Beyond Reason | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Beyond Reason | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dave Walker
02/20/14
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES

God can turn reason on its face.

Christians live with truths that do not bow to pure reason. We've wrestled, through the ages, with such mysteries as a triune God, Jesus fully God, yet fully man, our dying and yet living, a God who gives us free will and yet remains sovereign, our destiny pre-ordained, but dependent on our choices, and many others.

None of these truths bows to reason. In fact, the mysteries take us to our wit's end and beyond.

Of course, we creatures of reason feel compelled to debate and argue over them. Often the results are heresy, dogmatic stands in one camp or another, strife among brothers and even desertion of the faith.

Yet, like Job, if I'm honest, finally I must admit, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know."(Job 42:3) God is merely showing His supremacy, even above man's reason. He is a jealous God and will not share His glory, even with the most brilliant logical minds in history.

Before the so-called Age of Enlightenment, mystery, being all around, was a fact of life. The rise of the scientific age, however, has deified reason. The gods of reason -- the scientists -- reign supreme.

Now, to show His pre-eminence over them, God has targeted these false gods, who rant against His very existence and laugh arrogantly at the illogical.

He has revealed the science of quantum physics.

Never have scientists been at their wit's end more than they are now, as discoveries are made in the strange world of the ultra-ultra small.

It started over 100 years ago in a famous experiment to determine whether a photon was a wave or a particle. They were shot through a screen which had two slits in it through which the photons could pass, striking a sensor on the other side. Scientists reasoned that if they were particles, they would create two lines on the sensor, where the particles went through the slits. If they were waves, they would create interference waves on the other side, forming a different pattern on the screen.

To their astonishment, they discovered that the photons showed a wave form if they were not observed passing through the slits, but behaved like particles if an observation device was placed at the slit. We change the state of matter by observing it! Since then, the strange world of quantum physics is revealing more facts that defy reason; and it's the scientists who are discovering these.

They have discovered that these minute substances not only 'know' whether or not they are observed, they have prophetic insight. They behave like particles even if they are observed after the event!

Here are some other startling realities of this strange, counter-intuitive world:

These subatomic substances are 'non-local'. They exist, but in no particular place, unless observed.

A feature of this non-locality is demonstrated by splitting a particle and altering one of the 'twins' in some way. The other 'twin' changes in exactly the same way, even if it is 1000 miles away.

If two units are fired at a sensor, but an obstruction placed in front of one, that unit will go through the obstruction and reach the sensor quicker than the one with no obstruction! It seems it can "jump" to the other side timelessly and keep going (technically called 'tunnelling').

These are facts accepted by those who mock the idea of Jesus' healing the sick and walking through a locked door. Those who deny miracles now find themselves trying desperately to explain things that are unexplainable yet, nevertheless, facts.

It should be a liberating experience to know that God is beyond our reasoning. It compels us to trust in the Lord, leaning not on our own understanding. Volumes are written pondering these mysteries in the Word, but surely the true Christian response is to say, like David, "Such knowledge is too marvellous for me; too lofty for me to attain," (Ps 139:6), thus letting God be God.

Meanwhile, through quantum physics, God is confounding the scientists with humiliating, unfathomable mysteries, just as He does His people in His Word. Yet, unwilling to let God be God, they propose more and more esoteric theories to explain facts which they describe using terms like 'magical' and 'surreal'.

One can almost hear the Creator chuckle at their floundering. Their wit's end is but a simple truth in His omniscience.

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.