Faith and Science

 

Faith and Science!

What have they in common

And is their assumed contrast

Just one’s imagination?

 

The assumed perception

That they don’t go together:

Science is rational and natural,

Faith is another matter.

 

Faith is irrational

A construct of the mind

And cannot truly be trusted

At any given time.

 

Science has an answer

For everything that exists,

Scientism as this is called

Surely tops the list.

 

It’s observable and testable

Its evidence is clear

And over time uncertainties

Must gradually disappear.

 

Faith on the other hand

Is frustratingly uncertain

Causing its adherents to differ

Over many questions.

 

 

But it appears to me

That both are aimed at truth

And must therefore be verified

By evidence and proof.

 

On this basis let me start

With a truth before science

And suggest in this first cause

This truth is self-reliant.

 

For it surely must be

There is an uncaused cause

Or else there can never ever be

Any order or natural laws.

 

Such as gravity I mean

And of energy and the like,

Be it that of natural sources

Or of artificial light.

 

I would rather believe

Science and faith dovetail

And together furnish answers

On what is actually real.

 

 

If truth and reality

Is the removal of all doubt

Then reality must be what is left

When all else is weeded out.

 

Think of a garden bed

With all the weeds removed

Leaving a picturesque splendour

That the gardener approves.

 

Think of back in Eden

That evolutionists call a myth,

Faith on the other hand determines

It was really God’s gift.

 

A habitat for humans

Prepared for Adam and Eve

But the willy and cunning serpent

Had Eve deceived.

 

Adam followed suit

In solidarity with his wife

And out their sin of disobedience

Came disorder and strife.

 

I’ve always wondered why

Weeds grow so easily,

Crops and flowers would struggle

But bush would have a spree.

 

 

 

Genesis 3 verse 17

Tells of the curse of the ground

In which thorns and thistles

Are always around.

 

Unlike the valued plants

Weeds do not need any care,

Once there is the slightest neglect

They will abundantly appear.

 

It is an evidential reality

This is the nature of things

And science is not the explanation

But the Genesis beginnings.

 

“The heavens declare!”

Speaks to the powerful witness

Of Almighty God’s creative power,

His glory and awesomeness.

 

Faith is not irrational

But rather a reasonable belief

Derived from a truthful reality,

Oh, what blessed relief!

 

It is God’s omniscience

That scientists can do science

With minds fine-tuned for order

With results that are reliant.

 

No wonder most early scientists

Were by this captivated

Unlike others whose experiments

Were prevaricated.

 

Science answers some things

But definitely not all

For morality and love and justice

Are due to an all-wise God.

 

Faith and science complement,

They are not at odds

And where science invariably fails

Right at this point is God.

 

It requires language

To express the truths of science

And the thought humans engage

Speaks of God’s existence.

 

Created in God’s own image

Humans are one of a kind,

Faith is facilitated in their DNA

Via Almighty God’s design.

 

 

Created with a capacity

To engage reality and truth

God Himself, as the Creator of all,

Supplying the essential proof.

 

Creation reveals His design

In all we see and observe

And this is made even clearer

In the advent of the Word.

 

Jesus, the incarnate Word

And the embodiment of truth

Whether of faith or of science

Jesus is the proof.

 

 

 

Truth is essentially a person

Synonymous with the Word

The Lord Christ, God’s only Son,

That came into the world

 

By him all things were made

And of him they consist

Yet the Lord Christ transcends then all

Though in him they exist.

 

He is above and beyond

Anything that science can tell

And this same Creator God causes

Faith and science to gel.

 

Stewart Russell © April 25, 2024

 

The Conscience Points to A Creator

 

 

There are many cases for a Creator

Like thought and morality and DNA

But a very compelling one is the conscience

That points us towards God’s way.

 

None of these four could just happen

With an origin in a Big Bang,

Some Intelligence had to be responsible

And upon this all of creation hangs.

 

Someone with the ability to think

Must have had the very first thought,

God’s expressed thought re: man’s creation

Was an idea the Trinity brought.

 

“Let us make man,” you would recall

Was the way God expressed that idea

And clearly there was agreement

For the other two thought the same way.

 

 

The other two in the preceding line

Refers to the Word and the Holy Spirit,

They were with God in the beginning

And all of creation was their mandate.

 

Man was created in God’s image

The Genesis account indicates

So that man possesses God-like attributes

From this one can extrapolate.

 

Hence the conscience was God-given

When God breathed life into man,

It is a by-product of God’s Spirit

And an integral part of His divine plan.

 

It distinguishes man from the animals

Which have no such facility,

The conscience points man to God

And respects His Divine Authority.

 

 

In 1^st Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2

We read concerning the last days

Of men’s conscience as seared with a hot iron

As they pursue their hypocritical ways.

 

The first Biblical reference to the conscience

Is found in John chapter 8 and verse 9,

Here an adulteress was brought to Jesus

To see what he would do about her crime.

 

But the way Jesus dealt with the matter

Convicted her accusers by their own conscience,

Not one of them remained to convict her

They were forced to give up their stance.

 

The conscience is often referred to

As a person’s moral regulator,

It propels us to the moral high ground

It’s our God-given right and wrong indicator.

 

In all of the earth’s civilizations

Both the primitive and the more advanced

The conscience has figured immensely

And the quality of life it enhanced.

 

 

Conscience is the mind’s alarm

That is triggered when there is the danger

Of overstepping the moral boundaries

Implanted on the heart by the Creator.

 

When that alarm is frequently ignored

The conscience becomes calloused and numb,

Such an individual loses his moral bearings

And does things despicable and dumb

 

His sense of right and wrong goes adrift

With no sense of moral direction,

He can do the ghastliest of things

And experience no moral compunction.

 

He is perhaps worse than the animal

Which clearly didn’t come with a conscience

And in the present time that we live in

Such would not be difficult to advance.

 

Remorse is deposited in the conscience

And there too one will find regret

But both of these come after the act

When faced with the colossal debt.

 

 

Critical to a proactive working conscience

Is the alarm that goes off in the mind

That assesses the consequences of such action

And responds up front and not behind.

 

Good advice is to use the conscience proactively

For prevention is better than cure

And the heeding of one’s God-given conscience

Is better if at first it’s not ignored.

 

That the conscience is God-given is not in doubt

If one is not blinded by evolution,

In evolution a problem arises as to how

But in creation God provided the solution.

 

He has written His law within our heart

It’s the law of love and peace,

Heart is synonymous with the conscience He gave

And a conscience towards God brings sweet relief.

 

Stewart Russell © November 2017

 

The Conscience Points to A Creator

There are many cases for a Creator:

Like thought and morality and DNA

But a very compelling one is the conscience

That points us towards God’s way.

None of these four could just happen

With an origin in a Big Bang,

Some Intelligence had to be responsible

And upon this all of creation hangs.

Someone with the ability to think

Must have had the very first thought,

God’s expressed thought re: man’s creation

Was an idea the Trinity brought.

“Let us make man,” you would recall

Was the way God expressed that idea

And clearly there was agreement

For the other two had thought the same way.

The other two in the preceding line

Refers to the Word and the Holy Spirit,

They were with God in the beginning

And all of creation was their mandate.

Man was created in God’s image

The Genesis account indicates

So that man possesses God-like attributes

From this one can extrapolate.

Hence the conscience was God-given

When God breathed life into man,

It is a by-product of God’s Spirit

And an integral part of His divine plan.

It distinguishes man from the animals

Which have no such facility,

The conscience points man to God

And respects His Divine Authority.

In 1^st Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2

We read concerning the last days

Of men’s conscience as seared with a hot iron

As they pursue their hypocritical ways.

  

The first Biblical reference to the conscience

Is found in John chapter 8 and verse 9,

Here an adulteress was brought to Jesus

To see what he would do about her crime.

But the way Jesus dealt with the matter

Convicted her accusers by their own conscience,

Not one of them remained to convict her

They were forced to give up their stance.

The conscience is often referred to

As a person’s moral regulator,

It propels us to the moral high ground

It’s our God-given right and wrong indicator.

In all of the earth’s civilizations

Both the primitive and the more advanced,

The conscience has figured immensely

And the quality of life it enhanced.

Conscience is the mind’s alarm

That is triggered when there is the danger

Of overstepping the moral boundaries

Implanted on the heart by the Creator.

When that alarm is frequently ignored

The conscience becomes calloused and numb,

Such an individual loses his moral bearings

And does things despicable and dumb.

His sense of right and wrong goes adrift

With no sense of moral direction,

He can do the ghastliest of things

And experience no moral compunction.

He is perhaps worse than the animal

Which clearly didn’t come with a conscience

And in the present time that we live in

Such would not be difficult to advance.

Remorse is deposited in the conscience

And there too one will find regret,

But both of these come after the act

When faced with the colossal debt.

Critical to a proactive working conscience

Is the alarm that goes off in the mind

That assesses the consequences of such action

And responds up front and not behind.

Good advice is to use the conscience proactively

For prevention is better than cure

And the heeding of one’s God-given conscience

Is better if at first it’s not ignored.

That the conscience is God-given is not in doubt

If one is not blinded by evolution,

In evolution a problem arises as to how

But in creation God provided the solution.

He has written His law within our heart

It’s the law of love and peace,

Heart is synonymous with the conscience He gave

And a conscience towards God brings sweet relief.

Stewart Russell © November 2017

A Thought

Some thoughts are so fleeting

And sometimes are gone so fast

That if we had to recount them

It would be an impossible task.

Try tracing a thought

From its inception to its end:

Even to contemplate this

It is difficult to comprehend.

Though we often think

We seldom analyze our thoughts

And the times we do

We’re either excited or distraught.

A thought is sometimes referred to

As a brilliant idea

Though just as often too

It can run the other way.

A thought may be sinister

Or it may be saintly like,

Of course the former is darkness

While the latter is light.

Thoughts are linked to our senses

They are received in five ways,

They are reflected in our actions

As we live out our days.

Some thoughts are bothersome

And load us down with care:

These we wish we could forget

But they don’t easily disappear.

Some thoughts make us happy

These are the desired experience

But unlike the other thoughts

They are not as intense.

Enough about thoughts though,

Let me concentrate on just one:

It will take just a few more verses

And then I will be gone.

When is the last time

You thought about your soul?

Can you trace it from its inception

Regarding the word you were told?

Please don’t dismiss that thought

Unceremoniously

For it bears a direct link

That speaks to your destiny.

For certainly that is a thought

That has eternal repercussions,

To ignore this particular thought

Is to court eternal damnation.

I know this sounds harsh

 And perhaps a little absurd

But you can verify it

If you search in God’s Word.

This thought comes from God

You are fortunate to have received it,

Make the best of your opportunity

Don’t resist the Holy Spirit.

Stewart Russell © October 2018