Sunday, October 16, 2011

Free Again

Well, I had a job for a while, but it was paid by a grant that lasted about 5 months, so I'm on the street again. Fortunately, not literally, but without a job anyway. I have written two books which I self-published, and I got an idea for another one, so I am working on that now. I guess writers never give up hope, and maybe someday I can publish this if all goes well. The other two I self-published because of a variety of factors. My husband also wrote a historical novel which he self-published. But neither of us are marketers, and though we sold some, we have gone that route often enough for now.

One of my self-published books, Unto Others, is free from this website. You will find it on the right column in PDF file format. It is a mystery set in West Michigan. It's also available in a few libraries in my area, which makes me happy that people are at least reading it.

2019 Update: I had deleted my books from my blog accidentally, but am happy to say they are here again. I hope you will try them and they are thought-provoking and entertaining in a Christian, spiritual way.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Faith First

This past week a certain cartoon mentioned evolution and how it is supposedly the basis of all understanding of biology. The cartoonist is wrong. One of the foundations of biology is the biological cell and we find more of how its amazing structure works every day. It is truly irreducibly complex, as the people who promote Intelligent Design Theory say. Another, more important, foundation for biology is that God created it.

The cartoon is part of the cultural world at work. A prevailing cultural idea is that science rules. Or in a variation of the preceding, science gurus say if you must have faith at all, it should be separate from scientific inquiry. I'm becoming more and more confirmed in my belief that faith comes before science.

Persons who espouse Intelligent Design Theory (ID) say that religion has nothing to do with their work. They look only at the science, and design can be determined in a scientific way. This may be true, but there is a philosophical problem at the core. If certain (many) scientists refuse to allow the possibility that some things such as the biological cell may have been created supernaturally, the scientists will never give up looking for a totally material cause. Then the ID people have no chance of sharing their ideas in the scientific community. This, in fact, is what is happening and ID people seem to be unaware that their position of leaving religion out leads to just as much frustration as it would be to state their faith.

Another problem is that "intelligence" is itself not understood. Scientists want to reduce consciousness to the material brain, but it doesn't work. There is a thing known as "qualia," the state of consciousness that scientists can't deny if they are honest with themselves. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines qualia HERE. But how can ID proponents base their scientific theory on something that is itself not understood in scientific terms?

The ID people say that "anyone" or "anything" could have designed life. They do this to emphasize that science alone can prove that random movements of chemicals will not form into the complex systems that form the biological cell. They also are accused of saying this to try to sneak Creation into the classroom. This is another subject and I've already talked about it, so I won't belabor it much more in my blog. But if we believe God created, then we have the right to believe inside the classroom as well as outside it. I grieve for the wrongs done to the ideals of freedom of religion in this country and for the citizens who suffer because of it.

If you have the faith that God did it, that "anyone" who designed is not just "anyone." It's better to just come out and state your faith. Not all ID people are Christian, and some even think the cell may have been made by aliens. But for Christians, we believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and Earth, of all things seen and unseen. At least those who call themselves Creationists are willing to state their creeds.

That's why faith is first. Many if not most people who don't believe in God will not even give the benefit of the possibility that life was formed by anything but totally material, random means. I give credit to ID people in that their biological analysis of the cell is very good, and some people actually eventually see the logic and realize that neo-Darwinistic (totally materialistic and random) evolution is a very poor substitute. But for the rest that refuse to see, there is a gap that won't be bridged by science alone. They will always be looking for the material explanation, and they will always be either disappointed or kidding themselves. For Christians, why not say where they believe life comes from? Then the others may finally come to the real Truth.