Articles
Letter to Christian Physicists
A humorous June 1999 letter to Christians who also claim to be scientists.There has recently been published a spate of books which purport to show how to reconcile religion with science. They are all worthless, because they achieve a superficial consistency by watering down religion and subordinating it to the fallacies of the so-called scientific method. A true explanation of the place of science can only come from a writer to whom God has granted an unshakeable faith in the primacy of religion, and who can always remember, however involved he may get in the intricacies of scientific explanation, that science is a grace granted by God to man, and knows enough to look for evidence of God in every phenomenon he investigates.
As a result of the essential Godlessness of present day scientists - including most of those who pay lip service to Christ but neglect to pray for divine guidance in their own life work - science today is a jungle of confusion, and, unless repentance is quick, it is headed for total catastrophe when God finally cracks down.
The essential unGodliness of most of the so-called Christian historians and scientists is demonstrated by their inability to understand why the pagan Greeks never developed what is called "modern science".
All sorts of ridiculous answers are given by self-styled Christians who cannot remember their faith long enough to realize that science is a gift to man from God and that God would never have granted the boon of science to pagans.
God does not need science. He is infinite and has no need of simple laws to co-ordinate facts. He can and does keep all the facts that ever were or ever would be in His Mind at once. He has no need of Fermat's last theorem to tell Him that x^n + y^n = z^n has no solutions in positive integers for n > 2. He can just look and see. (Qui omnia scit, intellectum non requirit - St. Thomas).
Do you suppose the childishly obvious idea of tossing unequal weights from towers never occurred to such brilliant men as Plato and Aristotle? Of course they tried it, but God did not give them consistent results because it was not necessary for material phenomena to obey simple laws comprehensible by man.
No-one who keeps God constantly on his mind would need an explanation of this fact, but nowadays it must be given. The construction of intricate theories to explain the world is necessary only to man with all his fleshly limitations. God, because He is omniscient, has no need to be intellectual. He has no need for Occam's razor, and it is no convenience to Him to have objects fall according to a simple law. Scientific law is a grace given to Christian men.
The first bestowal of quantitative physical law was to Galileo. After praying in Church, he noticed the chandelier swinging and speculated that the period of the sway did not depend on the amplitude of the oscillation. So pleasing had his prayers been to God, that this speculation was instantly and retroactively granted. How foolish to write learned tomes wondering how Galileo was able to guess that the period was independent of the amplitude, and then completely neglect to wonder what prayerful thought could have induced God to grant him this law!
Galileo was rewarded by having several of his conjectures made true, but evidently God must have had some patience and affection still left for the Roman church, since Galileo was punished for his quarrels with this church by having his theory of the cohesion of water disallowed.
The next really virtuous man to be rewarded was the theologian and saintly man Isaac Newton. It is again typical of this age that Newton's scientific speculations are assiduously studied while the theological achievements that induced God to grant him his scientific theories are ignored.
Then God, in his infinite generosity, granted to someone (maybe Galileo or Newton) that scientific laws can be objectively discovered by anyone who goes through the correct scientific ritual. Like all God's gifts, this one can be used or abused, and it was grievously abused. Hundreds and then thousands of men went to work producing scientific theories and the angels were hard put to keep up with them.
Finally, a certain sly Jew noticed that the angels had rewarded Maxwell with a theory that was inconsistent with what had been awarded to Newton. He further had the temerity to propose the only consistent way out of the inconsistency. The angels granted Einstein his theory, because God's Word is law, but to punish him arranged for the killing of six million of his coreligionists less than three decades later.
Since that time, matters have gone from bad to worse, leaving us with the morass of confusion that is present day physics. No sooner is an ugly and ad hoc theory spawned calling for a new particle to account for the experimental data, that the particle is discovered. But, since the theory was put forward without adequate thought and with no prayer, it turns out to be inconsistent after all, and science is left with a new particle to explain.
This cannot go on much longer. We prophesy that when the American atom bombers release their bombs over Moscow, physicists will be thrown into consternation and dismay when the bombs fail to explode! God will revoke nuclear physics!
There is only one way to avoid this catastrophe! Christian men of science must take immediate action! A conference must be called and committees formed to devise a new consistent theory of physics according to aesthetic and above all religious principles. Its every equation must show the Glory of God.
In order to show their humility, the proposers must ascribe appropriate parts of the new science to Galileo, Newton, de Nouy, and other scientists of the past whose Christian principles are above all shadow of suspicion or accusation.
To show our sincerity we must burn all the books giving the false theories and confusing experiments of the recent era. We must not shrink from burning also the impious who refuse to renounce the old and accept the new. Only then can we sincerely pray to God that our theory will be granted so that once more the bombs will be safe from all danger of not exploding.
All scientists who profess to be Christians are hereby called upon to show their faith by joining in this great work for the honor of science and the Glory of God.
* "The hypothesis on which I have based all my work in Natural Philosophy is that every natural law is God's Law, and therefore must express his Glory and Divine Purpose." - Newton, preface to Principia.
Things are not always what they seem.
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