Friday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
1 Corinthians 1:17-25 | Psalm 32:1-2,4-5,10-11 | Matthew 25:1-13
How can you say you believe in God, when you have a rabid interest in science?
I get asked this once in a while, and somehow my answer never seems to satisfy the enquirers:
Because science tries to explain the natural world, not God.
It’s funny how many people seem to think science and God are mutually exclusive, that once “we” can explain the workings of the universe down to its Big Bang origins, then God cannot exist.
(Note that by “we” above, they really mean “the scientists we believe without question, and quote without understanding.” Of course, they get really angry when you point out that “scientists are the priests of your religion then,” but mirror-bearers reflecting “inconvenient truths” learn to expect such reactions.)
Except, of course, science cannot, and indeed does not, claim to be able to explain EVERYTHING. At best, scientists might be able to reduce every structure we perceive to a few basic natural forces, explained in a putative Theory of Everything.
Science, however, is silent about what lies outside our perceptual limits, the visible boundaries of our universe. There is still room for a Deus extra machina (lit. “God outside the machine”) to have brought together the necessary primordial elements, and started the universal ball exploding with a gentle nudge and a “let there be light!”
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
The “science denies God” crowd can be compared to the foolish bridesmaids in today’s Gospel, confident beyond reason that there is no hereafter, and destined to be caught short when the Day of Judgement comes.
Let us instead be like the sensible bridesmaids, trusting in the lamp of science that informs earthly life, but also carrying with us the “oil” of faith in God, the fuel that powers everlasting light. Others may think us foolish, but being a fool for Christ, as St. Paul urges us in today’s reading, should prove to be wise indeed.
Amen.