Hypotheses Non Fingo

It is not uncommon for those in the scientific community to criticize those of faith for the lengths we have been willing to go to in opposition of their most closely held beliefs (see, for example, the debate over Intelligent Design. For myself, I am inclined to take a view akin to the one Jesus took on taxes; to give scientific matters over to the scientific method, and to give religious matters over to faith. In saying this, I do not mean to yield the questions of human origins to the evolutionary biologists; instead, I mean to point out the absurdity of any attempt to argue the question of origins as if it were a scientific matter.

In writing his Principia Mathematica Sir Isaac Newton was careful to lay out his laws of motion while expressing Hypotheses Non Fingo ("I make no guesses" regarding the reason for those laws to be true. Noting that the culture in which Newton lived was not inclined to think scientifically, I feel that it was precisely this decision which allowed him to be successful in communicating his Principia to the world.

Modern society, on the other hand, appears to be as dependent on scientific reductionism as Newton's world was dependent on religion. Those who follow the scientific method want evidence and testability, and only those who are willing to submit to that kind of rigor will be welcomed in that discussion.

The problem with that situation is that we don't serve a God who will submit to testing. Other than tithing, I am not aware of any approved topic for testing God. Likewise, if He is really invisible or infinite (or both), measurement would not be possible either. You should also expect that miracles -- including the resurrection of Christ -- are by definition not reproducible.

Taking this one step further, those of us in the community of faith should not expect those in the community of science to be able to span the gap between science (describing what can happen) and history (describing what did happen). Thus, if you want to talk about Christ, you should expect to take some heat from those who don't follow your system of logic. This doesn't mean that your cause is hopeless; you simply have to wait for the "aha moment" when people are willing to speak about the bigger picture.

As a man who lives with one foot in each community, I run into this dichotomy on an almost daily basis. Does this make me bilingual?

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

In a previous post, I spoke at length about the significance of marriage and its implications for me as a man. Despite this, we live in a culture rampant divorce where one-third of people who get married eventually divorce, a rate that is shared between Christians and non-believers alike. This bothers me. And I don't think I'm the only one who shares that opinion.

A strong view of marriage and divorce was taught by Jesus, even when it wasn't popular. God hates divorce, plain and simple. If I want to be biblical in my views, then, I need to agree with him.

When I say that, however, I need to be very careful not to let any one misinterpret that sentence, and think I said that God hates divorced people. I didn't say that. And if you're one of those people who had to leave a marriage because of an abusive or adulterous spouse, I particularly feel for you, because you're the victim. For other cases, yes, the Bible calls it sin. But (big shock here, folks), I have sinned too -- my sins just aren't quite so visible.

Having said that, though, I want to get back to the original point of this post, which was to explore the reasons why God would be so strongly pro-marriage and anti-divorce. While I certainly don't claim exclusive access to the throne of God on this topic, here's a couple of thoughts that might explain what He's up to:

• Guys aren't terribly relational. Even the highly-interactive ones like me could just shut down and refuse to tell anyone anything deeply personal. Having my wife around forces me to relate, and that's good for me.


• Marriage is good for kids. Fathers hear this: regular child support payments aren't enough. Your sons need to see what it takes to be a man, and your daughters need to know how to relate to a man. Deal with it.


• Marriage is one of those images on earth that are supposed to show us how God relates to us. If we break up a marriage, we imply that God might cut us off -- and that's not how he works.

This last item is a delicate subject, and perhaps one of the more controversial points I have expressed here. It is a popular conviction that people can believe in Christ, become a Christian, and later fall away and stop believing. I just don't see it. From what I can see, salvation is a concept embedded in eternity; if God can see that we won't be saved on the Last Day, we never were, even if people thought we were.

From a perspective of marriage, however, God has a distinct advantage over us. That is, He knows our hearts, and He doesn't start a bad marriage. The rest of us make mistakes, and sometimes we have to live with the result of those mistakes. And despite what MasterCard says, "for the rest of us, there's grace."