Miscellaneous Missionary

I am about to make a fool of myself by describing theories I have not fully studied, but I cannot move on to the next area without one more discourse over the manner of Moses' argument and its relevance to apologetics.

String Theory is a very controversial area of physics. Einstein is the most famous person who articulated it, but it is very popular now. Einstein formulated String Theory in his quest at the end of his life for a “theory of everything,” or his quest to understand the fundamental nature of the universe. String Theory is also based in Einstein's Theory of Relativity. I do not want to give a huge lesson on it, but it is relevant to the current arguments over intelligent design and other ideas. At the expense of over-simplification, here is a summary. In physics, three main dimensions are known: length, breadth, and depth. Beyond this is the fourth, which is time. String theory in essence claims that there is a fifth dimension, if you will, that of energy, and made up of strings. These strings are ordered, so the reasoning goes, only according to a sixth dimension: information. My deepest apologies to the physicists out there, because I know that I really have not been fair to the subject, but I just want to point out that this theory is one large influence on the scientific world. It cannot be proved by experiments, and for this many scientists discount it as well.

String Theory really is unable to deal with one big problem, it is unprovable, and it falls short of its original goal: to explain everything. It really cannot explain this: if there was a big bang, from what did it originate? To remedy this, some modern string theorists added membranes. Membranes are practically infinite parallel universes, which can collide, causing the big bang. This theory really is on the fringe of acceptability on any convention, but it is an attempt to answer the fundamental question by adding an almost transcendent dimension to the material universe itself.

Why discuss this? It really seems quite silly. Furthermore, it really can serve to confuse. I just want to point out that these theoretical physicists are attempting to answer ultimate questions to which Christians have responded “God Created” for centuries. They really tend to look down their noses at guys like me for saying that. The fact of the matter is that theoretical physics has been a driving force of all science for a very long time. Physicists will know more names, but we have seen major innovations only rarely with men like Einstein and Newton. Now, the foremost name might well be Stephen Hawking, but I just have not studied the field well enough to know. These men still direct most of the science. The fact is that theoretical science has always directed the future study of experimental science. This presents a fundamental problem of logic. Is science to be based on theoretical reasoning or on pure experimentation? Now we have found the key question. Do we know things to be true by pure experience or by how we order our experience? In the end, they all conclude that reason proves experience and experience proves reason.

OOPS! That is a vicious circle, a destructive circle. It is compounded by the problem that if they say reason proves reason or experience proves experience, then they are still just reasoning in a circle. Beyond that, by taking a side, they are unable to explain how someone from the other side knows anything. Rather than prove any thing, they have now proved that they can really prove nothing. I like what one man wrote, “The accountant can give an account, but he cannot account for the account given.” In other words, these scientists have some very elaborate theories, which they cannot prove. These scientists also have some experimental data, which they cannot prove.

What can be proved? Here is where I begin to tie all of this meandering high brow stuff together. Moses was arguing that he was presenting the one, true God, as I mentioned in the last lesson. These theories are no less than attempts at the same thing. They are attempts to set forth a transcendent origin for all phenomena. Hmm, sounds like a god. In the end, these men, who are running as fast as they can to get away from faith are carrying it in their back pockets. In other words, instead of chasing their tail, their tail is chasing them. Sorry for the silly analogy, but it is true.

The evidence of God's having created is so clear that Moses and none of the other biblical writers attempted to prove it scientifically. David even went so far as to say that the declaration by the heavens of God's glory is clearly being heard regardless of language by all men (Psalm 19). Paul argued that this message gets through so effectively that it takes a constant and conscious effort to ignore it (Romans 1: 18-21). He later argued in Romans as well as many other books that this constant effort is destructive morally, intellectually, and ultimately spiritually. We as Christians, need to be careful not to compromise our faith by trying to prove its truth on the basis of other faiths, or by entering the philosophical framework of unbelieving men.

# posted by Arnie Johnson @ 8:16 AM