{"id":16107,"date":"2017-10-23T09:40:03","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16107"},"modified":"2017-10-23T09:44:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:44:08","slug":"faith-and-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16107","title":{"rendered":"Faith and Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Richard Rohr<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/open-to-change-2017-10-23\/\"><strong>Open to Change<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Monday, October 23, 2017<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qv-SXz_exKE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nGod comes into the world in always-surprising ways so that the sincere seeker will always find. Is <em>sincere seeking <\/em>perhaps the real meaning of walking in darkness and faith? It seems to me that many scientists today are very sincere seekers. In fact, today\u2019s scientists often seem to have more in common with the mystics than do many religious folks who do not <em>seek <\/em>truth but only assert their dogmas and pre-emptively deny the very possibility of other people\u2019s God-experience.<\/p>\n<p>The common scientific method relies on hypothesis, experiment, trial, and error. We might even call this \u201cpractice,\u201d just like many of us have prayer practices. Yes, much of science is limited to the material, but at least the method is more open-ended and sincere than the many religious people <em>who do no living experiments with faith, hope, and love, <\/em>but just hang on to quotes and doctrines. They lack the personal practices whereby they can test the faithfulness of divine presence and the power of divine love.<\/p>\n<p>Most scientists are willing to move forward with some degree of not-knowing; in fact, this is what calls them forward and motivates them. As new discoveries are affirmed, they remain open to new evidence that would tweak or even change the previous \u201cbelief.\u201d Many religious folks insist upon complete \u201cknowing\u201d at the very beginning and then being certain every step of the way, which actually keeps them more \u201crational\u201d and controlling than most scientists. This is the dead end of most fundamentalist religion, and why it cannot deal with thorny issues in any creative or compassionate way. Now I know why Paul dared to speak of \u201cthe curse of the law\u201d (Galatians 3:13). Law reigns and discernment is unnecessary, which means there is little growth or change in such people. When you do not grow, you remain an infant.<\/p>\n<p>The scientific mind today often has more openness to mystery than religion does!\u00a0 For example, it is willing to speak of dark matter, dark holes, chaos theory, fractals (the part replicates the whole), string theory, dark energy, and the atomic structure of all material things, which seems totally counter intuitive. Scientists \u201cbelieve\u201d in many things like electromagnetism, radioactivity, field theory, and various organisms such as viruses and bacteria before they can actually \u201cprove\u201d they exist. They know them first by their effects, or the evidence, and then argue backward to their existence. Isn\u2019t this how good theologians have often tried to \u201cprove\u201d the existence of God?<\/p>\n<p>Even though the entire world was captivated by the logical cause-and-effect worldview of Newtonian physics for several centuries, such immediately verifiable physics has now yielded to quantum physics, which is not directly visible to the ordinary observer at all\u2014yet ends up explaining much more\u2014without needing to throw out the simple logic of Newtonian physics in the everyday world. <em>True transcendence always includes the previous stages, yet somehow also reshapes and expands them\u2014<\/em>just like mysticism does with our old doctrines and dogmas.<\/p>\n<p>It feels as if the scientists of each age are often brilliant, seemingly \u201cright,\u201d but precisely because they are also tentative and searching\u2014which creates a practical humility that we often do not see in clergy and \u201ctrue believers.\u201d A great scientist will move forward with a perpetual \u201cbeginner\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thus many scientists end up trusting in the reality of things that are still \u201cinvisible\u201d and secret. It keeps them on the search. This feels like faith to me, whereas what many church people want is perfect certitude and clarity before every step forward. This does not create great or strong people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gateway to Silence:<br \/>\n<\/strong>Divine Reality, endlessly knowable<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Nothing of the Old Life!<\/p>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><!-- \/.col-12 --> <!-- \/.row --><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><strong><strong>\u00a0If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. \u20142 Corinthians 5:17<\/strong><\/strong>Nothing of the Old Life!<br \/>\nBy Oswald Chambers<strong>If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. \u20142 Corinthians 5:17<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our Lord never tolerates our prejudices\u2014 He is directly opposed to them and puts them to death. We tend to think that God has some special interest in our particular prejudices, and are very sure that He will never deal with us as He has to deal with others. We even say to ourselves, \u201cGod has to deal with other people in a very strict way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.\u201d But we must learn that God accepts nothing of the old life! Instead of being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately removing them from us. It is part of our moral education to see our prejudices put to death by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him. There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.<br \/>\nWhen we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is nothing remaining of the old life. Our old gloomy outlook disappears, as does our old attitude toward things, and \u201call things are of God\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:18). How are we going to get a life that has no lust, no self-interest, and is not sensitive to the ridicule of others? How will we have the type of love that \u201cis kind\u2026is not provoked, [and] thinks no evil\u201d? (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). The only way is by allowing nothing of the old life to remain, and by having only simple, perfect trust in God\u2014 such a trust that we no longer want God\u2019s blessings, but only want God Himself. Have we come to the point where God can withdraw His blessings from us without our trust in Him being affected? Once we truly see God at work, we will never be concerned again about the things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in heaven, whom the world cannot see.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Rohr Open to Change Monday, October 23, 2017 God comes into the world in always-surprising ways so that the sincere seeker will always find. Is sincere seeking perhaps the real meaning of walking in darkness and faith? It seems to me that many scientists today are very sincere seekers. In fact, today\u2019s scientists often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16107"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16109,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16107\/revisions\/16109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}