Motives for the Quest (Part II)

I’m dealing with these very easy questions for a reason. We as a species continue looking to the sky for at least three reasons. Primarily, the things that we teach in our text books are not based on established fact. Secondly, the truth has implications. Thirdly, we continue looking to the skies because it really has little to do with science in the first place. It has everything to do with supporting a particular belief system.
I have no idea of how much money annually, humankind spends on space exploration. It would be terribly time consuming to go there and I question how profitable that energy would be in the grand scheme. It isn’t as if there is some world governing body and it’s a game where anyone with enough resources gets to play. Some countries have their own space program. NASA would likely be considered to be at the forefront of this area, but that’s just the United Sates.
Whenever I open up a science text book, I am generally told that the origins of the universe are known and I’m also given an approximate timeline of when it all took place. If these things were actually established fact, there would be no need to investigate any further. There would be no need for NASA’s Hubble or Chile’s ALMA telescope. If we knew for certain that we evolved from nothing over a period of billions of years, the money used to fund these projects could be better used elsewhere. That’s why we keep looking to the sky for the answers. We keep looking because we haven’t found the answers that we want to see.
Those who know me seldom describe me as being a conspiracy theorist. I know that not everything is as it would seem, but I’ve never bought into the paranoia surrounding 2012. I didn’t buy into the theories which said that George Bush was a shape shifting alien and that the Democrats blew up the twin towers so that Obama could get elected. I haven’t devoted a whole lot of time in trying to prove that the US really didn’t place a man on the moon. What I will say is that something does seem amiss in the amount of effort we place, not in trying to discover truth, but rather in trying to uphold our theories.
Unfortunately, the truth has implications. The truth can also hurt. So if I want to live my life in any way that I feel is acceptable, it would be uncomfortable to consider the possibility that someone made all that we see. If there is a God who made all that is and if we have to answer to Him when this is all over, that would have its bearing on the lives that we live. Wouldn’t it?
What if? What if you happen to be an individual who thinks that you are the ultimate authority in the universe? What if you think that it’s up to you to decide what is right and wrong? It sounds rather extreme, but is it really too far off in describing how most of us think? Morality in North America has turned into an opinion poll. If that is where a person finds him or herself, being told that there is a God would make them rather uncomfortable. Wouldn’t it?
So you want to be your own god, choose what is right and wrong, but you are told that there is one true God who made this world. Suppose that you had no intention of acknowledging Him as He is. Suppose you still wanted to be the one who decided what should be done with the life you live. In order to appease your conscience, would you not be compelled to spend a great deal of time trying to convince yourself and others that this whole God-thing is little more that an spooky fairy tale?
Much of the effort spent in trying to ‘discover our origins’ comes out of that kind defence. ‘I want to be god. Therefore, I have to convince myself that there is no God. I have to find evidence which proves that I am right, because I just can’t live with the consequences of being wrong.’ I offer no list of people. I’m not pointing my finger at atheists, the academic institution, or the media. I’m pointing at the kind of thinking which invades all of us to one extent or another; ‘I want to do what I want to do and I want to feel ok about myself while I am doing it.’ If I am going to continue in that vein of thought, then I need to keep looking for the kind of evidence that allows me to sleep at night.
What is often referred to as free, sceptical, or critical thought really is a myth. An elementary schoolmate of mine told me this last Sunday, “We all live by faith in something whether we realize it or not.” His name is Peter Wiebe and he is right.
It would probably be helpful for me to be honest, and it likely won't take you by surprise to find out that I am one of those Christians. I have come to believe that there is a God and that He made the entire universe; including our world. This might shock you to hear of it, but I wasn’t personally there when the foundations of the earth were set in place. There is evidence which helps me to rest in my conclusions, but primarily, I accept these things out of faith. This might also shock you, but those who believe in evolution weren’t present at the birth of the world either. They also have evidence which helps them to rest in their conclusions, but their beliefs are also built on faith.
There is a difference between evidence and proof. What we have available to us in our day takes on the form of evidence, not proof. Even if there was a person who was there who took the time to write it down, we likely wouldn’t all accept it as truth in our time today. Creationists and evolutionists both have the same evidence with which to come to their conclusions. We look at the same sky, the same bones but paint two completely different pictures. Proponents of ‘Free Thought’ generally accept what is referred to as critical thinking, so long as the thinker comes to the same conclusions.
We all believe what we believe, even if we claim to believe in nothing at all. When I turn on the light in my bedroom, I have faith that the light will come on. When you order a pizza at the restaurant, you expect to receive a pizza. When you hop into your Focus to go to work in the morning, you do so believing that it will start and deliver you. (Of course it will. It’s a Ford!) Creationists weren’t there, but they believe they were created. Evolutionists weren’t there, but they believe they have evolved.