Pondering the Infinite, Part 4

During my annual Fiction Fast, I am reading Secrets of Infinity: 150 Answers to an Enigma, edited by Antonio Lamua. There are different sections, such as mathematics, science, and art. This series of posts will focus on the section regarding philosophy. It never ceases to amaze me that men of the world, men of science and deep thought, can come so close to the bull’s-eye but miss the truth by a mile.

Rene Descartes was another mathematician and philosopher. He described the existence of “three substances”: our thinking substance, the infinite or divine, and the extended substance. Many people are familiar with cogito ergo sum, the Latin phrase that means, “I think, therefore I am.” This is the first substance. This fundamental reality is based on thought or consciousness.

If I am conscious of, or able to contemplate, the infinite then it must exist. I cannot create the infinite, but if it exists, then there must be a God. This is the second substance. It is God that puts in us the idea of perfection (He is perfect), of infinity (God), or eternity (God).

The third substance is the material, called the extended substance. This has three dimensions: shape, position, and movement. As far as Descartes was concerned, the body was simply a machine. Thoughts and emotions were contained and manifested within the soul, which falls into the realm of the first substance.

Descartes is considered to be the father of modern philosophy and one of the most famous and prominent men of the scientific revolution. What surprises me is this: today, men of science laugh and mock the idea of the divine. There is a small movement within the scientific community who believe Intelligent Design, and an even smaller group who believe that Designer is God. Wikipedia defines Intelligent Design as a “pseudoscientific view that ‘certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process like natural selection.’ Educators, philosophers, and the scientific community have demonstrated that ID is a religious argument, a form of creationism which lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses.”

This definition is almost laughable. It falls into the category of pseudoscience the same way ghost hunters do; these areas look like science but do not, in fact, use the scientific method. The scientific method, of course, requires observation which leads to a question, formulation of a hypothesis, and testing and experimentation. During the experimentation phase of the scientific method, one gathers and analyzes data and either modifies or rejects the hypothesis or creates a workable theory. A scientific theory cannot become a natural law until it can be repeated with the same results. Gravity is a law. It can be repeated with the same results.

When was the last time a scientist repeated the experiment to turn primordial slime into life?

It can’t be done. So by Wikipedia’s definition, evolution is pseudoscience and does not follow the scientific method. It is a theory, not a law, although scientists and educators today have done their best to convince people it is law. In fact, one could say it, too, is a religious argument.

The man known as one of the greats of the scientific revolution, making contributions to geometry and optics, would be mocked and ridiculed today for his idea of the divine. Perhaps he would laugh, too, at the ridiculous claims of evolutionary “science”. I think therefore I am does mean if you think it, it is real.

But I don’t think God is laughing. Psalm 14: 1-3: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. Our folly, our declaration that there is no God, brings God such anguish that He had to prove us wrong.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in their lusts to the hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Romans 1: 20-25.

Vs. 24 is possibly the saddest line of Scripture. God gave us over to our lusts. He let us have what we said we wanted, even though we are fools.

We already know the truth. We can see it all around us: in the sun and moon and stars, in the fact that our planet is the only one capable of sustaining life, in the human eye that is so complex the chances of it happening spontaneously through evolution are infinitely small. But we wanted to worship the creature and what the creature can create. We already knew, so that’s not what God did to prove us wrong.

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought of God.” John 3: 16-21

He sent His Son. If that doesn’t prove He exists, nothing else will.