God can be seen in nature, according to both the Old and the New Testaments*.
What does science tell us about God? Here's a list. It's not complete, and it's tentative:
1) It tells us that God is immense, and extremely powerful.
The sheer size of the universe tells us that. (God is, in some way, prior to, and above and beyond the universe)
So does the activity of the sun. It converts about 4 million metric tons of mass into energy per second.
We don't know yet whether there is life on other planets. If there isn't, and the entire universe has only one planet with living things, that doesn't mean that the rest of the universe is, somehow, a waste. God's resources weren't diminished by creating the universe, however and whenever that may have happened.
(We don't know how large the universe is. It may be infinite, or it may merely be very large.)
2) It tells us that God is a God of order and regularity.
Scientific observations, or, for that matter, casual observations, wouldn't be of much use without this regularity. Consider, for example, the periodic table. For another, consider the orbits of the various bodies in the solar system. For yet another, consider yourself. You probably have a few trillion cells. Each of them is descended from a single cell. With few exceptions, all of our cells have the same DNA as the first one.
3) It tells us that God is a God of infinite creative ability.
Estimates of the number of species now alive, or that have ever been alive, are only estimates. Best estimates of the number of species currently in existence on earth are between one and two million. Adding in species which have become extinct, and species yet to be discovered, the number may be as much as ten times that large, or even larger.
As Psalm 104:24 puts it: O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Apparently, God loves variety.
Science doesn't tell us, but the bible does--the same God, capable of infinite creation, and limitless in power, is concerned about single individual humans, and even birds. (John 3:16, John 4:3-26; Luke 12:6)
*See Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20
Taken from a post of January 19, 2005.
Musings on science, the Bible, and fantastic literature (and sometimes basketball and other stuff).
God speaks to us through the Bible and the findings of science, and we should listen to both types of revelation.
The title is from Psalm 84:11.
The Wikipedia is usually a pretty good reference. I mostly use the World English Bible (WEB), because it is public domain. I am grateful.
License
I have written an e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which is free to anyone. To download that book, in several formats, go here.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
2 comments:
I think our itty bitty brains have a really hard time thinking about a God whose love and reign is now and ever more. This is a concept we might refer to as infinite. The concept of infinity is almost beyond our ability to grasp. In a math class, a teacher gave this example:
If you have an hotel with an infinite number of rooms, and an infinite number of guests, and half the guests check out, you still have an infinite number of guests. If a billion more guests check into the hotel that has an infinite number of guests in an infinite number of rooms, there are still plenty of rooms for everyone
***stops to scratch head*** Huh?
This is not an easy concept for my itty bitty brain.
So God's infinite love can fill the entire world to overflowing with his love and blessing and still have and infinite amount of love and blessing to share.
The number of stars in the sky is another concept our itty bitty brain can’t really comprehend. The latest estimate is the number of stars is greater than the number of grains of sand on all the beaches in the entire world. I think at last count, 10 times the number of grains of sand on all the beaches in the entire world
****stops to scratch head**** Huh?
As the song goes, “How great, is our God, sing to me, how great is our God, and all will see how great, how great is our God”
Thanks, elbogz. You are right.
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