There's been much debate in the media lately about creationism versus science. By this, the sides have been split along the seams to either accept God as the ultimate designer or accept that there's scientific justification for everything in the universe. This is really limited conversation to the Christian concepts. Here's a link to one of the articles about the debates and responses.
Maybe it's more of my exposure to the eastern religions, which accept the fact various belief structures exist. The one scenario I haven't seen played out that God is a scientist, a mathematician, a storyteller and an artist, in addition to the other roles of being a nurturing and destructive entity. I'm struggling with why this needs to be black and white for people.
This discussion and the decision should not be along political and religious paradigms. They've made this a debate about head (science) versus faith (heart). Why can't they work together? The Dalai Lama said that religion and science need to co-exist and benefit each other, and have taken that to practice.
Ok, fine. Where are you going with this?
I say God is a scientist because we've learned sometimes the golden ratio found in nature. At times the mathematical formula can be applied, but other times it can't. So then we humble ourselves to the acceptance that "sometimes it just works." Bodies are the most fascinating to me. I was shocked when I gave birth to my daughter. I didn't do anything. I don't make human beings. I make muffins and I write stories. All I did was take my vitamins and try not to run after the train for 9 months. Who, what, where did this child come from? Not me. This was engineered by someone else.I didn't decide that at 3 months, this part will develop and at 5 months, these other parts of the body will develop.
The way I see it is that science is the means to the discovery of what God has designed; it's not in the religious books we hold so highly. The challenge is that scientific documentation gets discarded easily. There may be a new theory that negates the previous one, so the previous one will be disregarded, even though there may be truth to it. We go through this frequently - "Caffeine is good.. no caffeine is bad.. wait.. it's good now because we read the first study and tried it again." It happened the same way - "the earth rotates around the sun.. no the sun rotates around the earth.. no it's the earth in the center."
While western scientists like Galileo and Copernicus fought with their established churches, the eastern scientists wrapped their documents in religion. The religious books are the way the discoveries are documented and distributed to future generations. For example, in Hinduism, the story of evolution is documented in the stories of Vishnu Avatars. It's much easier to digest for the common person that God took the form of a fish. If they said life started from single cell organisms, it would be difficult to market. To enforce this concept of divine intervention, the stories were carved into the sculptures upholding ancient temples. These stories will continue for the future generations, as well. There are digital artists capturing these characters, transforming them to recognizable powerhouses to remain in our legacy, albeit online than a temple wall.
My intention for this post is that we don't have clear answers, and we cannot take sides and declare our truth to be the only truth. When one's personal truths are challenged, it's scary and it often leads to fear and violence. We lose footing on all we know. We don't have answers, but our own life, as well as the lifespan of humanity is dependent on our growth and curiosity. There is discovery and analysis to be had. We get out of bed in the morning because we are curious to see what the day will offer.
Any society that shuts out science, mathematics and the artistic pursuits in the name of religion and politics is doomed to encourage soullessness and indifference.
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