A very close 2005 NASA public domain look at the nucleus of the galaxy NGC 5033.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.\u201d \u00a0(1 Corinthians 14:15)<\/p>\n
I would like to share a random potpourri<\/em> of passages that struck me (and that I marked) during my reading of Michael Guillen,\u00a0 Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith<\/em> (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2021).\u00a0 Dr. Guillen, who grew up in East Los Angeles (not too terribly far from where I myself was raised, although he\u2019s a few years younger) before studying mathematics, physics, and astronomy at UCLA and Cornell, taught physics for eight years at Harvard University before becoming the chief science editor for ABC News:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The New Testament recounts the experience of a skeptical disciple named Thomas. \u00a0When the other disciples told him that the recently crucified Jesus had returned to life, Thomas wasn\u2019t buying it. \u00a0\u201cUnless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s motto in life is a common one today: Seeing is believing. \u00a0He would have made a good candidate for governor of Missouri, the \u201cShow-Me\u201d State.<\/p>\n
But then Jesus appeared to Thomas and gave him a faith-building invitation: \u00a0\u201cPut your finger here, and look at my hands. \u00a0Put your hand into the wound in my side. \u00a0Don\u2019t be faithless any longer. \u00a0Believe!\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas obeyed and was quickly convinced of the reality of Jesus\u2019 resurrection. \u00a0\u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d he cried out.<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019s reply is quite telling: \u00a0\u201cYou believe because you have seen me. \u00a0Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Christianity, there are truths \u2014 like Jesus\u2019 existence \u2014 that cannot be proved. \u00a0They must be believed to be seen.<\/p>\n
The skeptical Thomas believed<\/em> enough in the possibility that the crucified Jesus was alive that he reached out and touched the wounds. \u00a0He believed<\/em> enough in something that sounded outrageous to determine the truth of the matter for himself. \u00a0If he hadn\u2019t \u2014 if he\u2019d simply walked away in a dismissive huff \u2013he would have forever remained in the dark.<\/p>\nThe same goes for you. \u00a0Unless you\u2019re willing to believe that something might<\/em> be true, you\u2019ll never bother to investigate and see for yourself whether it is true (or not). \u00a0You\u2019ll remain in a state of confident ignorance. \u00a0(38-39)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Humans have an impressive genome \u2014 but, again, so do other plants and animals. \u00a0In fact, the largest known strand of DNA belongs to Paris japonica<\/em>, a white, star-like flower native to Japan. \u00a0Its DNA is fifty times larger than ours.<\/p>\nAnd the African marbled lungfish, Protropterus aethiopicus<\/em>, has the animal world\u2019s largest genome. \u00a0It\u2019s more than forty times bigger than ours. \u00a0(43)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to paleoanthropologists and other scientists, we Homo sapiens sapiens<\/em> \u2014 anatomically and behaviorally modern humans \u2014 appeared on Earth suddenly, not gradually. \u00a0Prehistoric fossil and genetic records are ambiguous, but they indicate we happened onto the scene less than 100,000 years ago \u2014 like yesterday, given that science estimates Earth to be more than four billion years old.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more, we humans burst onto the stage bundled with a cluster of behaviors never before seen on Earth. \u00a0Sarah Wurz, an archaeologist at the Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, explains that these unique behaviors include \u201cart, religious beliefs, and complex technologies,\u201d as well as \u201cthe ability to communicate habitually and effortlessly in symbols . . . [and] advanced problem solving and long range planning abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCLA\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond calls our abrupt and unique appearance on Earth the great leap forward<\/em>. \u00a0\u201cInsofar as there was any single moment when we could be said to have become human,\u201d he says, \u201cit was at the time of this Great Leap Forward 35,000 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhat happened at that single moment in evolution? \u00a0What made it possible, and why was it so sudden?\u201d he asks. \u00a0\u201cThis is a puzzle whose solution is still unknown.\u201d (43-44)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Guillen uses the initials SQ<\/em> to denote what he calls \u201cspiritual intelligence,\u201d which he believes to be uniquely human and an important part of what makes us human. \u00a0He sees it manifest in \u201cour religious art, literature, and music; our belief in supernatural deities and an afterlife; our habit of burying our dead with great ceremony; and our powerful religious passions, which routinely erupt in ways both heavenly and hellish\u201d (45).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a major survey by Reuters\/Ipsos, 82 percent of the world\u2019s population believes that God (or gods) or some other Supreme Being (or beings) definitely or possibly exists. \u00a0Only 18 percent say that such metaphysical beings do not exist.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s clear-cut evidence of our SQ, of our species\u2019 uniqueness. \u00a0It\u2019s clear-cut evidence of our spiritual awareness.<\/p>\n
Atheists routinely ridicule spiritual awareness; but as you can see, they are in the minority. \u00a0They are, I submit, in denial. \u00a0(60)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quantum mechanics, special relativity, general relativity \u2014 the theoretical pillars of modern physics \u2014 verge on the supernatural. \u00a0Their ideas about quarks, gluons, the quantum vacuum, virtual particles, quantum entanglement, dark matter, dark energy, curved spacetime, multiverses, ten-dimensional strings, gravity waves, black holes, white holes, wormholes \u2014 and on and on \u2014 are no less otherworldly than any religion\u2019s God, gods, Supreme Being, or beings. \u00a0(61)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Guillen cites the vocal atheist writer and neuroscientist Sam Harris:<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if our universe is, as J. B. S. Haldane said, \u201cnot only stranger than we suppose, but stranger than we can suppose.\u201d \u00a0But I am sure that it is stranger than we, as \u201catheists,\u201d tend to represent while advocating atheism. \u00a0As \u201catheists\u201d we give others, and even ourselves, the sense that we are well on our way toward purging the universe of mystery. . . . \u00a0Indeed, there are good reasons to believe that mystery is ineradicable from our circumstance, because however much we know, it seems like there will always be brute facts that we cannot account for. \u00a0(cited on page 62)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And, as a bonus, here\u2019s an item from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122 that seems to have strayed into Dr. Guillen\u2019s book:<\/p>\nI explained that the published research shows a high-SQ lifestyle is associated with lower risks of hypertension, heart disease, cancer, stroke, depression, suicide, drug abuse, and criminal delinquency. \u00a0I wrote:<\/p>\n
The largest study to date tracked the lives and deaths of 21,204 adults for a full decade. \u00a0The average results? \u00a0A person who attended church at least once a week lived several years longer than someone who didn\u2019t attend at all. \u00a0Among African-Americans, the disparity was even more stunning: \u00a0fourteen years!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nToday, similar results continue pouring in, so there\u2019s no doubt a high-SQ lifestyle is extremely good for your health \u2014 as good or better than a nutritious diet and regular physical exercise. \u00a0(58)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cI will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.\u201d \u00a0(1 Corinthians 14:15) I would like to share a random potpourri of passages that struck me (and that I marked) during my reading of Michael Guillen,\u00a0 Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":42509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5168,909,2195,1230,743,243],"class_list":["post-102176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-evidence","tag-faith","tag-physics","tag-reason","tag-religion","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"\n
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