 | Reverend Dennis Paschke is the senior pastor at Evangel Holton United Methodist Church, in Holton Kansas. Evangel church is a vital and growing congregation full of life that is changing lives and our community one person at a time. Dennis’ family emigrated from North Dakota to Alberta, Canada to homestead when his father was just a young boy. Rev. Paschke returned to the United States and has lived in many parts of the country. His life has afforded him many blessings before answering God’s call to full-time ministry, including being a vice president of a Fortune 100 company, serving as a chairman of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games and holding a U.S. patent. His greatest blessing in life is his walk with Christ! He believes strong faith always engages the heart and mind. EDUCATION: BSEE from the University of Calgary, Canada, and a Master’s of Divinity from Saint Paul School of Theology. FAMILY: He is married to wife Dawn and they have three sons Corey, Kyle and Marc. The family also includes one “wonder-dog” named Tucker! You can reach Reverend Paschke via email dpasch01@gmail.com. |
Religion
2011-11-17 14:02:15
Science vs. religion
Q: Is there now, and has there always been a conflict between science and religion? If so, how do we know which is correct in each situation?
A: We live in a world that establishes reality through the lens of fact.Fact is everything that can be seen and can be proven through measurable, repeatable and predictable results. Science starts from the premise that everything that is determined in fact is so because it is repeatable and predictable. That is what makes it scientific fact.
But it is also the case that an investigator can never prove something or disprove something that is not subject to the methods they employ for proof. For example, if I look into my microwave oven to try to observe repeatedly that my food is in fact getting warmer because of the microwave generator that is inside heating my food, I will be disappointed because microwaves are not visible through the lens of our human eyes. This does not mean that my food is not heated! So when we look at life through a lens that limits what we can actually see our view will be restricted. We may even come up with an explanation that fits the humanly observed reality even though that is not the full picture. We will miss experience of the eternal beauty that is the purest reality of our life.
So when science begins with the premise that God is either not part of Creation of our natural order, or if God is,then God must be totally explainable through the lens of the human mind we will create a conflict between science and religion because God is at times greater than the human mind to fully comprehend. You can’t find God in a system of thinking whose premise is to exclude any idea of God as a factor! Such a scientific worldview is perfectly designed to produce the results it does, filter out anything it cannot fully understand, like God.
The greatest scientific mind of the modern world...was not at all in contradiction with faith and God.Interestingly enough, if one listens to Albert Einstein the one in whom the greatest hope for science and fact only is placed by the world he was not at all with bringing science and religion together. In fact, he said this when asked if he believed in God. The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious (Holy). It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is snuffed out like a candle (the experience of the Holy) is as good as dead. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced (proven by fact) there is something that our minds cannot grasp whose beauty and sublimity reaches only indirectly (by faith), this is religion. (p 387 Einstein, Walter Isaacson, 2007).
Faith is not the absence of doubt. It is the commitment to the reality that God is often times beyond our human ability to fully describe or comprehend, and that to see the fullest beauty and truth of Creation we must also use faith to seek understanding. There is something eternal that lies beyond humanity’s ability to fully see. Yet it remains a privilege when we encounter beauty and truth in their truest forms when science and faith are brought together!
