Chapter Two

The Christianity-Science Relationship

There seems to be two major paths of effort in continuing creation in the human realm. One is science and the other religion. Christianity is not the only religion that has contributed to continuing creation. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and others have also contributed in their own special ways. Christianity, however, has the largest number of adherents and it has features that tend to make it function more efficiently and it will be the one emphasized here.

      The role of Christianity in continuing creation has been to connect humans to the source of their existence and to teach them how to work together in team relationships. The role of science often is thought of as simply the acquisition of knowledge, but most of that knowledge is acquired for technology, the development of tools needed for sustaining our lives. Before we explore these contributions in detail, it is helpful to understand the goal of continuing creation. The goal that seems most clear at this time is to produce a world in which all humans live nearly perfect lives in order to maximize their productivity as a creation team. In the future, there may be other goals that are currently beyond our vision and comprehension.

Pursuit of Productive Lives

The most popular television programs seem to be those in which the main characters are dysfunctional people. If the dysfunctionality is exaggerated, as it is in situation comedies, it provides many laughs. We are glad that we are not like those folks. While we may enjoy watching others making mistakes on television, we all try to live the best lives we can with the resources available to us. Each day we base our decisions for improvement on what we see family members, friends, teachers, and fellow workers doing. We all watch each other and are thus both students and teachers. While television has vastly added to the number of role models available, our actions are still shaped to a large extent by our local environment, the one into which we were born or spend our lives.

      So what is that ideal human life that we are all seeking? Some think that the best lives are those lived by rich and famous people because their work is admired and their wealth seems to provide everything they want. However, those who have an overabundance of wealth and recognition are also the targets of a wide variety of human predators and that takes away much of the luster. Their lives are not as great as they seem. There are others who believe that an ideal life involves lying on the beach all day, but that burns the skin and weakens the muscles. Still others choose to induce happy feelings chemically by the use of drugs, including alcohol, but such effects are only temporary and unless used sparingly, drugs eventually lead to dependence and depression. If not wealth and recognition, lying on a beach, or drug-induced euphoria, what does characterize an ideal life? 

      Let’s begin by considering a generic set of attributes of such a life even though they may seem somewhat obvious. I think all of us would like to be happy and enthusiastic about life every day except when bad things happen. Following bad experiences such as serious illnesses, deaths of family or friends, divorces, or loss of employment, we would like to be able to recover happiness as quickly as possible. We would also like to be engaged in daily activities that are enjoyable and challenging but not threatening. Challenging activities are essential to promote the development of skills and that gives us the pleasure of accomplishment. In addition to recoverability from bad experiences and engagement in challenging activities, we would also like to have relationships with other people that make us feel comfortable and supported. We need team relationships where we feel part of one or more groups that have goals. These may be family, work groups, church, sports, and others.

      Those are the desired attributes, but life is a continually changing series of good and bad episodes, many of which we have no control over so at best we can only try to optimize our chances of sustaining happiness and productivity. If we wake up each morning grateful and enthusiastic about the events of the coming day, it is a sign that we are leading a good life. If not, there is room for improvement.

      Now that we have decided on the goal, let’s consider the requirements that make achievement of the goal possible. The following are minimum requirements for attaining the ideal lives described above: (1) good health; (2) basic material needs such as clean water, food, clothing, and housing; (3) freedom of choice; (4) loving people to provide communication and support; and (5) a connection with the source of our existence. Good health is an obvious requirement since pain quickly reduces the quality and productivity of anyone’s life. Clean water and food are needed for health, clothing for comfort, and housing for protection from the elements. Not all people on earth have freedom of choice, but once it is acquired most people understand its desirability and importance. Everyone also needs other people. People can be sources of stress and discomfort, but they are also the sources of our greatest joy. Stories such as the classic, Robinson Crusoe,¹ or the movie, Cast Away,² that are about people living alone on islands dramatically show how hard life can be without other people to share it with. Other people are a vital part of the good life. Finally, without some connection to the source of our existence we retain the uneasy feeling that haunts the life of a wanderer. We lack direction and purpose and our lives drift with the prevailing winds.

      These are the minimum requirements for ideal lives. Let us look at the contributions science and Christianity have made toward fulfilling the requirements. We will begin with some examples of the contributions science has made.

      In its role of providing the knowledge needed for technology, science has played a major part in supplying many of the requirements listed above. We are living in a period when scientific research in the area of human health is producing profound benefits and as a result, enormous amounts of money are being poured into it, urging it on. Expectations are so high that no amount of effort seems enough and there are a very large number of organizations trying to raise money to support research in the health sciences. Scientific research has also provided information about the value of different types of food and has helped increase the efficiency of food production and distribution.

      Materials science is a field in which investigators from many different disciplines work together to study the wide variety of materials used for clothing, housing, transportation, and communication. One of the greatest achievements of materials science was the development of the transistor. It eventually made possible tiny integrated circuits or electronic “chips” as they are often called and, as a result, revolutionized the whole field of communication. That revolution began with radio, then television, then word-and-image-processing-computers, and finally international communication by satellite and the Internet. These remarkable advancements in communication have resulted in a dramatic improvement in our education systems and that has increased our capacity to learn. These are but a few ways that science has contributed to providing the minimum requirements for ideal living.

      Science acquires knowledge by using a special approach commonly referred to as “the scientific method.” That method involves keeping careful records of what has been observed, choosing tentative explanations (called hypotheses) for what has been observed, and then carrying out experiments that eventually either support or eliminate the hypotheses. Modern research involves very sophisticated instruments and mathematical models and is much more complicated than this simple statement of the scientific method seems to imply, but the scientific method is still the backbone of all scientific research. It involves observation and experimentation to explain what has been observed.

      One of the important features of science is its ability to predict certain things in the future based on studies of repeatable events of the past. Young research scientists are often reminded how important it is to repeat their work many times in order to make sure that they get the same result each time. Indeed, any scientist who publishes a report fully expects any other scientist in the world who performs the same experiment under the same conditions to get the same results. Repeatability is a fundamental part of scientific research. One reason that it is so important is that the technology used to produce the tools we need in daily life is based on the assumption that phenomena in the universe will continue to behave in repeatable and predictable manners. When we turn the keys in the ignition systems of our automobiles or push the buttons on the remotes of our television sets, we want our autos and TV sets to behave as expected. We don’t want to be surprised with something new happening each time we push those switches. The consistency of behavior of physical phenomena in the universe encourages a faith so strong that few people are even aware of it. That’s why we become upset when the electronic devices in our lives don’t function properly.

      The role of Christianity is to provide direction or purpose and facilitate human relations. In these roles, Christianity’s impact on human life has been very great. In his book Atoms, Men and God,³ the physicist Paul Sabine wrote the following: “Christianity was born in an aging civilization whose destruction it survived to become the source of the spiritual life of a new and far greater civilization. It was the humanizing influence that tamed the rude spirits of the barbarous tribes of Western Europe and created the relatively civilized society of medieval feudalism. It was the inspiration of the great art, literature and architecture of the Middle Ages. The formulation of its intellectual content in the metaphysical terms of Plato and Aristotle occupied the great minds of the philosophers and theologians of the historic Church. Implicit in its teachings are the ethical and social ideals of the dignity and worth of the individual, of human freedom, equality and brotherhood that are the spiritual foundations of a democratic society, and the only possible basis for a world order of peace and good will.”

      That is a good summary of how the followers of Jesus began to transform the world.

      Christianity grew out of Judaism and is based on the Bible.  Even though many of the authors and dates of writing are unknown, the Bible contains uncommon wisdom concerning human relations. The Apostle Paul, interpreting the teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus in his first letter to the Corinthians in the Bible, described what he called the “Body of Christ” as being made up of people with very different capabilities working together in loving relationships in the pursuit of a common goal.⁴ With that one stroke of Holy inspiration, Paul was describing the formula for teamwork that is so important in our modern world. 

      Christianity has been slowly evolving during its two-thousand year history and has been continually growing and changing. It has been at its best when it has spread the message of God’s love and grace, and at its worst when it has been judgmental and controlling. The dark periods in its history such as those of the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition were periods when misguided leaders felt that they needed to be in control. They did things that today seem contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Much of the criticism of Christianity over the years has been of its efforts to be controlling. It has seldom been criticized for teaching love. Today, in spite of denominational differences, the Christian community is still the largest network of mutual trust on earth. Its mission programs, set up to aid the underprivileged, operate in almost every continent. The goal of Christianity is the formation of a loving community of all humankind.

The Christianity-Science Relationship

While Christianity and science superficially appear to be independent, they have, in fact, always depended upon each other to achieve their goals. In earlier years, primitive science provided the knowledge required for building temples and cathedrals and for developing musical instruments for worship. It provided tools for communication needed for preparing manuscripts and interpreting the documents of the Bible.  In later years, shortly before the Reformation, these included the printing press, and today, the telephones, radio, television, and Internet. In our modern world, Christianity continues to depend upon a large number of tools provided by science.

      Science also has been indebted to Christianity. The integrity of science has always depended on the honesty of scientists and their ability to work together and that is Christianity’s contribution. Every scientist is a member of a team, whether he or she is aware of it or not. Those involved in scientific research generally work in laboratories provided by industry, government, and universities and work on large instruments that are designed and built by other scientists and engineers. Scientists use assistants who help to operate the instruments and when a scientist wants to make changes, there were people in the machine shops and glass blowing labs that help. Scientists occasionally discuss their work with other scientists who have a special knowledge of certain phases of the research. They often visit technical libraries and read reports of research carried out by scientists from many different countries. Scientists attend conferences where they report the results of their research and listen to others describe their work. Clearly the success of any scientist depends on the integrity of a great many other people who are part of their research team even though most aren’t working in the same laboratory. Such team relationships are also an important part of technology. A large number of scientists, engineers, managers, accountants, and factory workers scattered around the world work together in the production of the television sets, autos, and other items that are so much a part of our daily lives.

      During the course of history, as people learned how to work together in teams, their accomplishments became greater and greater until they finally succeeded in leaving the earth to travel to the moon. It was the ability of people to work together that finally made the impossible possible. Clearly the efficiency of scientific research depends upon how well people work together and that has been Christianity’s role. 

      In recent years, social sciences such as psychology and sociology also have emerged. They were not very credible in the past because human relations are so complicated that it was very difficult to get good data until high speed computers became available. Now there is a growing body of research being carried out in the social sciences that is related to religion.

      Traditionally science approached its work from a reductionistic standpoint. That is, it attempted to carry out its investigations by isolating smaller and smaller parts of whatever was being studied. As a result, all scientists became specialists. However, it has gradually become apparent that the parts often have synergistic relations with each other. Thus, studying the parts in isolation doesn’t tell the whole story. It is necessary to study how the parts cooperate with each other. Until modern computers became available that was very difficult. Now new areas of investigation in biology, psychology, and sociology that relate to religion have opened up.

Limitations of Language and Visual Images

Teamwork is clearly facilitated by the ability for humans to communicate with each other. The better they are able to share their thoughts and ideas the better they can work together to accomplish a common purpose. There are a number of ways that humans communicate with each other and although not always recognized, development of these methods is part of the work of science as indicated earlier. Historically the principle method of communication was by the use of languages. In early history, visual images were difficult to produce by drawing or carving in stone and in the Hebrew culture they were prohibited. In our modern world, visual imaging is rapidly gaining on languages as a means of communication.

      Languages were developed in ancient cultures using very primitive forms of science and they involve the use of either sounds or marks on paper to symbolize the information being transferred. As a simple illustration, if an English-speaking person wanted to communicate to another person that they were thinking about a house, they would either make a sound, speaking the word “house” or make marks that look like HOUSE. The spoken and written words are symbols. Using symbols such as this, languages have the virtue of being able to rapidly transmit information from one person to another by including only the most significant details. However, they become cumbersome if it is necessary to supply a large number of details, because then many more words are required. For example, if the person providing the information about the house wanted to tell the other person what kind of house it was, how large it was, where it was located, and what color it was many more words would be required. Furthermore, since languages involve sounds and written words as symbols, the symbols must be learned and people have to make judgments about what the words mean. The very existence of dictionaries is an indication of the potentiality for misunderstanding when these symbols are transmitted from one person to another.

      Since languages become unwieldy when many details are required, humans supply a minimum of details when using them. For example in the Bible, only significant episodes in the life of Jesus are provided and we know nothing about what occurred in the rest of his life. However, if the Bible described everything that happened to Jesus from birth to death the book would be so big that no one would be able to lift it. Science has the same problem. When scientists describe experiments in their reports they include only the details that they consider significant at the time. Clearly then every time a written document is produced it reveals only a small fragment of reality.

      Visual images are much more efficient for transmitting details. It is often said that one picture is worth a thousand words. A picture of a house, for example, can quickly tell us how it is designed, how large it is, what color it is, and many other details. Pictures can supply enormous amounts of detailed information. However, if someone were to hand any of us a picture of people we didn’t recognize, we would quickly realize that pictures also have limitations when it comes to transmitting information. Better communication occurs when languages and visual images are combined as they are in movies and television, but even in such cases the information that we can acquire is still limited.

      As we have seen, the use of languages and visual images for communication have provided magnificent achievements but they supply only small fragments of knowledge so we have to face the fact that our view of reality has many missing pieces. We are usually not aware of it because our brains are so well developed that they always fill in something for the missing information. If specific information about the house we were just talking about is not supplied, the brain of the person receiving the information will provide an image of a house as they know it. Our sophisticated brains make it appear as though our view of the world is complete and satisfying and nothing is missing. When reading a novel, for example, our brains supply a considerable amount of information that isn’t in the text. We are happy reading our stories and don’t seem to mind the missing information because our wonderful brains make us think that everything is all there.

      We all have different views of the world because our different backgrounds cause our brains to weave together whatever they have available to fill in the missing information. The purpose of this discussion, however, is to remind all of us to be aware that it is the missing pieces of information that cause differences of opinion. Heated arguments are usually about information that’s not all there. Theologians and Bible scholars argue about what they think different Bible passages mean and scientists argue about the proper interpretation of the results of different scientific experiments. The difference between the views of creation of Christianity and science is largely due to the fact that neither has all the information. Christianity and science need to be humbly aware of the missing information in their fields, be charitable and work together to deal with these limitations. David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers have compiled extensive information about the historical relation between Christianity and science.⁵ During their long histories, science and Christianity at times seemed to be like two brothers who needed each other, but occasionally each felt a need to prove his superiority. In all human relations, arguments are prone to arise when part of the needed information is missing as it always is with written or spoken material and visual images.

      Since there is much information missing in both science and Christianity, it is often necessary to settle for usable concepts. As an example, with limited information about electric fields, scientists can only define the invisible electric fields operationally. That is to say, the fields are simply defined by the way they exert forces on electrically charged particles.  In a similar manner, Christians define the invisible Holy Spirit by the way it influences human lives. As we saw in the previous chapter, Christians become followers of Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit. These limited definitions that we have been talking about, however, have been found to be very useful. Our entire electronic industry is built on that simple operational definition of electric fields and the Christian Church throughout the world is built on its definition of the Holy Spirit. In both cases, we have done remarkably well with the limited information we have available even though we are not able to settle all the arguments.

The Search for Verification

Humans process a large amount of information in their daily lives and are constantly searching for verification of the truth. Science attempts to verify the truth by repeatability. If experiments can be repeated and the same results obtained by many different people, it is believed that this is convincing evidence for the truth. When “cold fusion” was reported by some scientists in 1989, researchers became very excited because it seemed like abundant, low cost, energy would soon be available.⁶ However, when similar experiments were carried out by a large number of other scientists the results obtained were not the same. Thus the “cold fusion” work was not considered verifiable and the once-promising research was mostly abandoned. The history of Christianity has been a constant struggle to prove that all of the teachings of those early writers of the Bible are the absolute truth. Verification is sometimes sought by looking for objects, such as Noah’s ark, that are mentioned in the Bible or for additional ancient documents that might contain references to events mentioned in the Bible. Over a long period of time small pieces of further evidence have been found, but that is still a long way from the verification desired.  In our modern world, it is gradually becoming evident that it is very difficult to prove that anything is the absolute truth because there is always missing information.

      Physicist Paul Sabine⁷ writes, “Jesus’ declaration of a God of love can only command acceptance in so far as it can be verified in the inner experience of men and women, and find objective expression in their lives. It must be verified by each individual and by every generation. The truth of Jesus’ vision of a loving Father and of a world order ruled by love is attested only by the living faith of those in each generation who have caught the spirit of that vision.” There are parts of the Bible that are difficult to understand due to the limitations of language, but there are also parts that are relived in our lives every day and are now being verified by research in the social sciences. It is these verifiable truths that sustain our faith in the parts that cannot be tested and verified. In a real sense, many of the teachings of Jesus are being verified in the same way that science finds verification. That is by repeatability. Today there are a very large number of followers of Jesus in the world who are verifying his teachings by the way they live their lives.

      Traditionally it was believed that miracles were proof of the existence of God because it showed that God was intentionally interfering with nature. However, since miracles are isolated events that are not routinely repeatable it means that we cannot rely on them to occur again. Therefore they are not useable as proof on demand. In spite of that uncertainty, these isolated, profound events that we call miracles may play another role. Every teacher knows that it is not only important to provide the material that the students must learn, but first you must get their attention so that they will remember the material. Teachers therefore have little tricks that they use to get the attention of the students. For example, a teacher may stand on a desk and then jump off when teaching about gravitational potential energy. Since teachers don’t normally jump off their desks, students get the message. It is these special events that we are not accustomed to that help us remember. Miracles, whether they involve interference with nature or not, may be God’s way of helping us remember important lessons about continuing creation.

      There is a story in the Old Testament about Moses leading the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt where they had been slaves. Eventually they came to the Red Sea and the Egyptians were close behind them.⁸ Moses felt that God was telling him to lead them into the sea where they would surely drown. He couldn’t turn around and go back and it didn’t seem sensible to go ahead into the water. Finally he decided to go ahead and do what he felt God was telling him and, as he led the people into the water, the water parted and they were able to walk through without drowning. There is no way that we can test that miracle even though scientists now know that winds can dramatically change the level of large bodies of water. Miracles such as the “Red Sea” miracle may be intended to get our attention to learn the important lessons of life.

      While we may never know if they prove that God is interfering with the laws of nature, they do help us learn the things we need to know in order to be effective co-creators. All of the people who were cured by Jesus’ miracles eventually died of other causes, but the great lessons of his life were remembered. The greatest miracle of all, the resurrection of Jesus that followed his death, reminds us of the most important lesson of all. That is that humankind cannot be unified without forgiveness.

In the next chapter we will study the special rules that the followers of Jesus try to obey as they live their lives.

Chapter Three

The Rules of Life

In order for continuing creation to proceed effectively there have to be rules so that human participation will occur with minimum conflict. Those rules limit human freedom. However, if we think about it for a moment we realize that freedom is always limited. A memorable example is the freedom of a railroad train. Trains glide so effortlessly along the tracks and have the freedom to travel to all parts of the country and yet sometimes we think that it is unfortunate that the trains can only go in the direction that the tracks go. Then we note that when trains get off the tracks, they quickly become stuck in the sand and can’t go anywhere. The lesson that we learn from those observations is that the trains were designed a certain way and as long as they travel the way they were designed they can travel effortlessly. If they get off the tracks they lose their freedom and aren’t able to go anywhere. Human freedom is a little like the freedom of the trains. We were designed to operate well within certain constraints, certain rules. Like the trains, when we operate within those rules we achieve our greatest freedom. When we try to live outside the rules, instead of gaining additional freedom, we limit our freedom even more. For example, we might have the freedom to jump from a roof, but if we do so and break our legs, then we will have much less freedom. In a similar manner, we might have the freedom to use illegal drugs, but then we become slaves to the drugs and the drug traffic and that severely limits our freedom.

      In our modern world, the number of possible activities in a day is vast and each of us is continually confronted with deciding which are right and which are wrong. Should we eat, sleep, work, exercise, watch television, go to a game, or any of many other activities? Some actions may even have long-range consequences. How do we decide? People of different cultures have different methods of deciding between right and wrong. Someone living in China might be guided by the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, or Mao Zedong. Those living in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Iran might be guided by the teachings of Muhammad. In general, we all watch other people around us and do what they are doing. Therefore, our behavior patterns are shaped by the specific cultures in which we live. Strangely enough, considering all the people in the world, there seems to be a kind of common sense that keeps most people out of trouble most of the time. All social groups seem to set up rules and for the most part obey them through peer pressure. All major religions provide guidelines for human behavior.

Christianity’s Rules

The followers of Jesus use a code of conduct for daily living that has its origin in the Bible. For the ancient Hebrews, this code took a specific form called the Ten Commandments. As described in the Old Testament, the Commandments were given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai during a period following the liberation of the Hebrew people from slavery to the Egyptians.¹ Unfortunately, the Commandments were not numbered in the original texts in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and involved some fourteen statements, but were always referred to as the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue (Ten Words.) As a result of this confusion, the first and last statements have sometimes been grouped in different ways to form the Ten Commandments. It also has been the custom in many Christian denominations to abbreviate the Commandments when teaching them to make them easier to remember. This list is an abbreviated form of those used by Judaism and many of the protestant churches. The Roman Catholic and Lutheran versions have slight changes in the first and last commandments.

(1) You shall have no other gods before me.

(2) You shall not make for yourself a graven image and worship it.

(3) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

(4) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

(5) Honor your father and your mother.

(6) You shall not kill.

(7) You shall not commit adultery.

(8) You shall not steal.

(9) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

(10) You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.

      These statements include some words and phrases that are not commonly used today. They include “Sabbath,” which means the seventh day, “commit adultery,” which means sexual relations with someone other than the person you are married to, “bear false witness,” which means to lie, and “covet,” which means to have strong desires to acquire something that belongs to someone else. The first few pertain to our relationship with God while the others apply to relationships with other people. In spite of this confusion, the Ten Commandments have always remained as the basis of the moral code for Jews and Christians.

      History has proven that the Ten Commandments were not produced indiscriminately but were selected by God to make the community of humans functional and thus they still have relevance even after such a long period of time. Their usefulness in fact shows that they make sense. For example:

·         Idolatry or the worship of false gods is a waste of time. It means to do things or travel paths that don’t efficiently contribute to creation.

·         If we don’t respect God, we will not respect the gifts of creation that we have been given and will not experience the joy of gratitude. Dissatisfaction will constantly haunt us.

·         If we use God’s name to tell lies, then eventually people will not trust us and it will be more and more difficult to get assistance when we need it. Liars waste people’s time because everything they say has to be checked.

·         If we don’t set aside one day a week for spiritual renewal, then we will never fully acquire the wisdom and energy that we need to live whole lives.

·         If we don’t honor our parents, we will not receive the nurturing that they can give.

·         If we kill people, we destroy those whom God has provided to assist us and others.

·         If we commit adultery, we degrade the process that was used to produce our own lives and to continue human life.

·         If we steal from people, we take away what they need to care for themselves and others.

·         If we bear false witness against others, we break down the trusting relationship we have with them and it leads to suspicion, hostility, anger, and conflict.

·         If we covet the things that belong to other people, it leads to an unrealistic evaluation of our own possessions and constant dissatisfaction.

      So, the Ten Commandments provide rules that would help anyone live a wholesome and productive life. In the United States there have been occasional efforts by Christian groups to have the Ten Commandments displayed in public places to remind people that there are rules that we all need to live by. Those efforts have been met with resistance from non-Christians. It is not so much that the Ten Commandments aren’t appropriate. They are. Besides the confusion about the numbering, the resistance is also due to the fact that Christians are often perceived to want to be in control of everything. Many of the Ten Commandments, in a variety of ways, have already been assimilated into the laws that govern us.

      Most of the Ten Commandments are negative statements in the sense that they tell what activities are prohibited. They say what we should not do. Negative commandments have limitations because they imply that any activities that are not listed are okay. Therefore while the Ten Commandments are a framework for distinguishing between right and wrong, they don’t cover all of human activity.      

      The prophet Micah, who lived approximately 700 years before Jesus was born and whose writings appear in the Old Testament book, Micah,² summarized God’s rules for effective living in a single positive statement that many people have memorized: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  It is a wise statement of right and wrong.

      During his ministry on earth, when Jesus was asked which was the most important commandment he replied with two positive commandments. They can be paraphrased as: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” ³ These two constitute a positive summary of the Ten Commandments. They were mentioned individually in Old Testament writings but did not seem to have the status of the Ten Commandments until Jesus focused attention on them.

      When Jesus said "Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind" I think he meant that we should pray often in gratitude and love, and pray for wisdom. Usually if we love someone we want to be in close communication with them and learn from them. That is why we need to pray often.  Respecting God also includes assisting with continuing creation. If we are sharing in creation, then we need to be involved in such aspects of the creative process as the development of better means of transportation and communication, better governments, more stable homes, more wholesome means of entertainment, as well as caring for the vegetation and wildlife that God has provided. Almost everything we do each day is God's work if it makes our lives and those of other people around us better.

      When Jesus said "love your neighbor as yourself,” he meant to honor and respect all those who we have contact with each day, and ourselves, as well. To love someone means to want to use your abilities and resources to help them become all that they can be. The people around us each day are part of creation and are God's gifts to us to help us maintain our lives. In a like manner, we are God's gift to them to help them with their lives. Jesus understood that all of life is a team activity shared by each person and God. If that sharing is successful, each person lives the best life that they can live and God's plan is carried out as efficiently as possible.

      If we are to obey Christianity’s rules of life it means being a good team member rather than going it alone. If you go it alone, you believe that you don't need God and you don’t pray. You also believe that you can get along without other people so you don't help other people either. The team doesn't function and it is every person for him or herself. However, a good team is much more efficient and gets more done than an equal number of participants each going their independent ways. As a team, they take advantage of each person's gifts and make up for each person's deficiencies. They learn from each other and encourage each other when faced with obstacles.  Remember, modern achievements in science have come about because scientists have learned to be good team members.

      All of us live under legal systems that involve huge numbers of additional laws but the two commandments advocated by Jesus and the Ten Commandments are excellent standards of morality against which these other rules or laws should be checked.

Science’s Assistance

God has provided rules that have been meant for guidance in human activities; however, we noted that the Ten Commandments were negative statements that implied that anything not listed was okay. Jesus’ two positive commandments, on the other hand, were excellent standards but were occasionally too broad to make decisions about specific activities in daily life. Sometimes the assistance of science is required. One example is the practice of smoking. Since smoking came later in the history of humankind, it is not mentioned in the Bible and therefore for many years it was believed that smoking was acceptable. There was a period when even some church leaders such as pastors and priests smoked. Eventually scientific research showed that inhaling smoke from cigarettes had a disastrous effect on the lungs and long-term effects on the cardiovascular system. Science provided indisputable evidence that smoking is wrong. It is a violation of the commandment to not kill since smoking slowly destroys the body. This is clearly a case where science was needed to help us understand God’s rules.

      There is another modern example of a case where science is needed to help us understand right and wrong. Homosexuality is a problem that has virtually divided the Christian community. Men and women were created to mate with each other to reproduce. The sexual attraction between men and women was made very strong in order to guarantee the future of humankind. There have been a small percentage of cases, however, where men have been attracted to men and women have been attracted to women and that has been somewhat puzzling. Why does it occur? Is it a mistake of the creative process or do people participate in it by choice? Scientific research in that area has been somewhat limited because it is a sensitive social issue. As a result, scientists have not been able to provide clear evidence that homosexuality is due to genetic differences or to psychological effects in early life. The cause of homosexuality is still unknown and, for the time being, those who participate in it have become alienated from society.  It has left devout Christians on both sides of the issue. There are those who believe homosexuality is a matter of choice and is therefore wrong, and there are those who believe that homosexuality is caused by some, yet-to-be determined, biological or psychological factor that makes the person a victim. If the person is a victim, then they deserve compassion. Scientific research will eventually play a major role in settling this issue but it may take some time. For now, the differences between the two groups of Christians will be difficult to heal. Each firmly believes that its position is the right one.

      There are other ways that science has been of assistance. Governments have been set up by God to provide good order and restrain evil. As a result, there are a large number of laws that have been established to govern daily activities. In virtually all of these cases there is a relation between these laws and the Ten Commandments or Jesus’ two commandments because they are intended to promote better living conditions. The sophisticated system of communication that has been supplied by science is used not only for gathering facts to establish laws but also for making the laws known to people who must obey them. Science has not only aided the process of setting up laws but has been of assistance in enforcing them. Police use modern weapons provided by science and wear protective garments to keep from getting killed. Forensic science is used to determine who the criminals are and to bring them to justice. Today, forensic science is well developed. Samples of human DNA left behind by those committing crimes can be used to positively identity them. Trace amounts of evidence tell big stories in modern scientific instruments. Huge data banks can be searched in a fraction of a second to match fingerprints. Such information can be transmitted throughout the world in seconds. These are some of the ways that scientific research has been beneficial for establishing and enforcing the laws needed to provide good order and restrain evil in a complicated world.

      Not all things that God is displeased with are due to human wrong doing. When tornados, earthquakes, or hurricanes pass through cities killing people and destroying homes or when volcanoes erupt destroying hundreds of acres of forests and killing people, these events cannot be blamed on humans. They are caused by problems with the way the earth is created. It has been suggested that these events may be increasing because of global warming and global warming may be caused by human activities. However, natural disasters occurred long before humans had much affect on their environment so they can’t all be blamed on human wrong doing. Science will continue to play an increasingly important role for controlling the damage done to the earth and the people who inhabit it. Science will also play a major role in helping rehabilitate people who have suffered from damage caused by natural disasters.

      Not all scientific research is as beneficial as it first appears. As an example, new drugs are put on the market and it is often much later that people begin to experience unintended detrimental effects from them. A tension between optimism and restraint is required and it is important to listen to a multiplicity of viewpoints. That is why it is so essential for scientists and those knowledgeable of Christian ethics to be constantly in dialogue and listen to each other.

      There have been a number of cases in recent history where science has proceeded into territory that has made us uncomfortable. The development of nuclear energy and the atomic bomb is one such example. Scientific research involving nuclear energy has been around for more than sixty years and we have learned some good and bad things about it. If it is well controlled, it can be a good and important source of electricity. However, as the Three Mile Island event in the United States in 1979⁴ and the event at Chernobyl in the Ukraine⁵ in 1986 showed, if things get out of control, the hazardous wastes can become a nightmare to deal with.

      Other, more recent, cases are those that involve the cloning of animals or the stem cell research that is carried out to produce replacement body parts. Research in both of these fields is already being carried out in many parts of the world, but clearly caution is important. We are enticed by the desire to use the research to save and improve lives, but sometimes it is difficult to tell what the long-range consequences will be. It is often many years later before we know for sure whether a decision was right or wrong. God’s wisdom is required. Haunted by horror stories about how bad things can get when scientific research is unrestrained, in the United States and many other countries today, research on human beings and animals is usually monitored by human and animal welfare committees made up of scientists and other concerned individuals who are not directly involved in the research.

Failure to Obey the Rules

Throughout the Bible there are constant references to the fact that God expects human beings to carry out the commandments. The references are so common in fact, that a special word, "sin" was introduced to designate violations of God’s commandments. Any violation was called a sin and it has been commonly believed, probably as a result of the writings of Augustine in the early centuries of Christianity, that all people commit such sins having inherited this tendency from the original parents, Adam and Eve. There are many reasons why people don’t carry out God’s wishes perfectly. Sometimes it is simply rebelliousness, but there are also times when they disobey for other reasons.

      Distractions are often a cause for not doing what God wants us to do. We know what we should be doing, but we delay doing it because we find other things more interesting at the moment. Often we simply never get around to doing what we should be doing. Watching television is a common form of distraction, to the point of being addictive. We don’t do our exercises, eat our meals properly, or visit people who need us simply because we are caught up in watching television. If carried out in excess, any form of entertainment can distract us from doing what we need to do.

      Overconfidence and self righteousness also are deterrents to getting God’s work done. If we become too proud of our station in life or the work we are doing, it clouds our thinking, and we are not able to understand our efforts as part of God’s team. We are too proud to carry out servant activities. Pride affects our ability to do God’s work in other ways. We are afraid of what people might think of us. We do things to improve our image and wear masks to cover our deficiencies. If we are challenged by someone, we become defensive even when we are wrong. We are afraid to admit that we are wrong. It takes a great deal of courage to face up to our failures.

      Sometimes we don’t understand the importance of certain actions. We choose simple actions when we should be reaching out in faith and courage to carry out more significant actions.  If we are always doing things that can be done easily, we may not be making the best use of our capabilities. Discernment is the ability to evaluate courses of action and choose the proper ones. If we are afraid to take risks then we don’t understand God’s grace. In order to grow in faith we need to challenge ourselves to do things that are difficult being aware that God loves us even when we fail. There are times when we don’t understand the long-term consequences of what we do and do things that seem right at the time but later prove to be wrong. Here again God’s grace helps us deal with such situations.

      There is also the matter of competence. There may be times when we are asked to do something but don’t feel competent and don’t want to make the effort to learn what is required. Learning new skills requires patience and persistence. An example is a program called Habitat for Humanity that uses volunteers to build houses for people with limited incomes.⁶ Volunteers who don’t have building skills can learn by working with others who do.

      Uncertainty about a proper course of action occasionally causes us to do nothing. Sometimes we are faced with two possible actions, both of which seem equally right. In that case it is necessary to seek God’s wisdom and make the best choice we can. Occasionally we may be faced with situations where both alternatives seem wrong. An example might be a case where we must decide whether to lie to someone who threatens the life of a loved one. The decision is between lying and putting a loved one’s life in jeopardy. There are many such cases when decisions between right and wrong are very difficult to make and numerous good books have been written about such choices. They are commonly called books of ethics or morality. Often the authors discuss specific cases, attempting to give us examples that will be helpful in our own decision making. Such books can be very helpful. One example, a small book by Lewis Smedes called Choices, illustrates how complex the decision-making process can be.⁷

      Sometimes we are forced to make decisions in a hurry and don’t have time to explore all the possible consequences. When this happens and a good result occurs, we are grateful that everything turned out well. Occasionally some very bad things can occur and then we need to have the courage to deal with our mistakes and try to repair the damage.

      Sometimes our actions are controlled by fear and we strike out at other people because we think they are preparing to strike us. If they were not preparing to strike us, then we have wrongly inflicted damage on them and have needlessly created a new conflict.

      Much of what we do in a day is habitual. There are things that we do in almost exactly the same way over and over because it saves having to think about it. Our habits are important to us and can be very useful if they maintain our health. Taking showers, brushing our teeth, and eating breakfast, are examples of good habits. Not all habits are good habits, however. Examples of bad habits are cursing, telling lies, gambling, smoking, and drinking too much alcohol. The problem with habits is that they can’t be changed quickly. Breaking a habit means changing a behavior pattern and that sometimes takes months of practice with a new habit. If we have been doing things that are wrong for a long time we can’t stop simply by saying that we are sorry and won’t do it again. We have to intentionally set up a system that will retrain us and that often requires the assistance of other people. Alcoholics have to join Alcoholics Anonymous or some other training and support group to help them stop their drinking.⁸ Those who have problems with uncontrolled anger have to attend anger management classes.

      Most human beings seem to have blinds spots in their moral codes. There are some rules that they follow meticulously but others that they unwittingly seem to ignore. This may be a result of their culture. An example might be someone who attends church regularly but gives false statements on their income tax forms. Usually the help of other people is needed to find blind spots because most of us aren’t aware that we have them.

      There is an additional reason why human beings do not always do God’s will and that is because their human bodies are not functioning properly. When we have excruciating back pains or swollen nasal passages, we don’t feel much like helping others who might need us. People who have mental illnesses also do abnormal things and, at times, very bad things to other human beings. In those cases the wrong doing is a result of their illness and efforts must be made to help them be restored to better health. God uses the abilities of medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and scientists to try to help people overcome these problems. We are gradually developing ways of alleviating the effects of such crippling illnesses.

      Is there such a thing as evil? No question about it if by evil we mean the cruel and inhuman things people do to each other. Evil is the worst kind of disrespect that people have for other individuals. Humans are treated as if they are objects, animals, or waste, and are sometimes beaten, tortured, and killed. The history of humankind is filled with stories of cultures where cruelty was prevalent. Indeed, crucifixion, in the form that Jesus suffered was extremely cruel and inhuman. Slavery has a long history and slaves were almost always treated as something less than human and often beaten. That was even true for black people who were slaves in the early history of the United States.

      One of the most thoroughly documented examples of mass cruelty and genocide was that carried out by the Nazis in Europe in the 1930s and ‘40s. Since it was such a clear demonstration of evil, the stories must be remembered as a warning of the kind of evil of which people are capable. The reign of terror of the Nazis, while led by a person who may have been mentally ill, remains an example of how other people who didn’t intend to do evil deeds can get caught up in carrying them out. The evil carried out by the Nazis is one of the most extensive in our period of history, but there have been many other examples since then. In recent years, ethnic wars in Yugoslavia, the Middle-East, and some of the African countries have involved mass beatings, rape, and genocide. Evil still persists and is difficult to stop. We must continue to educate people about the potentialities for evil that lie within all of us and help children grow up to love and respect each other.

      Sometimes, when we observe the world around us, it appears as though God is not dealing out punishment to those who break the rules. We expect God to be like a micro-controlling father who slaps his children around when they don’t obey, but it often appears as though God is aware of what we are doing and yet does not punish us when we do things wrong. Civil governments apply restraints to the behavior of people. There are laws that prevent people from telling lies, stealing, or killing each other, and punishment for such offenses usually consists of removal from society by imprisonment. However, there usually are no civil laws that provide punishment for those who don’t set aside one day a week for spiritual renewal, who don’t honor their parents, or who covet their neighbor’s property. It might appear that we can do anything we want as long as we can avoid being caught by government law enforcement agents. It may seem like the only punishment is death and final damnation.

      That, however, is only a superficial view. When we probe deeper, it becomes apparent that punishment is, in fact, constantly taking place. It is a punishment that deprives us of the ability to live the best life that we can live and it is a self-inflicted punishment rather than a punishment inflicted by God. To understand that better, consider again the case of smoking. Medical scientists have shown that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer, emphysema, and a host of other detrimental effects. If a person continues to smoke and develops lung cancer or emphysema, they cannot say that medical scientists are punishing them. In a similar manner, if we disobey either the Ten Commandments or Jesus’ two commandments and lead lives filled with perpetual anger and anxiety we cannot say that God is punishing us. We are punishing ourselves and God wonders why we keep doing it.

The Recovery of Wholeness

When we talked about the attributes of the ideal life we said that when bad things happen we would like to recover happiness quickly. Not always, but often, we create conditions for bad things to happen by disobeying the rules. We have seen that there are many different ways that we break the rules of life. We might be disrespectful to our parents, or lie or gossip about our friends. We show disrespect for our own bodies by smoking, using illegal drugs, eating too much, or ignoring the need to exercise, or we squander our own resources and then seek to deprive others of theirs to satisfy our needs. There are many ways to break the rules. No matter how hard we try, we simply cannot love God, other people, and ourselves perfectly everyday. Then we become self conscious knowing that we didn’t do what we should have done and that produces feelings of guilt. These hang over us like dark clouds and when it happens we try to avoid the feelings of guilt by becoming angry and blaming others.

      The focal point of Christianity is the understanding that through his death by crucifixion, Jesus paid the price for the wrong doing of all human beings. Consequently, the cross seen throughout the Christian world has come to symbolize forgiveness. The healing that takes place in the physical bodies of all living things has been extended to human relations. Sometimes we need the forgiveness of others and sometimes we need to forgive ourselves. As we become accustomed to asking God for forgiveness we learn how to ask forgiveness from others and, in addition, learn to forgive ourselves. Forgiveness, which plays such a central role in Christianity, is the mechanism that makes it possible to restore functionality to our lives quickly.

      Team sports teach us some important lessons about forgiveness. Each player makes mistakes and must learn from them. However, players must be able to forgive themselves for yesterday’s mistakes in order to be able to play their best game today. Anyone who keeps beating on themselves for things done wrong in the past will not be ready to do their best in the future. Team members also need to treat their teammates the same way. If a team mate is doing something wrong, loving persuasion will be required to get them to do it right. However, once corrections have been made, past failures must be forgotten. Teams don’t operate well if teammates keep picking on each other for past failures.  It is examples such as these that remind us how important forgiveness is in human life and why the cross of Jesus Christ should always be there to remind us. Forgiveness releases us from burdens of the past and frees us to be as good as we can be in the future.

      As important as forgiveness is, it is also important for us to remember that if changes are not made in our living patterns then forgiveness doesn’t help much. Again, science has pointed out a good teaching example in the case of smoking. Smoking harms our bodies. If we ask for forgiveness and stop smoking, science has shown that much of the damage done to our bodies gradually heals. However, if we continue to smoke, the forgiveness becomes hollow and the damage gets worse. Wholeness will not be achieved. So for forgiveness to be effective we must make a change of direction in our lives and stop doing the things that are harming us and other people.

      Our creator has provided rules for the way we are to live. The quality of our lives depends upon how well everyone follows the rules. When we are willing to self-limit our freedom this way, we maximize the freedom and productivity of ourselves and others. We also achieve better health and good relations with other people. When we have done wrong, seeking forgiveness is the means for recovering wholeness but it also requires a change in direction. The game of life is like any other game in that in order for the game to be most successful, all of the members must obey the rules. Otherwise things get chaotic. At the end of his ministry on earth Jesus said to his disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”⁹ Not only is it important for each one of us to love God with all our hearts and minds and our neighbors as ourselves but we must also teach others to do so as well. The game of life will not be as good as it can be if we don’t teach everyone the rules.

      In the next chapter we will try to understand how communication with God takes place and why it is so important for guiding the lives of the team members.