The Science Of Faith

Whenever you do something wrong an easy defense is to say, "Oh well, I'm not perfect." As Christians, we are taught that all will fall short of the glory of God. Why try then? Is it not counter-intuitive to strive for unobtainable perfection? Does a knowledge of fallibility subversively condone wrongdoing? A friend once told me that theoretically he could do wrong his entire life and as long as he repented when he died the Bible said he would go to Heaven. I made an argument that an all seeing, all knowing God would know whether or not you were bullshitting but if one lived a life rife with sin and were honestly repentant about it then I'm forced to agree that they would get into Heaven. It doesn't matter how many people you murder, as long as you seek forgiveness the rules say you're in. That means that any man of evil, Charles Manson, Kim Jong Il, Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Mel Gibson... any or all of them could see the light and get in. Love they enemy, right? So why worry about it? Personally though, I don't know if I would trust the eternal whereabouts of my soul to a theory.

Other Christians I've spoken with don't believe in Hell at all. How could they go there if they don't believe in it? Others do believe in Hell but different incarnations. Is it John Milton's Paradise Lost? Is it Dante Alighieri's Inferno? Or is Hell as some theologians have hypothesized simply distance from God? Jesus taught us that God loves and forgives us. If so, how is eternal damnation even possible unless someone wanted it?

The Bible contradicts itself and sometimes is just flat out wrong. There are two contradictory stories of creation, both scientifically disproved. Evolution is basic scientific fact. There's also the discrepancy as to why have certain other biblical books from the time have been excluded from the Bible. Then there is the rapture, which millions of people believe in and isn't even mentioned in the Bible. The Bible also says that being gay is wrong but it also says that we should love and forgive everybody. Christian's can't even agree on specific passages! God made us stewards of the Earth. Does this mean that he gave us dominion over the Earth and all the plants and animals on it or does it mean that we have a sacred obligation to respect, nurture, and care for all life and all Heavenly creations?

The Christian and Jewish faiths are based around the belief that the Bible is supposed to be the irrefutable word of God. And yet we know that parts of it are just wrong. Science has proved it. Parts of it have also been mistranslated, again Science rears its' ugly head. It seems like every time I turn around Science is disproving something I believe. How can I be a man of Faith and a man of Science?

Until next time, True Believers...
The bottle is empty
And the well is dry
October 2008

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