God vs Science or God & Science (Experiences with Robin and Splitting Clouds & Mark Decker from CBS)

If you read the title, you probably thought it was a poorly written one, however, it was effective as it grabbed your attention. As we all know, the debate of who and what matters or what is even real between God and science, has existed for quite some time now. The following excerpt will be divided into two sections: 1) Catholic doctrine on God and science & 2) My own experiences with both

1) God vs science or God & science?

There is a little story that I have taught my students in both First Communion & Confirmation every year for 4 years.

A scientist approaches God and says, "God we humans no longer need you. Look! With this machine, I too can create life!"  God, ready to listen says, "Go on my son. Show me." As soon as the scientist sets up his machine to create life, he says, "Now all I need is a little dirt..."
"No no," God says. "Use your own dirt, not mine."

Now I know what you may be thinking. "This is another Christian making an unscientific claim to justify God over science." This could not be further from the truth. I use this story to teach my students the difference between science and God in terms of each of their capacities. Science studies the natural phenomena of the world, however, it is limited to what has already been created but not yet discovered. God, the God that a few billion people in the world worship, on the other hand, by definition is not bound by man-made concepts such as space, time, or matter. Take time for example. Time is a man-made concept that works for most of us through a 12-month calendar system that makes one year and we use this to keep track of time in a cycle. For God, who has no beginning nor end, it is impossible for us to wrap ourselves around the truth that He is outside of this concept we have created. This is a small comparison but effective to see that the two are on different levels.

Now that I already mentioned the word TRUTH, let me compare it to FACT when referencing the Bible. These two are often mistaken and it is difficult to give a simple definition other than by using examples. For example in the Bible using the story of The Feeding of the 5,000:
Fact: It is not a fact that Jesus fed only 5,000 people as women and children were not included in the count, therefore, the number was not exactly and factually correct.
Truth: It is true that Jesus fed a multitude of people, ranging in the thousands, with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

This is also why the Bible is interpreted literally, metaphorically, figuratively, and allegorically. For example when Jesus said, “I am the door” (John 10:7), He did not mean He was a wooden rectangle with hinges and a knob. He meant that one must go through Him, like one goes through a door, to reach God. If a scientist were to read a scientific paper on climate change in a metaphoric sense, the whole purpose and results of the experiment is corrupted.

As previously stated, people from both sides have argued over this for many years on which side is "right" yet I say, whoever reads the Bible as a book of science or any other textbook, is similar to reading a scientific journal on climate change as a book of literary fiction.

Let me make it very clear, GOD DOES NOT HATE SCIENCE. As a matter of fact, God and the Catholic Church actually supports scientific research. If this quote from the Bible does not satisfy you on how the process works, "The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft." (Ex 31:1-5)

Perhaps Catholic figures and fathers of science can assist: Maybe you have heard of Copernicus (Heliocentrism), Mendel (Genetics), Fr. Lemaitre (Father of the Big Bang Theory), the list is really long.

For anyone who still may say the Church hates science, The Vatican has a science wing called The Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Also please do not listen to "Christians" saying the world will never flood because 'God promised He wouldn't' because if I am not mistaken, God isn't releasing greenhouse gasses aiding in warmer temperatures and melting ice caps causing higher sea levels. Or other crazy claims such as the world is flat. These are not official positions of the Church, only of people who have not studied their faith nor read a science textbook. Also if pursuing science were a sin, lots of clergy members would go to Hell since many are trained not only in theology but in various other sciences as well. Religion is accepting of science and encourages it, but it does push back on malpractice for immoral reasons.


2) My own experience

Mark Decker CBS

Everyone who is in CBS or has taken Biol 1009, has heard of Mark Decker. If you have not, he is a REALLY smart guy who has also studied evolution extensively. During my Intro to BSE class, our guest speaker, Mark Decker, gave his presentation on evolution. If you have met him before, you already know he has a way of openly mocking religious beliefs because they have no scientific bases. During the class, he compared the two and gave a case study done by the Mayo Clinic. The study focused on seeing whether patients who were prayed for healed faster than patients who had not been prayed for. The result?.... There was no notable difference. To Dr. Decker's conclusion, there is no God. Little did he know, however, that one of the few books that explains what we truly know about God, coming from the words of God the Son Himself are, "Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" (Mt 4:7). In this case God was put to the test, by Dr. Decker, yet as many theists know, God only reveals Himself to those who seek Him with sincerity. This is hard to comprehend if you are used to the objectivity of the scientific method. Those who want to study God through the lens of science will find that their efforts are in vain as this is similar to looking for an atom through a magnifying glass.



Robin & Splitting Clouds

When Robin gave his testimony of his Catholic mom burning a blessed palm from Palm Sunday and throwing it outside to stop a storm, I noticed no one bothered to ask how or even why. It's really amazing because I too saw this. Keep in mind, despite me being Catholic, I have a passion for biology and recognize the value of scientific practice. When I was 14 years old and in high school, my family and I were coming from Omaha, Nebraska back to Minnesota by car. There was a severe tornado warning and we could not seek shelter as we were stuck in traffic. As we all have seen, tornado warnings come with a huge storm or strong winds, heavy rain, and hail. Since there was a lightning strike a few meters away from us we got a bit worried and began to pray. Similarly to Robin's mom, my mom said a special prayer and asked us to join in and while we prayed she made the sign of the cross repeatedly towards the sky while inside the car for about 10 minutes, and I cannot lie about this. THE DARK GRAY CLOUDS SPLIT OPEN INTO THE SHAPE OF A CROSS where I could see the blue sky and the storm settled down and disappeared in a couple of minutes. As a teenager, I was in awe. I knew what had happened could not have been an act of man, but an act of God, yet this did not prevent me from thinking in my head, "What in the actual F*CK!". To break down my experience with Robin's both our mom's performed different physical actions. My mom used her hands and did the sign of the cross towards the clouds with a prayer while Robin's mom burned a blessed palm from Palm Sunday. In the eyes of a scientist, if he were to try these two methods, he would fail 100% of the time, because it was not the physical action that was made that "split the storm" it was the faith. Faith was the controlled variable, not the hand motion or the palm, and to this, a scientist says is not science because it cannot be reproduced. See where I am getting at here by trying to compare God and science and putting them on an equal playing field?


Conclusion: The fact of the matter is that Religion and science coexist and go hand in hand. Religion explains why, whereas science explains how. Through religious interpretations, God has set all natural laws in the universe and will not condemn someone from developing a cure for cancer. God and science do not have to always be against each other, however, God will be against malpracticed science but would like for Humanity to use it for good and show His greatness.