Friday, February 22, 2008

God slipping us messages?

Jim Palmer, in his book 'Wide Open Spaces' has a chapter titled 'Could God be slipping us messages through Netflix?'. Tonight I went to the local cinema and watched a future Netflix title called 'U23D'. If you are a fan of U2 this is definitely a must see. It was filmed at a stadium concert in South America in 3D of course.

The main reason for me mentioning this however, is because it was contained the same theme as many of the Books, Movies, and even people who have crossed my path at this season of my life. That theme could be easily summed up in Jesus' words -- "Love God, Love your neighbor." I once heard a guy say that we often miss God speaking to us because we are looking for burning bushes; we have forgotten that Jesus has eye color and speaks to us in very human terms. Maybe this is part of what he meant. I used to think that I had somehow accidentally gotten a womans intuition, because my intuition is pretty reliable, that is unless I have a personal stake in the issue. Then my intuition may be masked by fear, greed, or some other blinding negative emotion or thought. But lately I've been thinking that this intuition thing really has been the Holy Spirit all along, and is something that I learned to listen to. Funny how the Holy Spirit never got upset over me not realizing this before now :-).

Rob has entered a season of skepticism and wonders in a recent post if attributing such coincidences to God may be simply reading God into nothing more than a coincidence. I'm definitely prepared to accept that as a possibility. I may be backwards from everyone else in the world, but science has always pushed me toward a belief in God, and Religion has often pushed me away from that belief. Weird huh? I keenly remember sitting in my college biology class learning how the helicase and polymerase enzymes replicates DNA, and realizing the immense complexity of one life and incalculable odds against life ever coming into existence on it's own. It seemed like a spiritual moment to me, even in the midst of a professor who daily espoused a belief in evolution and natural origins. That pattern continues to this day. I watch the Discovery Channel, and I see miracles everywhere (much to the chagrin of the Discovery Channel producers I'm sure). Then on any given Sunday, I'll walk into a local church and see a manifest absence of the miraculous.

Can all these things be explained naturally? I suppose so, but I keep coming back to the statistical possibilities (this may be a curse of being a computer geek). The coincidences are like flipping a penny and coming up heads 50 times in a row. I'm just not that lucky. And the fact that we are all here living and breathing is like coming up heads 12 billion times in a row. So for now, I'm sticking with that intuition thing and saying that yes God is slipping us messages. Just don't ask me that on Sunday morning ;-).

10 comments:

Unknown said...

i enjoyed the post rick. richard dawkins frames the emergence of the complexity you refer to with the thought of "climbing mount improbable". either way - we ought to be full of gratitude for the gift of life.

Barb said...

Brilliant. I love the idea of a very human Jesus with eye color saying the simplicity of the gospel of Love God, Love your neighbor. I keep coming back to this the past few weeks as I discover even more about what I don't believe anymore.
Thanks

Kent said...

The conversations going on amoung the blog connections we all have together is just exciting.

I was just thinking this morning before I linked over here Rick, "Wonder what is going on with Rick? He has been so quiet." To my surprise and delight...3 new posts. Keep thinking and keep writing.

I always love a mention of U2's message.

Anonymous said...

From an absurdly young age (less than 4) I have been totally mystified by this war between science and religion. My Uncle who was a doctor and a devout Catholic literally agonized over the conflicts between the two. My mother laughed bemusedly at me when after explaining why he was so conflicted I just shrugged and said "What's the big deal? God created the Universe, right?". She said, "Yes." "So God created everything that science examines, right?". "Well, yes." she says. "So, if God created it, then how can it disprove God?" I said. She couldn't come up with an answer. I still don't understand the arguement. Belief in God is to me something that you feel deep inside you and as Mother Theresa proves just because you stop feeling it doesn't mean you should assume it doesn't exist anymore. As far as I'm concerned if you have ever felt it, you know what it is and nothing else can take that away.

Dana

Sue said...

"I may be backwards from everyone else in the world, but science has always pushed me toward a belief in God, and Religion has often pushed me away from that belief. Weird huh?"

_______

Me too, me too! :) And I'm not weird ... well, only a little bit :)

Surfed in via the Kentster.

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