I have lived and ministered long enough now to have many instances of personal suffering and to have been with many others in their suffering. In the middle of painful situation, most people will not respond well to a rebuke, even if the suffering is directly related to their sin. They will either get very angry and defensive or they will get very depressed and withdraw. 

Jesus in quoting Isaiah says this about himself,

A bruised reed he will not break,

and a smoldering wick he will not quench,

until he brings justice to victory. Matthew 12:20 

When someone is already down, we need to be there, show that we care, and establish connection, otherwise they will not hear us when we have to come and talk to them about anything negative. We see this in Jesus's behavior toward sinners. He often approached people who were known sinners in his society, but if they were very repentant when they came, he treated them very gently, while still calling for them to turn away from sin.

On the other hand, I know that when suffering is related to sin, it is not loving the person well to never address the issue of their sin. So I am contemplating how should I approach people who are trapped in sin when they are suffering from the effects of that sin?

I think for me the first thing has to be making sure I establish connections and show people that I care. I also want to help the church understand this. We need to be a welcoming place to those who are hurting, even if their pain is caused by their own behavior. But we cannot be scared to speak the truth about sin and its consequences, and when we have established some relationship or when we are in long-term relationship already, then we need to be loving enough to confront sin even if that is painful

The apostle Paul did that with the Corinthians. He challenged some sin in their midst and it caused them some pain.

For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 

2 Corinthians 7:8-10 

Here he distinguishes between wordly grief and godly grief. When someone is suffering the consequences of sin undoubtedly they will feel bad, but what we should desire is that it becomes a godly grief. A godly grief is not just feeling bad about the situation, but it is a pain that leads people to examine their life, discover the sin, and repent of that sin. His desire was that they use the opportunity of pain to repent of known sin (turn around and go the other way), so that they do not have to experience this pain again and so that they do not keep on causing pain and trouble for those around them.  

But for me actually knowing the right moment to talk to someone about sin in their life is very tricky. I suspect there is no one right way to do it, but rather that we need to remember some of the principles listed above and then treat each person and each situation uniquely. 

If you are reading this and are in pain due to hard situations in your life. I would encourage you to examine your life to see if there is sin for which you need to repent. God desires for you to come to Him. Jesus died for your sins, and His forgiveness is available. You may still face earthly consequences for your sin, but God wants you to come and receive His mercy, forgiveness, and love. The hard stuff is a form of God's mercy to let us know that we need to turn around and go another direction. He does not desire us to continue in painful behavior.

He can and does transform lives. No one is too far gone. His love is shown by tranforming people, and we find our ultimate joy in living in harmony with Him. Furthermore, when we allow Him to transform us, we also become the type of people that are good to those around us. 

Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary heavy laden and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28.

What is in your Heart?

A few years ago there was an ad campaign that asked the question “what's in your wallet?” They wanted you to think about the difference between their credit card and other credit cards.   A similar question came to mind, as I was reading Ezekiel 14 recently. Here God challenges the leaders of Israel about the idols in their hearts. This was at a time when the nations around them might very well have had physical idols set up in their temples and homes. What God was asking the people to do was not just look on the outside, but also on the inside and ask the question, what's in your heart?

What kind of idols might they have had in their hearts? Well the nations around them worshipped idols that supposedly helped them in many physical areas, such as fertility, safety, success, good weather, and war. It is likely then that by idols in their hearts, God was talking about anything that they trusted in or desired more than Him.  For instance, if their joy in life was dependent upon being well-thought-of and seen as a success among their peers, then public opinion and success would be idols in their hearts.

If you're reading this, it's unlikely that you have physical idols set up in your house or where you go to worship.  But like the Jewish people in Ezekiel's day, and frankly all people throughout time, it is likely that you and I do make idols in our heart.  So I think it might be appropriate to ask ourselves what's in my heart? What am I trusting for happiness other than God?

The reason to examine our hearts for idols is because nothing and no one but the true God can ultimately fulfill us. This is one of the ways that we can examine our hearts, by looking for those areas of unfulfillment, dissatisfaction, and depression.  When we lack the joy and peace that God promises to those who trust him, it is likely because we are actually trusting in some false idol.  So I would encourage you to ask God to help you identify any items that may be idols of your heart. Sometimes even good things like family or hard work at a job can become idols if we make them the primary reason for living. 

If we ask God I believe he will help to reveal the idols of our hearts, And give us a new heart that is dedicated to Him. I believe we can take this promise from God as our own, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you" Ezekiel 36:26.

Meaningless, Meaningless!!

 

At a recent elder's meeting at our church, Mark Wallerstedt commented that he had been reading through the book of Ecclesiastes and that it was kind of depressing. I can understand why he says that, because a common refrain in the book is that everything is vanity or meaningless. The teacher cycles through a number of areas where he has tried to find meaning, including hard work, money, partying, women, and even wisdom. In the end, he concludes that everything under the sun is meaningless. Ultimately, you live and work here on earth but eventually, you die so what does it matter?

As I write this, I am currently preparing for two funerals for people who died relatively young so this is not an abstract concept for me. I am talking to their friends and family, and a question that commonly comes up at this time is did their lives have meaning? At the same time, it is good to ask ourselves, does my life have meaning? Eventually everything under the sun goes away including ourselves so what does it matter. I have seen many people come to funerals not just with great sorrow, but a depression because they are faced with the meaninglessness and hopelessness of their own lives. 

But I do not think that the teacher of Ecclesiastes intends us to end with this nihilistic (meaningless) understanding of life. Instead, he highlights the phrase "under the sun" to help us understand that if build our lives on anything that is simply material then it will go away. Therefore, we need to look above the sun or above the material world to the creator of the world for our purpose. Only when we understand ourselves and the world from God's perspective can we know that we were created for more than just this life. We were created for eternity with God. He desires us to live every day with an eternal purpose, knowing that no matter how easy or hard our life is right now, we can live with hope.

Jesus came to make the way for us to have that eternal life. He says, in John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." He came to die on our behalf so that we can have a restored relationship with God because our sin had separated us from Him. When we believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord, then all the aspects of our lives can be lived with an eternal purpose.

One of the people who died this week was my friend Ryann. Ryann died young from our perspective, but Ryann expressed very clearly to me that he believed in Jesus. Therefore, I believe that he is with Jesus now and has in fact passed from death to life. His life here was not meaningless, because he lived in such a way to point above the sun to the One who created everything and declared that is was very good. If you believe in Jesus as our Savior, you too can know that your life has eternal meaning.