From Michael Elson:

Re: God and science not an easy mix for many (Dec. 15, 2008): This is an excellent question. Belief in ‘God’ as perceived by Christians according to the Bible is quite unbelievable to me. I have written many papers on the subject, and will use some of their content to try to make my point here. How any thinking person can imagine in his wildest dreams that a man-like creature created the entire universe and everything in it, and from nothing..... amazes me. One doesn’t have to have a university education to have a brain, and to know how to use it. Nor does one need to try to envisage the universe either. Just a look at our own galaxy right above our heads should be enough for anyone.

And miracles?... Water to wine and feeding 5000 with a few loaves and a fish - that’s nothing compared to looking at the tiniest little insects that sometimes walk on my computer screen. They are less than 1mm in length, and they have a brain (ganglion), six jointed legs, feet, two compound eyes, fern-type antennae, mouth parts, a thorax with comparatively huge muscles to power their wings and legs, an abdomen with a single valve ‘heart’, blood vessels, a gut, reproductive organs, trachea and spiracles. And... . they can fly. And maybe I’ve left some parts out, but that to me is miraculous. But waste-of-time scientists don’t see the spark of life in those terms. They want to ‘prove’ that whatever they’re looking at has origins in whatever, twenty million years ago, etc. They are interested in the dead specimens. I’m interested in life - especially living insects.

However, I digress: The Amerindian nations of the Sioux and others, have a wonderful attitude (belief) towards creation - all creation, which includes the universe. That is, “Wakan Tanka”. This directly translates as “Great Mystery”, and to me anybody who thinks he has a better belief than that, has a lot of self-examining to do. For instance, how do they “know” who God is? Or if there is a ‘God’? And “know” who or what made mankind and all the wonderful creatures on earth, let alone the entire universe? All sense of true wonder is lost in attempting to please their invisible, mute omnipotent ‘God’. They are the first who will trample insects underfoot, casually swat the fly in the home and mercilessly hunt and destroy one of the most beautifully made beetles on the planet - the cockroach. What a marvel of design.

The flat answer to those questions is that they simply do not know. There is no person on the planet who “knows”. It is perfectly impossible to “know”. Most Christian people believe, not because they can understand how ‘God’ made everything from absolutely nothing, but in my opinion, they believe because they are afraid that “IF” there is a ‘God’, and they don’t acknowledge him as such, (as described in the Bible) they will spend eternity in hell.

Well, that is not a true belief. It’s like believing that Mad Bob of Zimbabwe is a kind hearted soul, in spite of his pogroms and other genocidal escapades, but is voted into power at every election. The down side is that if you vote for the opposition (what opposition?) you’ll be murdered. And so you will too. That equates with an eternity in hell..... So it’s better to believe ‘just in case’, and give him your vote.

Although I believe along the lines of Wakan Tanka, I don’t throw myself at imaginary feet and grovel out some self-pitying ‘prayer’. I stand up as a man, and marvel at all I see, sometimes wondering how it all came to be. That marvelling is in my head, and as thought is energy, my thoughts, my marvelling - are tarvelling to who knows where. I am in awe -especially of the tiny animals, the insects, and as far as vegetation is concerned, consider the tree, a true masterpiece of construction and purpose. Never mind the rhinocerous, elephant and whale. I could make them in my workshop, but they’d need the spark of life. But try and make my less than 1mm tiny creature? So in fact then, there is no answer to the question of God vs Science. First, there is no ‘God’ and secondly, our scientists haven’t a snowball’s hope in hell of ever finding out anything beyond a few years. Most of their papers ar brim-full of theories, and what is a theory? It is an idea. That’s all. You and I have had millions of them in our lives. It’s a good thing to have ideas. At least your brain is working, but when they are published world-wide, and end up being taught as fact in schools and universites - such as Darwin for one - then there’s no hope for mankind.

Wakan Tanka is the bottom line.