Hamlet: "And therefore, as a stranger, give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
HAMLET ACT 1, SCENE 5
An argument has occurred throughout history: Can science and faith coexist? The answer lies in what you believe and what makes you curious about what you're sure you don’t think you believe. Until Columbus sailed from Spain in 1492, at the direction of the Pope, people were convinced that the earth was flat. Columbus proved them wrong. He didn’t sail off the world's edge, but his journey took him to the West Indies and North America. These were not continents that Columbus had not discovered but places where he had arrived. Upon his arrival, he did atrocious things by committing genocide to the native people in the name of God and the Catholic Church, all while using the moon, sun, and stars of the heavens as his guide.
However, despite all the empirical proof, there are people who still believe that the Earth is flat. These are the same individuals who believe the lie that fast food is real food and isn’t full of chemicals that harm our bodies.
Since we started charting the stars, humanity has been sure Earth was the center of the universe. Galileo did not discover that the Earth revolves around the Sun; he supported and provided evidence for the heliocentric model proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus. Galileo's significant observations that supported this theory were made in 1610 when he used his telescope to study celestial bodies. Because of his work and theories, he was excommunicated, his writings and books were confiscated, he was forbidden to teach and put under house arrest to live out his days only with his thoughts and ideas. Yet every day, he saw the sun, moon, and stars and wondered about the maker of this universe.
Individuals are rational; people are always afraid of what they don’t understand.
The Church and its response to what doesn’t fit the norm are far worse. We have a legacy of persecuting individuals who believe differently. Don’t believe me, just Google “church atrocities.” All through the history of humanity, the Church has imprisoned, killed theologians, burned texts, and all for the protection of the institution and control over the masses.
It wasn’t until Gutenberg's printing press developed in 1452 that the Gutenberg Bible was created in the vernacular of the day. It is said that only 300 copies were made, making it one of the rarest books in the world. Guttenberg died in 1468, but his legacy lives on.
In 1501, Pope Alexander VI promised excommunication for anyone who printed manuscripts without the church’s approval. Twenty years later, books by John Calvin and Martin Luther, leaders of the Protestant Reformation, spread, bringing into reality what Alexander had feared. Furthering that threat, Copernicus published his On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, which the church saw as heresy.
Scientists, writers, and philosophers have been trying to explain the cosmos since cave people scribbled pictures on the walls. What we take in with our human eyes is limited to what our brain can process.
Einsteins' IQ was 160. Marlin Monroe’s IQ was assumed to be 168; however, no record supports that claim. She was a voracious reader of history, philosophy, history, politics, and non-fiction novels, and it is said that her home contained over 400 volumes of great compositions and texts. She hated being referred to as a ‘dumb blond’ but played the part because Hollywood offered her plenty of money for doing so. As a high school dropout who lived and suffered in foster homes, her image was damaged, and the persona that she put on was strictly for theatrical performances. It was said that her depression was so great that the number of pharmaceuticals prescribed would leave her dazed for days. She was offered an out-of-the-Hollywood life and invited by Einstein to come and teach at Harvard. She refused because she knew she could make more money in Hollywood than in academia. The life she chose led to her untimely death as opposed to the contributions that she could have made in the 20th century.
Einstein saw the best in people and the world in four dimensions through science, empirical evidence, his theories on the mechanics of the universe, and, yes, a God he wasn’t sure existed.
It is my understanding that what I know is limited to what God has revealed to me over my few short years in this world. The way that my faith has grown and, at times, retracted has caused me to question who I am in this universe and what I believe about the things of God. Sure, I have the scriptures, but the scriptures without the church’s traditions, my reason, and my personal experiences tell me nothing about the God who created me in the Imago Dei (image of God).
God gave me a brain and the intellect to question not only what I know but what I don’t know, and that kind of questioning doesn’t come easy. It means laying all our cards on the table and asking God, “Who are you?” without fear of condemnation. What or who we may or may not believe in shows us the world before us. The world that is opened to us is full of possibilities if we are willing to accept that not everything has a reason for its existence. Still, its very existence tells us something about our creator and the universe.
The French philosopher Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." The question of who we are is not because we have intellect and can reason as human beings but because we are divine beings having a human experience. What the human experience tells me is that there is joy and sorrow, times of regret and times of progress, moments we can understand and those that appear to be mysteries of faith.
Humans have been trying to understand the mysteries of the universe for thousands of years, and each time we learn something new, we are forced to ask the toughest question of all: “Who am I in the middle of this cosmos?”
As Christians, we don’t know everything. Einstein didn’t know everything, and he knew that for a fact. He was born and raised a Jew, and he struggled with his own experience of God. His rational mind told him one thing, but his faith experience told him another. I believe it was not until days before his death that he made his peace with God. I think that the only reason that he did this was because he kept questioning everything that he knew in this world. Einstein realized from an early age that he was just one part of the cosmos, and his attempt to understand that cosmos drove his work. His work led to some of the most incredible scientific advances in the 20th century and some of the most terrifying: the birth of the atomic bomb.
Sometimes, it takes a lifetime to get past what we think is “true” and “what is true” that is, the depth of faith does not come too quickly. We can connect faith and science through our understanding of the scriptures through the lens of the church’s traditions, reason, and personal experience. And that my friend is OK. Sometimes, there aren’t answers to our queries. Sometimes, we must trust the empirical proof. Other times, we go with what our gut tells us.
Question everything and ask God to show you a path to the truth.
Our world is wrapped in faith and science, and they can coexist; if not, how did you get here?