On the internet recently (5-20-13) I stumbled across a Yahoo! news headline blaring that a father was losing his religion apparently and was now raising his children to believe in Science rather than in God. That story was just a reminder that among the pantheon of deities in this neo-pagan Western culture today, a new Zeus has emerged on Mount Olympus. It is Science. No surprise.
Deep down this poor fellow is probably mad at God about something and in spite prefers to worship a box of rocks. In any case, he has these days many fellow travelers. Maybe Congress should just strike new coins that tell the bald truth: “In Science we trust.” (Which drift, by the way, goes far in accounting for the free fall we as a nation seem to be in).
We can expect this deviant worship to spread. For the last God people want to serve is the true and living God. Nothing new there. Man has always liked to invent his own designer gods.
I am not an anti-science guy. Far from it. I am thrilled to death when I am blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other to learn there is a break through in medical science that will spare my sight. What I really scorn however is its high priestly caste and its cult of eager acolytes who tout Science (meaning them) as the Answer to all the world’s problems, the key to taming that whole array of destructive forces that torment this cursed planet. Not so fast.
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind That Curtain
As many as go gaga over modern scientific achievements, I for one am underwhelmed by all the religious fervor in its behalf. I see the sleight of hand in all this. While the science community tries to divert our attention to all the dazzling things Science has done (and to fantastic projections of what this omnipotent Deity will accomplish in the future), the cult deftly deflects our focus from what this idol has not done, cannot do and never will do. And that includes all the things that matter most.
Forget all the buzz about glitzy interplanetary probes and the so-called ‘God particle’. The harsh reality is the world under the regime of this cult is hardly a new and improved version of the old one. What has Science done to solve our real problems?
Death, for example. One for one everybody still dies. No help (or hope) there.
Disease. Still a scourge the world over. Not going away. Like a hydra headed monster, cut one off and others crop up. Alzheimers expected to accelerate in the next decades. Autism all over children like measles. Does it sometimes seem to you that every third child these days is affected? AIDS still taking people down right and left. Cancer. Everytime I turn around another victim. Heart disease not going away. This new god has some serious limitations.
“Oh, don’t look at that. See our probe on Mars!” Oh, so nice that your cult can play Star Trek, but, hello! things are still going to hell in a hand basket down here. Hateful scourges still alive and well. For all the healing measures Science has come up with, don’t forget this humbling fact—it still can’t cure the common cold! So astounding for a god who can do anything.
War and man’s inhumanity to man are not slowing down. Science has no answer and it never will. In fact, it could be reasonably argued that Science with its advancements is just an able assistant to the horrors. With the help of Science and its devotees the 20th century was the bloodiest on record. And the 21st century is not shaping up too promising in that regard either.
What about shielding us from natural disasters? Science is supposed to be omnipotent and virtually omniscient. The cult is talking reassuringly about devising ingenious ways to intercept and destroy big asteroids making a bee line for mother earth. Oh, what a savior! Now we can sleep at night. In Science we will trust.
Yet where is the power of Science when we need it to interdict less exotic threats like earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, volcanoes and hurricanes? Asteroids most of us don’t see as the clear and present danger to our health and happiness. These natural earth-bound forces are. But you, o Science, stand impotent before them. You cannot find a way nor are you going to find a way to make the world safe for human habitation. Violent Nature is a lot bigger than you are; Somehow when I hear your cult boasting, the words of the late Charlie Finney leap to mind: big hat, no cattle.
Oh, Science has all this awesome technology to forecast and track these natural phenomenon, but is as helpless as a wingless bird to fly out and neutralize them. That capability is about as reassuring as notifying us that a vicious serial killer is on the loose but nothing can’t stop him. Well, thanks, for the warning!
Still, its worshippers sing, “O, Science, how great Thou art!” Science can do anything. Yeah? What has Science done lately that really makes a difference in the things that truly matter?
Fixing Human Nature: There’s No App For That
So, I have high definition TV and a vastly greater number of channels to choose from. But crime? Still stalking us big time. Despite all this social science (‘science’ might be stretching it a little) bad boys and bad girls still proliferate like cock roaches in a dirty kitchen. And they come and steal my TV and perhaps murder or maim me in the process. None of this bad stuff is slowing down in the least—this despite all this crime- stopping technology and forensic science to make sure the perps don’t get away with their villainy.
Has Science ever overturned an evil ideology? No, but it has boosted a few (think Marxism and Nazism). Actually, when one thinks about it, this new god is rather puny (and dark) in its powers. Kind of dumb to hang our hats on it.
Has Science ever transformed a life? Do you know of a single evil person whom Science ever made good? Has Science ever turned a hater into a lover, a vile sinner into an exemplary saint? Never heard of that. Can Science fix broken marriages? Can it heal broken relationships? Can Science turn unprincipled people into principled ones? Can it make immoral people moral? Heavens, no. Science is an amoral god. Can Science produce peace on earth and good will among men? Where has it ever done so? Can Science uproot human selfishness and greed and rapaciousness? Never known a single instance.
These are among the things that really matter. But Science is helpless here. It is truly a sad sack excuse for a god. As a god it is both a burden (because it facilitates so much evil) and a bust (because it cannot save the ship).
Power Corrupts, But Christ Redeems
The truth is, salvation is where it has always been—in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He has changed men and cultures for the better. And all that is good in the world today, He accounts for. Science cannot prevent people from dying nor resurrect the dead.
Christ is the fountain of life and He rose from the dead and in His earthly life raised others from the dead. And He promises to raise all who know Him from the dead. Science offers no such hope. It has never once raised the dead. It never will.
Jesus Christ has caused the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the mute to speak as well. In the case of those who know Him, He dissolves intractable hate and supplants it with a sincere love that extends even to its enemies. Science is impotent there.
Christ makes friends of bitter foes. He creates in His people a mysterious inner peace and tranquility in the face of the most distressing circumstances. Again and again He has set people free who were slaves of demonic bondage. Science is dumber than a fence post in the face of issues like that—the things that really matter.
Christ gives His people life and that more abundantly (unless one thinks of abundant life in strictly material and technological terms— which is kind of spare). He brings His own into fellowship with the true and living God.
Science is incompetent to find or know God because He is not discovered through scientific method, but through biblical revelation, i.e. through faith in Him. Science has no clue about the core problem that warps and writhes this world—people are dead (dead toward God, void of understanding) in trespasses and sins that have separated them from their Creator.
Science in its blindness would rather have us believe in the materiality of man only and put on blinders as to the soul. Science is incompetent to fix human beings where they need to be fixed and to change the world in the ways it most needs to be changed. Science cannot regenerate a human heart, it cannot reach man where he most needs to be reached and change him where he most needs to be changed.
Science talks big, but in reality it offers no hope and no future for this embattled race of mankind. That hope is in Jesus Christ alone, the hope of the resurrection and eternal fellowship with God in His everlasting Kingdom, which will come and overthrow all the idols of men.
Again I am not anti-science, but very opposed to those who set it up as an idol to replace the true God.. You see, science is a good servant, but a sorry master. It has a real dark side, for it is an amoral religion in which almost every asset that might enrich life on this planet, its devotees find almost infinite and ingenious ways to put to destructive uses, just digging a deeper hole for this sinful race.
That poor father is a fool of the first magnitude. May God have mercy on him and his children.
This cult kills. Jesus saves.