Tuesday, October 09, 2012

God Is An Engineer - Not a Magician

I grew up Catholic and I believed all the stories. Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, the Earth created in 6 days, God needing rest on the 7th day, immaculate conception, Jesus born in a manger, 7 wise men and even Sodom and Gomorrah.  As I got older, educated and started thinking independently , I realized the stores I've been told were not very logical.  Yet I still believe in God and even in the power of prayer.  The Earth and the Universe are just too perfect to be an accident in my opinion.  But I just can't put much faith in the bible stories anymore.

I do believe the Earth and the cosmos are perfect and amazing but not unexplainable.  In fact there are clues to our existence everywhere.  Science has revealed many clues and even a few answers.  Every answer seems to bring up a new question which in turn - through research brings more answers.  It seems a never ending cycle but that is just because there is so much to learn.  The universe is larger than we can even imagine - and it might not even be the only one.  Wow!

If God were merely a magician who can bring things out of nothing and end it just as quickly, I think a lot of it wouldn't make sense - the clues wouldn't match and the logic wouldn't work.  Yet we have discovered how stars work, how planets and moons form, and perhaps even how life may have evolved out of the chaos.  We've also discovered how tiny things work - like how viruses spread disease and what makes up objects on a molecular scale.  If studied logically - it all makes sense.  We have so much more to learn but there are not many magical surprises once we open our minds to learn.

Therefore, while we still can't completely explain how or why we are here, I've concluded that God is (at least for me) an engineer - a scientist - a logical force.  Those that don't have logically thinking minds may disagree.  An artist's concept of God may be less logical and more mystical.  They may believe the bible's stories of creation more than the science- and may have even written them.  I certainly believe that God is an artist - what beautiful wonders we have to behold!  But an artist isn't a magician either.

Of course it is not up to me to determine who is correct - the artist or the scientist.  I suspect in God's realm they both are.  But in my mind, God is an engineer and things make sense that way. 

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