A Subsidiary Faith

Nowadays people told us that religion is dead, long live science. Is religion itself not a science? How we fathom the relevancy of The Word with today's science? This is a sparsely written mind of mine.

About Earth and Escathology

We often listen to lectures about how these lives on Earth come to an end. Some people call it Armageddon. There is a branch in theology called Eschatology specifically study about it. In a meanwhile, we could say true to those studies.

But, what if project terraforming Mars is being successful and people would not bound to this dying Earth anymore? Could these ancient religions be relatable unto these people? Can Christianity escapes the judgement of faith?

About Humanity and Technology

Some years ago, people are really going crazy about Dolly the sheep. It was the very first cloned complex living creature. Although it was short-lived, it brought so many questions for the fundamentalists.

If this technology was brought upon human, who would be the parents? What is this creature? Is this humanoid or a complete human? What about its soul?

*Spoiler Alert*

A movie starred by Robin Williams, Bicentennial Man, tried to gives a glimpse of romantic answer. In that movie, a robot was falling in love with a human. He was patiently waiting for that human descendant. Until a point in the distant future where he was considered as human and can be put into eternal sleep as human.

He argued to the human assembly that at the time many parts of machine are already incorporated into human. Some member of the assembly was already mostly consists of machinery. So, in that time the line between humanity and machinery were quite blurred.

*End of Spoiler Alert*

The answer lies at time and technology. As the technology advances, the human paradigm evolves. Given enough time, an apologetic would appear to give peace between religion and science.

May be we can't understand what would be happening. May be we couldn't comprehend what would happen in the near future. But, if God really exists, then He would inspires people whom fear Him. In such way that they could make an explanation better.

About Philosophy and Religion

Not so long ago many people predict the death of religion. Did our religion died? In some part yes, but the society also declining on those regions. On many other part of the world, the religion prospering the nations.

Not so long ago, Christianity was used to gives authority to a government. Now, we can see that many people want a separation between the state and the religion. People called it secularism. I am one of proponent of the idea.

Does the idea would bring destruction into the religion?

No, it would makes the religion pure. As we all know, politics use dirty tricks. With the separation, the Church can make its own decision and can be held as a point of moral authority. It is no longer a part of grand scheme for some political interests.

Well, that's really impossible. Religion, either believing to a God, many gods, nor none, will always be used. But, the separation indeed a move that greatly making religion pure in many aspects.

Not long ago, this idea is a damnation toward God. Then, Martin Luther and others shake the faith foundation. Did the Catholics waver? No, it reconciles and even gives birth into Jesuit movement. A movement that opens education to many people.

Not only that, Karl Marx and others give challenge to the faith.  The liberty of thinking and the rose of philosophy did play well to shake people's faith. And again, we can see many people, even a converted like C. S. Lewis, give the fight back through deep thoughts.

About Faith and Science

And in the 20th century, science gives a hard knock again on religion. Many beliefs were shaken, some even dismissed. Many leave their faith and believing into new religion of atheism.

There are no great apologetic were known until now. Does that mean Christianity would fall apart? Does that means we must protect ourselves against science?

I've met a Christian programmer who told me about friend of his. His friend was a devout Christian and a Nuclear Physicist. He told me that his friend have already brought at least 8 people into Christian faith. Even he never brought that many himself.

In my case, I do witness many God's work. One particular even win back one of my big family member. Many of my disbeliefs also being answered. One by one, God enlightened me.

The Trinity stuff, I got the understanding from a number in infinite theory. I represent God into a number (x) where this (x) is a number that no other number greater than itself. The first chapter of John really could be described into math model borrowing the theory.

Brought up in Indonesia also makes me understand about different calendar systems. The diversity of Indonesia made me know that Gregorian calendar is not the only one. Even our Independence Script was written in Japanese calendar. Our kin from Islam also uses a lunar calendar.

What does it means?

Many of current apologetics forget about the invention of Gregorian Calendar was not so long ago. When God creates the universe in sixth days, we should be asking: what calendar did Moses use at that time?

With the separation of light and dark in the first day, we should be asking: "How would Moses knew that was a day when light and dark was only being created at the first day?"

In my deep understanding, I could say that the time of genesis should be loosely claimed as years, even thousand years. How does God creates them?

I believe in an approach such as this: Moses had seven days of vision. At the very first day, God invited him to watch the Big Bang (the phenomenon, not the movie). At the second day, he watched how God terraforming Earth.  And the list goes on.

About Wisdom, Science and Faith

Does my understanding false? Probably yes, probably not. Probably may be irrelevant by the time String theory got its teeth or some discovery by another mankind. But, it makes sense to me now as a person brought in 20th century academia. It explain a lot how my God works in this time of science. I understand that probably not all people get it.

It makes me wonder, how can God explain things to men? If He made Moses wrote the Genesis with String theory, would the Israelites get it? If Jesus told the audiences in Matthew chapter 5 like Amartya Sen told in his thesis about the poor, would they get it?

I think the beauty of Christianity in modern age is to find its relevancy. The wisdom is there. As the humanity progress, the knowledge to understand the wisdom is now being upgraded. To understand the wisdom, one must translate it into one's understanding of things.

The faith of a housewife may differ a lot with a theologian and a scientist. They would describe it differently. Yet, they come into one conclusion: there is a God. A theologian may has to take a long road to that conclusion. A scientist may need a lot of time think about it.

That's why faith is a journey of the lifetime to find enlightenment. One may stop and take for granted, one may give up on the idea. But for me, I love finding truth in my faith through science.