Odd Ideas

Life gets busy! May, 2011 was the last time I posted here?

I guess I should post something new soon!

And the real life “Left Behind” series starts tomorrow…

I’m guessing more people will be left behind than in those awful books/movies!

Just thinking out loud here (if typing on a computer can be considered “out loud”…).

Why is it that science is far too often considered the enemy of Christianity? What are we/they afraid of?

To be honest, through high school, and even through University, I was always very skeptical of some of the claims of science (the whole evolution thing being a good example). The crazy thing is, I ended up with an HBSc degree (an honours degree in science, if you don’t know what the letters mean).

Like most Christians who were born/raised/trained what to think in church, despite my education, I still couldn’t accept the claims of science. Typical of Christians, I figured that the some of these prominent scientists just didn’t want to accept the idea of “God”, so they were looking for alternate explanations. Like most Christians I knew, I believed that these scientists just couldn’t think big enough to accept our “Big God”.

Now, after many years of trying to “be a good Christian”, followed by learning more about what it really means to follow Jesus (and trying to figure out what following Jesus really has to do with Christianity as we know it), I am learning to “re-think” everything I thought I knew.

I haven’t abandoned my belief in God, or my belief in the truth of Jesus, or my desire to follow Jesus. What I have discovered, however, is that it is more likely we as Christians who can’t think big enough to comprehend what God did create, or the methods He used, or how complex and amazing it really is.

Seems to me that the stories of creation as told in the book of Genesis are simply an attempt by humans to explain something they did not know how to explain, or couldn’t even comprehend. As we as humans learn more about nature, about the universe, and what lies beyond that – we constantly learn and realize how much we did not know, and catch glimpses of how much we have let to learn.

How could people a few thousand years ago in the times of Moses have possibly been able to comprehend even the things we know now? All they could do was explain things with their own limited knowledge.

Maybe we as Christians need to open our eyes – and minds – and start to admit that God, and his creation – are so much larger than can be explained in the opening verses of one book!

Just thinking…

It is well known that most churches are not very open to anybody questioning what they teach, or believe. Sure, most people in church leadership will say that they welcome people who have questions, but the reality is that they are not open to actually questioning anything themselves. If you have a question, the position (or responsibility even) of the leadership is to show you how they are correct, to support their position.

This isn’t surprising of course.

If you go to the website of almost any church, you will find a section that is called their “statement of faith”, or “what we believe”, or something similar. This will usually consist of a list of statements that vary very little from one church to another. These are the items that are considered beyond questioning by the church. To “question” these basic foundations of their faith is tantamount to heresy. It’s the beginning of the slide down the slippery slope of backsliders. Nobody wants to go there…

The problem is that many people really do have some serious questions about some of these beliefs – for some very good reasons. There are far too many questions in real life that just can’t be answered by the “pat answers” of Christianity. To deny this is simply denying reality.

What happens with people who have too many questions that they can not ask? Can they actually ask these questions? Not without being told they are wrong, without attempts to put them back on the path, without being ostracized. For a time, people with questions may stay, go through the motions, do and say all the right things. Eventually, they get tired of “faking it”. Then they just leave.

This is not how it should be.

Fortunately, there are people – and pastors out there who aren’t afraid to think. I found one pastor like that when we were in Ukraine (I really do miss him now..). I think I may just have found another one of those in the past couple of months. He doesn’t think like I do – or necessarily agree with me – but he is quite willing to discuss things. This is a good thing!

Reading through some of the blogs I frequent here tonight, and saw a new post on “nakedpastor”. In his post, David talks about Vision within the church (go read his post to see what he says).

That made me think of a conversation I was having with the pastor of a new, small church when I was a missionary in Ukraine a few years ago. Back then, I was still thinking along the lines of the more “traditional” ways of doing church, and he was trying to figure out what to do with this church that had started almost by accident (but that’s a whole other story).

Anyway, as we were talking, I asked him what his vision was for the church. He replied that he didn’t have one – and that if anything, his only vision was to provide a place that was open and safe for others to pursue their own vision for following Jesus. Whatever that might be.

As I think back now, I think he had a better idea of what church should be than most of what I have heard since then!

I know this is a common discussion topic on other blogs and sites nowadays, but I thought I would post my latest thoughts.

Why?

Because I went to church today, running the sound system to help out a friend who had to work instead. I had the opportunity had to endure the same message twice (as they have two identical services), on the “Power of Prayer”.

It wasn’t any better the second time than the first time.

To be fair, he spoke rather well, and used all the appropriate scripture verses to back up what he said.

The general idea of the message was centred around the usual scriptures of “whatever we ask for in His name, we will receive”, of course with the condition that we are “within His will”.

The usual arguments of having enough faith, and belief, and all of the other usual things were brought up as well – and we were exhorted to spend more time in prayer. After all, prayer has power, so why don’t we spend more time tapping into that power?

Ok, fine, sounds good – and if you believe the usual interpretation of the scripture verses used to back this up, who could argue with it?

Except for one little problem…

I have a degree in Science. In any scientific field, you come up with a theory – which you might assume to possibly be true – but no matter who came up with the theory, or how good it sounds, it is simply a theory until it is proven (or disproven).

How do you prove it?

You test it (if necessary, you test it many times). Sometimes, tests (or experiments) prove the theory to be invalid. This is still useful, as now you know that you need to work on a new theory.

I believe the same approach can be used in our interpretation of some parts of the Bible. This attitude toward prayer is a good example… It is a very attractive theory.

In reality, however, it is quite apparent to me, and to any person who is honest with themselves, that many times our prayers are NOT answered. Nor are those of many others. There are more than a few people in the world who have spent countless hours in prayer, who have done everything they could to be “close to God”, who have had countless other people joining them in their prayers – and in the end, the result was the complete opposite of what they asked for.

Yes, sometimes miracles do seem to happen, but it seems that much of the time they do not happen.

What does this tell me? It tells me that our understanding of prayer, the interpretation I heard this morning at church, is a faulty theory.

Why then do we keep preaching the same thing?

Maybe it’s time to admit that “we don’t get it”.

It would certainly be a lot more honest than saying that as long as you stay close to God, do/say all of the right things, then God will give you what you want, heal every ailment you ever have, etc…

I am not saying that what Jesus originally said isn’t true. What I am saying is that our current/common interpretation of it is obviously not correct.