As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2
Welcome to this month’s edition of the inLight Adventure Newsletter. This month, we compare the science of mankind with the science of God; that we might understand how we got so far from Him in the very thing He created to help us find, understand, and appreciate Him.
The vast majority of humans, Christians included, hold to the unquestioned notion that technology and science are generally amoral; in other words, they are morally neutral, and only how one determines to use them projects a morality on them, making them good or evil. On the surface, one would find it difficult to argue with such a widely accepted premise.
However, looking deeper we find at least two instances where the amorality of technology and science can be successfully challenged. One instance is explored at length in A Shepherd’s Guide to the Dangers of Digital Technology, a book due out soon, which presents the agentic, and therefore moral, nature of technology itself. Those who would rather not wait on the book can get a sense of what we mean in this article.
Here we’ll take up a second, related instance of the morality resident in technology and science.
The Whole is Much Greater…
Human science is but the backward undoing of the tapestry-web of God’s science, works with its back to Him, and is always leaving Him – His intent, that is, His perfected work – behind it, always going farther and farther away from the point where His work culminates in revelation. — George MacDonald
George MacDonald (1885) was a Scottish author, poet, and Congregational minister whose work helped shape modern fantasy literature and deeply influenced later Christian thinkers and writers (e.g., C. S. Lewis considered MacDonald his “master.”) As a graduate of King’s College, University of Aberdeen, in chemistry and physics, MacDonald understood the potential value of human science and recognized its turn from God’s original intent.
The turn we speak of, the Scientific Revolution, determined that the material world (no longer God’s creation) was best understood (not appreciated) and exploited (not stewarded) by breaking it down into its smallest components. This of course proved quite successful, gratifying, and profitable. The Western World is blessed and cursed by this divorce of Creator and creation. The blessings are abundant and well defended. What we should give immediate and sober attention to is the mess we have made of things, for ourselves and those entrusted to our care.
For anyone who wonders, we are not referring to global warming, pollution, or any other ecological crisis. They have enough of their own advocates and proofs. No, our concern rests in the corruption of thought and loss of meaning brought on by the Scientific Revolution’s reductionist view of life. Here’s another quote of MacDonald (1885) to help make the point more poignantly clear.
Is oxygen-and-hydrogen the divine idea of water? Did God put the two together only that man might separate and find them out? He allows His child to pull his toys apart: but were they made to be pulled to pieces? Let him who would know the truth of the Maker, become sorely athirst, and drink of the brook by the way – then lift up his heart – not at that moment to the Maker of oxygen and hydrogen, but to the Inventor and Mediator of thirst and water, that man might foresee a little of what his soul might find in God.
This water, which dances and sings throughout creation, provided by God to slake our physical thirst, serves as symbol and picture of that spiritual draught for which the woman of Samaria made her prayer to Jesus (John 4:13-14).
God uses the simplest of things to confound the wise. Satan, with the help of the most intelligent of our kind, has used our curiosity against us to confound our awe of God. The meaning of God’s creation, including humans themselves, is lost in the reductionist view and process – particularly when we place ourselves at the pinnacle of reality. Without the Creator there exists no frame of reference by which we can accurately consider the created.
Regrettably, the church has also been cursed by reductionism. Take for example the matters of faith and work. Considering them separately confuses the meaning of both; they simply cannot be understood in God’s Reality without smushing them together, no matter how uncomfortable that makes us feel. Scripture is clear: Faith without works is dead, and works without faith are sins. And guess what: The glue that holds them together is grace. Shake off your discomfort and give Ephesians 2:8-10 an open-minded reconsideration and you will see what we mean. The meaning of God’s Word cannot be fully appreciated, lived, and enjoyed from the reductionist’s frame and process.
So, what are we trying to say here? What are we suggesting?
For a start, Christians deceived by reductionism should repent. Not the “I’m sorry” repentance; nor the “turn away from sin” repentance (though that might be a necessary next step). Repent in the Greek, metanoeō, means “to change one’s mind for better.”
As A. W. Tozer (1961) observed, “No religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.” If we are to find some meaning of God in His creation – His true intent for science – we must restore our way of thinking about it. At the core, we must stop thinking about this world as something to exploit. After all, we were given the awesome responsibility of stewards as our first commission (Genesis 1:28, 2:15). God’s creation is, first and foremost, something to be appreciated and treasured.
Furthermore, our worldview and perspective of God’s creation extend far beyond our way of thinking about its material aspects. The reductionist view of the human has us looking like a bunch of material parts – like a machine – connected only to maximize function and efficiency. Is it any wonder our families, fellowships, and communities are becoming ever more atomized (broken into isolated units) to the point of miserable isolation?
Christianity professes a much different philosophy of man:
The soul is that dimension of the person that interrelates all of the other dimensions so that they form one life. — Dallas Willard
Willard’s (2002) point is that the soul isn’t a “secondary factor” or leftover category, as the reductionist frame treats it, but the very thing that holds a person together as one integrated life. To mitigate and reverse the damage of humanistic science and technology, we must regain the meaning of “human” – particularly in our relationships with one another.
Then there is the matter of beauty. Consider MacDonald’s (1893) thoughts on the truth of the flower.
The truth of the flower is, not the facts about it, be they correct as ideal science itself, but the shining, glowing, gladdening, patient thing throned on its stalk – the compeller of smile and tear. The truth of a thing, then, is the blossom of it, the thing for which it is made.
Nothing is truly beautiful in the way modern science has encouraged us to find meaning; not in the flower, not in water, and certainly not in our fellow human beings. God would have us get back to beauty over function – to wonder at the beauty in things, long before wondering how we might use them to our comfort and convenience.
There is so much more that could be explored here. We hope and pray that you have been encouraged and edified to pursue this further with God. A sober and humble consideration of Romans 12:2, in alignment with the prayer of Psalm 139:23-24, will be spiritually profitable. Also, and I really mean this, let me know if you would like to discuss this topic further.
Going Deeper
- What would it mean if the way you’ve been taught to “understand” the world was actually training you not to see it?
- In what ways have you treated something in God’s creation — a person, a skill, even your own body — as something to be used rather than appreciated?
- Where do you see the “faith without works, works without faith” divide showing up in your own life right now?
- What does it cost you to slow down long enough to notice beauty instead of function?
- How might your relationships change if you saw the people in your life the way MacDonald saw the flower — not as facts to explain, but as something to behold?
Come to the Waters!
Speaking of wonder, beauty, and water, we will close with a cool little poem from Horatius Bonar (1846):
I hear the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live!”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched,
my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
Come, O come ye to the Waters!
God bless you with renewed vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch for His creation – for His glory and your good.
Have a strong day in the Lord,
Rob
#iamjustthepen
Bonar, H. “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (originally “The Voice from Galilee”). In Hymns Original and Selected. 1846.
MacDonald, G. “The Voice of Job.” In Unspoken Sermons, Second Series. London: Longmans, Green, 1885.
MacDonald, G. “The Imagination: Its Function and Its Culture.” In A Dish of Orts: Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare. London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1893. (Originally published in The British Quarterly Review, 1867.)
Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy. New York: Harper & Row, 1961.
Willard, D. Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002.
Ministry Updates and Prayer Requests
Please turn your prayerful attention to God’s voice and His purpose for you in this season. We are truly in a Kairos moment of spiritual challenge and opportunity. The Storms Have Only Just Begun, and the rate of change we are about to experience will leave many seeking refuge, encouragement, and wisdom. Knowing His voice is of paramount importance, and the purpose He entrusts to you will be your greatest kingdom legacy.
We have given permission for the publisher of The Storms Have Only Just Begun to create an AI coaching model based on its content. The Study Guide has been completed, but the video editing continues to drag along. Please continue to pray for a speedy conclusion to this endeavor.
Our publisher has encouraged us to develop and publish A Shepherd’s Guide to the Dangers of Digital Technology as a full manuscript. We hope to complete the first draft in the next couple of weeks, and return our attention to A Christian Response to the Metacrisis. Please pray for God’s direction in the writing and publication of both books.
The Better Life Resource Network has completed its pilot, and we are looking now to take on new resource partners. Please pray for our wisdom in the selection of participating partners, and faith for God’s exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think.
Our family and fellowship are well and well blessed, with a few exceptions. Our pastor recently resigned, so we are now seeking the LORD’s will for our future. We appreciate your prayers for our continued spiritual growth and encouragement in this chaotic season. Please also pray healing for our daughter-in-law, Alexis.
Lastly, continue to pray for our sisters and brothers suffering under persecution – as if chained with them, since you yourselves are in the body also (Hebrews 13:3). Persecution has intensified in China, India, and Iran. Hatred toward Christians, by Islamist groups, in much of Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa continues with little notice by the rest of the world.
Partnering with inLight Consulting
God’s purpose for inLight Consulting is beyond human capability. We are desperately dependent on Him; and would have it no other way. We are grateful for the continued support of those that trust God to use this ministry to further His kingdom. Please pray for our vision and mission.
Share the truths you find here with the leaders in your life; it will make them free.
God bless you with wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; and may He give you the grace and courage to walk in the work He has prepared for you.
Humbly yours and forever His,
Rob