« New Essay | Archive | New Essay and Photo Diary »

January 12, 2005

The Balance of Faith and Reason

Werner Heisenberg, a founding father in the field of quantum physics, made a startling revelation in 1927 that would alter all scientific endeavors (at least at the sub-atomic level) from that point on. He discovered that when measuring a particle one needs to use some source of energy, either light or radiation, as a means of collecting data. Since singular particles are so minute it was inevitable that the energy source being used to measure it would alter the particle's properties. The revelation that resulted was more akin to a Buddhist koan than a scientific principle: the act of observing alters the reality of the observed. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, what sound does it make? Does the presence of the observer cause the tree to creak and crash?

Heisenberg's revelation was not canonized right away for at the time science was viewed as the observation of the absolute. The world was viewed as an entity, which could be observed with despotic certainty by measuring its qualities and parts at a specific moment. For example: one could discern what time it was by observing the position of the hands on a clock paired with the understanding that time functions on the premise of progression by the repeated addition of equally measured moments. Due to the altercation of a given particle's position from where it was a moment before observation, the understanding of the sub-atomic was now split into two dimensional categories: reality and common sense. Reality is the state of the particle at the time it was measured and common sense uses reason to speculate on the particle's position if it had been unaltered by the tool used for its measurement. These both became valid explanations in the field of science even though the common sense value could never be absolutely confirmed.

In reflecting on Dr. Heisenberg's revelation I thought of the tools of human invention we use to discern and understand God, who is infinitely greater in mystery than even the subatomic particles being researched by Heisenberg. We often claim the workings of God's hands in our lives when the result we observe is favorable. I have often heard many friends of mine express to me the times at which they felt God was watching over them or protecting them when they experienced such an emotional event as a near fatal car crash. Almost instinctually we equate our blessings with a benevolent Father, one who loves us and watches over our every move. However when we experience pain we choose to abandon God by trading our past recognition for His provision for an atheistic worldview that diminishes the good we experience into merely an imagined stimulus that released endorphins into our brains.

God, as a concept, is appealing to us in times of plenty, not because of the good that was provided but because we think that by recognizing the existence of an invisible hand of generosity its provision will continue on into the future. When we experience pain, however, we violently reject the notion claiming selfishly that if God existed and really loved us that this never would have happened.

The unenlightened human is nothing more than a selfish collection of expectations, demands and impulses that changes its concepts of the divine at a whim due to the shifting forces of its current reality. The caustic feelings of rejection and disappointment we experience are the direct result of our lacking the ability to construct a reality that lives up to our manufactured expectations, not God's inability to stand between us and the pain we so desperately seek to avoid. God's plan for our lives only becomes sovereign and good when it contains the 'blessings' we demand. The true Christian life is to function at the opposite end of the spectrum where one has faith that His plan, though at times painful, is sovereign and perfect.

The first time one experiences this sublimely perfect moment of surrender to faith it is liberating in its simple execution and divine connotations. Faith is so intoxicating in fact that the Christian may often abandon any sense of logic and reason to a life lived wholly on this spiritualistic mooring. After reading the preceding sentence one may admire a Christian who is able to make such a leap but is that what we are called by Christ to do? Is God's desire that we all become fanatics who become quick to forsake reason at first chance? I firmly believe that any blind adherence to extremes of any kind are very dangerous and this essay will endeavor to address the modern Christian’s present state of scattered and inconsistent reliance on faith.

Today's Christian looks for guidance from three sources: scripture, prayer and the Holy Spirit. Due to the subjective nature of both prayer and ones relation to the Holy Spirit, validation of proper direction from these sources can be obtained through study and support from scripture. Scripture, in terms of its validity as a trustworthy document, is discerned through reason, academic study and historical investigation. Many key concepts found in the Bible, such as Christ's resurrection from the dead, can never be absolutely academically proved so one's acceptance of their truth relies through revelation through the Holy Spirit and prayer. This circular, canonical interdependence of the elements of the Christian faith in no way threatens its cogency; rather it asserts its power as the tie that binds the physical to the spiritual.

As Christians we use the defined moral code found in the Bible as a guide for how we should act, citing scripture as the authoritative word of God in which we must obey. In order to discern what is taught in the Bible we use the traditional modes of interpretation found in modern academics as well as the simple science of common sense. However, when a question arises that endeavors investigate an occurrence that is, at the outset, incongruent to the teachings found in scripture, a Christian will often decide that it is best to just believe by faith and trust that in time the wrinkles will be ironed out.

For example: the Bible never states that the earth is between 6,000 and 10,000 years old, the science of math was applied to the names and ages listed in Adam's chronology and thus the age of earth was determined. However when this same principle of mathematics is applied to earth being millions of years old by the measuring the gasses displaced during half-life of a Uranium 232 atom that was trapped by flowing lava and untouched by water, it is considered invalid and untrusted by the 'faithful' Christian community as some sort of witchcraft. This selective embrace of the sciences threatens to alienate an entire sect of humanity from the Christian faith who finds this as the absolute expression of intellectual dishonesty.

Many Christians fear questions because we are anxious that our faith will be undone in our heretical search to 'disprove God' despite Jesus telling us in Matthew 7:7 that if we ask it will be given to us, seek and we will find, knock and the door will be opened. At the time our savior spoke these words to us there was no New Testament, no councils of Nicea or Trent dictating our canon, just the words of the Jewish Messiah and whether or not one chose to accept them. A balance between these two extremes of literal interpretation and the adherence to an ethereal faith evidences a healthy faith in Christ.

Which brings me back to Heisenberg. An article published on September 2, 1927 in the New York Times article "Details Concepts of Quantum Theory" stated that attempting to explicate his revolutionary quantum theory to the uninitiated was akin to telling "an Eskimo what the French language is like without talking French. In other words the theory cannot be expressed pictorially and mere words mean nothing. One is dealing with something that can be expressed only mathematically."

The origin of our faith in Christ is something similar: perhaps we heard a pastor give a moving message, a passage of scripture resonated with us or we looked for a creator behind the beauty we experience in nature. Some evidence was presented and we were compelled to look deeper but upon reaching the core of what we searched for our discovery was something so terrific, so marvelous and so magnificent that we could not hope to grasp the whole of it with our miniscule minds. Only faith could weave it all together for us, producing a puzzle we will forever be engaged in solving while providing morsels of insight for us to brood over with each piece properly placed.

Just as the abstract and perfect science of mathematics is used to fill in the gaps left by observation in quantum theory our faith must be the thread that binds the ever changing quilt of scripture, history, observation and morality into a lifestyle that believes in a God that we do not fully understand yet trusts all the while that He is perfect, pure, holy and knows what is absolutely best for us.

An academic who seeks to scientifically prove all the miraculous events in the Bible is on a fools errand just as much as the mystic who greets each valid question to his beliefs with the statement, 'Well you just have to have faith.' We are called by God to never cease in our search for Him, whether it be with the mysterious language of our hearts or in the unrelenting tenacity of reason, a gift He gave to us with the full intention that we would use it. There is no question He cannot answer, no concept He cannot reveal and no contention that will baffle His infinite mind.

Due to our limited time on this earth and our finite intellect, our search for answers will never be complete but that revelation does not in anyway excuse our mental lethargy; the fact that we will not finish the race does not mean we should cease in our endeavor to run it. Thomas Jefferson said it best in his Notes on Virginia: "A patient pursuit of facts, and cautious combination and comparison of them, is the drudgery to which man is subjected by his Maker, if he wishes to attain sure knowledge."

Posted by Jon at January 12, 2005 04:38 AM