Will physicists find God?

Atheist Headstone
Originally uploaded by GINDERBELL

There is a great article from Newsweek about an upcoming experiment in Europe. It's an experiment in particle physics which will seek "to find signs of an elusive particle called the Higgs boson—also known as the 'God particle'". Here are some snippets from the interview with theoretical physicist Steven Weinberg to wet your appetite:

As science explains more and more, there is less and less need for religious explanations. Originally, in the history of human beings, everything was mysterious. Fire, rain, birth, death, all seemed to require the action of some kind of divine being. As time has passed, we have explained more and more in a purely naturalistic way. This doesn't contradict religion, but it does takes away one of the original motivations for religion.

My first thought...is this true? Is it true that the more science explains the less need there is for religious explanations? Perhaps for things like fire, rain, and how birth and death occur in a mechanical sense. But can science ever tell us how it all began? Can science ever give us a compelling reason for living? Can science ever tell us why some behaviors are good and others bad or even evil? This next quote from Weinberg will help us understand where he goes with these issues:

We don't see any purpose dictated to human beings in nature. Human life does have a purpose, but it is a purpose that we invent for ourselves. It takes a certain act of courage to look at nature, not see any plan for human beings in there and yet go on and live good lives, love each other, create beautiful things, explore the universe. All these take more courage without having some divine plan that we discover, but one that we rather create for ourselves.

Weinberg believes there is no plan for humans. I'm sure he is not alone. It must be rather depressing to believe this. Makes me wonder "what's the point?" Here's Weinberg's answer to my question from an article in Newsweek from December 2006:

The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.

Wow! There is no point for Weinberg except for what he defines the point of life to be.

So what do you think? Is there inherent meaning in life? In your life? Or is it pointless, meaningless except for the meaning you give it?

Do the test

This is a great little video which demonstrates how our bias affects what we see.



It makes me think of biblical interpretation. We often miss things in the biblical text because we are trained or biased to not see them or to notice other things instead.

As an example, I will forever remember taking the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class in high school. For the first time, it was pointed out to me how God is hears the cries of the oppressed and that he desire for the church to partner with him to end this oppression. Some call it God' preferential option for the poor. These texts were always there. But I never saw them and if I did I ignored them because I didn't believe they had anything to say to me.

So take the video test. Test your awareness. Then look for the moonwalking bears in Scripture.

Q&A Sermon series

I am really excited about our next sermon series. It's called Q & A and everyone in our church has the opportunity to ask any question about the Bible or theology, or the church, or Christianity that they'd like me to try and answer in a sermon. Then I'll do my best to answer the question. At the very least I'll get the conversation going!

So do you have a burning question about any of these topics? If so, you can write it down in the comments or you can email me at stevewynkoopatfccwray.org (Just replace the "at" with the @ symbol).

WorshipLand

I just found out about this great website called WorshipLand. They have tons of great songs with lyrics, chords, and free MP3 downloads. Check it out!

Free worship music

Heart of worship
Originally uploaded by mturnage

Hot Worship is a site that lists a lot of worship resources and free music downloads. One podcast I really enjoy is Mars Hill Church from Seattle. They have a lot of very creative arrangements of many hymns and praise songs. Check it out.

Heaven

~~ Stairway to heaven ~~
Originally uploaded by Blueju38

Here's an article by N.T. Wright in Time magazine on heaven. This is a great article challenging many of our popular thoughts regarding heaven. I think Wright does an excellent job of looking at and synthesizing the biblical teaching on heaven.

New church website

First off, the pork shoulder was awesome! I'll have several pulled pork sandwiches this week. I used the quick cook method from The Virtual Weber Bullet.

Second, First Christian Church here in Wray has a new website. It is under major construction but check it out!

Smoking a pork butt

With the wonderful weather and my wife recently back from India and craving some good food, I'm smoking a pork butt for dinner. I haven't smoked anything since last August or so!

We'll see how it goes!