Friday, March 09, 2007

Man would create God, but would God create Man?

(Meditation in Progress) I am certain that man would create God if there were no God. I am less certain that God would create man if there were no man. Given that man seems to exist, the question centers on "is there really a God?" There are many men, and hence many religions. I suppose there could be more than one true path, but Jesus discourages that alternative ("No man comes to the Father but through me")

Is Christianity really unique in its historical basis? A religion where at least some of its history is verifiable distinguishes itself from myth, and from most other religions. Many religions with no verifiable history(e.g. Mormons) have a sort of made-up feel to them. The historical veracity of Christianity certainly doesn't hurt its believability, but the path to faith doesn't usually follow an archeologist's steps.

The ongoing friction between Christianity and Science is a serious thing. I suppose it hasn't always been this way. Until science reached a certain level of maturity I doubt its explanations were any more compelling than just chalking things up to God's will. However once science achieved some predictive capability (e.g. timing of eclipses) things started to change. Over and over the church has opposed new scientific ideas (e.g. heliocentric solar system), only to eventually abandon their position in the face of compelling evidence. Why is there this historical animosity? The church has been lagging science ever since the 1st century. Will this gap ever close?


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