10
It is not enough to counter the “Big Lie” that science and Christianity are inherently in conflict; we must also remind the New Atheists that not only has religion always inspired, and continues to inspire, many scientists, but science has enhanced, and continues to enhance, our religious understanding.
One of the truly astonishing things that science reveals is the wonderful unity, and what might be called the congruence, of nature. Why does nature make sense to the human mind? And even if a solipsist or nihilist argued that congruence is merely an illusion, nature a chaos, and order a temporary delusion, one could reasonably answer, “All right, but why does the illusion appear to make sense?” Unless we are willing to concede the existence of a world “out there” which obeys basic laws, such as that night follows day and that fire is hot to the touch, then we might as well give up, gnaw a bone, and bay at the moon until the illusion of a passing asteroid blows us all to existential smithereens! So in the meanwhile, let us continue to assume that reality exists.
One might argue that it is a truly wonderful thing that, while we have not the slightest shred of evidence that matter is in itself conscious, we humans are deeply conscious of matter. The planets, for example, move around the sun in brutish ignorance of the laws of universal gravitation that enable us to observe, predict, and record their smallest motions. We can analyse the chemical and energy structures of distant galaxies without them, as physical objects, being aware that we are doing so; and we can predict the effect that particular micro-organisms or cells will have upon the human body without the organisms themselves having the slightest idea of what they are inescapably driven to do.
When you think about it, is that not a truly amazing thing? That those three-pound lumps of meat on the top of our spinal columns that we call brains can fathom out the nature of their environment, extending from electrons to galaxies, through the whole dazzling spectrum of energy radiation to a contemplation of themselves (neurology and psychology), and wrestle with ultimate questions about reality, beginnings and endings, right and wrong (theology and philosophy)?
Solipsistic paralysis apart, what makes all of this possible is the congruence, or logical interconnectedness, of nature as our sentient beings, or souls, perceive it. Indeed, this stunning congruence even enables us to discover things that don’t fit into the older, classical, scheme of reference, such as nuclear, quantum, and relativity physics. We first experience matter as solid and real; then, between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, we discover that it is not simple, but made up of complex combinations of chemical elements, and then go on to find congruent elements in the sun and stars. Then, in the twentieth century, we discover that the atoms forming the elements are not solid, but just configurations of energy particles, electrons, protons, and neutrons, and that, on a deeper level, a lump of granite or iron is not really hard at all. And the realm of quantum physics is an Alice in Wonderland world where nothing is as it seems, and one needs a new form of purely mathematical explanation to make sense of it.
But even the Alice in Wonderland worlds of quantum and relativity physics have their own congruence, and this is the marvellous thing. The task which faces us is not how to navigate our way through a chaotic Mad Hatter illusion of existence, but how to relate the new congruence of the “new physics” to the classical “old physics” of common sense. And, as we saw above, the linkage comes through developing a new mathematics! And if all that is a mere illusion, then it must be even more wonderful and congruent than “reality” itself. Either way, we are faced with wonder!
Yet not only is nature congruent, or unified, when we look at it, but the next great wonder is that it remains so when we manipulate it. Think of a steam engine, for example. The iron of which the engine is built is first dug out of the same type of ironstone rock, no matter whether that rock is in America, China, India, or Great Britain, and the strata are identified through our geological knowledge. All the iron on the planet melts at the same temperature, 2,797 °F (1,596 °C), and can be moulded or worked by the same processes worldwide, to build the engine. But to make the engine usable, we also need to know that all water boils at 212 °F or 100 °C, and that, as shown by Boyle’s law, it generates a mechanical energy that is mathematically related to steam pressure and temperature. Then, employing pistons, turbines, wheels, and other fruits of applied mechanical ingenuity, we can make the engine do useful work that exceeds the power of thousands of horses. And as an added bonus, the engine never gets tired or needs a holiday, as long as you feed it with fuel and water and clean it out.
And the same analogy applies for our knowledge of the unchanging, mathematical laws of physics, chemistry, and biology, to produce everything from a mobile phone to a recyclable plastic bottle to an antibiotic drug. If nature were not congruent, or not at unity with itself, and if our biochemical brain circuitry did not enable us to perform incredible acts of reasoning, devising, and calculating, we would not be the human beings that we are. And while this may not constitute a formal proof of a divine creation, it certainly leaves us asking the inevitable question “So why does it all make sense, and why are things the way they are?”