Re: Romans 1:20

Bill
The translation you have chosen of Ch.1:v20 of Paul's letter to the Romans
reveals a worrying misunderstanding of the nature of God. There are many
religions that believe gods are to be found in nature. There is a god of the
sea, a god of the wind, a sun god, a moon god and .. need I say more?

Whereas Brave Buffalo and Black Elk are precisely on tune. The observation
that: 'He is above or greater than all of these
 things ..' is one that was first codified in Judaism, and should have been
faithfully transmitted into Christianity. Yet this is only the beginning of
understanding. Unless we accept this premise in all our debates on the
relationship between God and the way we understand the world we inhabit (ie
science), many of our arguments will go nowhere. Maybe Paul was writing in a
deliberately wry style that would be understood best by an audience with a
worldly outlook - the scientists of their day. Or maybe it is just a poor
translation.

To be a Christian who pursues science includes the requirement to accept
that the universe exists by design. At one level this is rational: "I
believe in a God who created everything, therefore the world I am studying
is here by design". But is my pre-existent belief in God included in the
rational chain? Well, it would be if science can prove to my satisfaction
that God exists which, of course, it never can because He is beyond his
creation*. In the meantime, I go on believing in both God and science
without any expectation of the two ever converging.

(*If someone wants to argue that He is sometimes seen intervening in human
affairs, I won't quarrel too much. But I might argue in turn that they are
as much His affairs than ours)

Regards
David

----- Original Message -----
From: "wgreen8" <wgreen8@god4science.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2005 2:30 AM
Subject: Romans 1:20

>
> Dear friends at ASA:
>
> Romans 1:20 says that God's "eternal power and divine nature, have been
> clearly seen, being understood through what has been made... (NASB)." Two
> questions arise: What exactly does "divine nature" refer to, and how are
> these attributes of God made manifest in nature?
>
> I think that it is clear that humans have always had a tendency to believe
in
> God or gods. In 1911, Brave Buffalo, a Sioux Indian wrote: "When I was
ten
> years of age I looked at the land and the rivers, the sky above, and the
> animals around me and could not fail to realize that they were made by
some
> great power."
>
> Black Elk also said that it could be seen that the Great Spirit was in all
> nature, and "most importantly," He is above or greater than all of these
> things (the sun, streams, all nature).
>
> Is this because humans perceive design in nature? Or is there some other
> rational perception? Or is this perception not rational, not based on
> reason, but mystical?
>
> Thanks for your time and input.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Bill Green
>
Received on Mon Jul 18 16:39:17 2005