God and Science - Part I

God and Science

A few days ago, something unusual happened. My wife and son were out running errands together, which left me home alone – sounds like a good title for a movie – to fend for myself. This does not happen very often and I must to admit to, with a slight bit of guilt, looking forward to the prospect of getting some work done.

After a conference call with my web person, JP at Collipisis.com, I posted to my new blog – actually it’s the same blog, but now it’s on my website – then crunched in a bit of editing on my long overdue third novel, Footprints of a Dancer. I certainly hope to have the book finished soon.

A few hours later, I turned off the computer and switched on the television, reveling in the idea of watching whatever I wanted. I was not to be disappointed. I stumbled across a program, on the History channel, which grabbed my attention. It was already in progress, but the gist of the piece was whether or not, through mathematical calculations and other applied sciences, God could be proven to exist. The short answer, in my humble opinion, is no. If God wanted everyone to know, without a doubt, of his existence then it would be that way. However, that would negate the need for faith, a crucial element of Christianity. Bearing that in mind, I still enjoyed the program, which had been constructed using several parallel storylines that the narrator would weave in and out of – a study, which explored the possibility that the belief in God, or some form of deity, is coded or hardwired into our DNA; a search to identify an element of matter, a crucial component of the “Standard Model” of physics, which explains how the cosmos works, known as the Higgs boson, or God particle; an expedition to locate and prove the existence of the Ark of the Covenant; and – get ready for this one  -- a study comparing the similarities of brainwave functions between subjects given hallucinogenic drugs and those involved in intense prayer sessions.   

Let’s expand on the above topics beginning with DNA. All civilizations and cultures have exhibited a belief in God, gods, or some form of religion. The idea that people are predisposed to believe in a higher power comes as no revelation to Christians. However, the indication that this tendency might actually be hardwired into our makeup is intriguing.

The study began 59 years ago when, in 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the existence of a structure within the nucleus of human cells, a genetic material known as deoxyribonucleic acid, more commonly known as DNA. Scientists studying DNA probably suspected early on that the double-helix structure contained some type of genetic data. However, recent discoveries indicate the material is embedded with a complex code capable of storing incredible amounts of information. In an article titled, DNA: The Tiny Code That’s Toppling Evolution, published in Good News Magazine, author, Mario Seiglie, explains it like this: “A molecule two millionths of a millimeter thick contains enough information to fill 12 sets of encyclopedias. A teaspoon full of DNA, according to molecular biologist, Michael Denton, could contain all of the information needed to build the proteins for all the species of organisms that have ever lived on the earth and still have room for all of the information contained in every book ever written.”

For me, that classifies as a Wow, Shazam.

I’ll continue the discussion in my next post. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think about the subject. Please leave a comment.

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