Living in the World
Science and Creation
Wooly Mammoth DNA has been harvested. Should we then try and create a Wooly Mammoth? One of the changes that will occur in the new Presidential administration will be in regard to stem cell research. The extent and type of stem cell research will stir controversy, especially with Petri dish embryos. The real issue here is how we treat creation.
Science today believes it can conquer nature. In fact, modern science pursues all knowledge and power as its mandate. It has come a long way from a set of procedures and experimental methods. Science has become the cultural motor. That is even more so with the explosion of technology and applied science. Michael Polayni as a scientist was one who came to understand the faulty vision of the new science with respect to knowledge. But, he is the exception. Science and scientists believe they are the fount and finder of all true knowledge.
When Leon Kass became the Chairman of the president’s Council of Bioethics he had the council members read Hawthorne’s story “The Birthmark” which demonstrated how it was fatal to seek perfection and total control. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man:
For the wise man of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline and virtue.
Modern science seeks all knowledge un-tethered from self-discipline and virtue. It has a mission to frame reality, not conform to it. Pursuing nature to find knowledge is the only virtue.
For Christians, this is a misinterpretation of creation. In Scripture, Adam is given dominion over the creation of God. His dominion is linked to his faithfulness to the Creator. Modern science tries to subdue creation apart from any concept of a Creator let alone faithfulness to Him. Thus, nature can be conquered and mastered without any reference to anything but the need to know. This is the secularization of science.
When creation is solely for manipulation to bring nature in compliance with the desires of men, we have lost engagement with the Creator. Nature and reality become the sole domain of science when the Creator is separated from inquiry. This leaves Christianity as a spiritualized practice, fully private. Why? Christian belief and practice have nothing to do with reality, the real world, but is an internalized “what works for you” system. But, true Christianity is closely connected to creation. We serve God in creation, an ordered creation, ordered by a Creator. This is incompatible with a secularized science disconnected from a Creator with responsibility to Him. The modern scientific view of molding creation with science and technology sees nothing beyond science. Such a practice removes the Creator from the lives of most folks. This leads to several results.
Man becomes the new master, eliminating the real Master. There is no check to what man does in nature except man, or more correctly, the man with the most power. We are left with, at best, a Deist God who may be a Creator but does not much care about that creation. He has fallen asleep, taken a hike or is incapable of intervening into His Creation. We have a scary randomness because there is not an ordering and providential Creator. And, there is no natural revelation from which to know God, for He is unknowable in creation. Nature is only the raw material for an advancing, scientifically driven society desiring to subdue all of nature to its own desires and ends.
This is why the resurrection of Christ in anathema to secular science. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, tells the believer that their faith is futile and pointless, they are still in their sins and trespasses, if the resurrection did not occur. And, this is not some internalized ideal of a Christ rising in your heart. No, Paul says people are liars [that is non truth tellers] if Jesus in not alive. Paul’s point: the resurrection occurred in space and time and conforms to reality, it is true. The resurrection points back to creation. It was a supernatural event in the natural world, an event impossible by science. Science can neither prove nor disprove the resurrection, but if it is really true, science in no longer the shaper of reality and the Creator must always be accounted for in science.
Should we produce a wooly mammoth just because we can? Modern secular science responds with an unequivocal yes. But, does it comport with the Creator’s concept of creation? Does it assist mankind in conforming to the Creator’s reality? Or, is it merely an attempt to be a creator just like God or to show man is god? For the Christian, technology and applied science is not a means to conform and subdue nature. Rather, it is a means to better understanding creation, the Creator and our role and relation to it and Him. Only then will science be turned away from secularization, and the will of man, and returned to a relationship with the Creator, and the will of God.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Living in the World
Dream or Opportunity
The recent mortgage crisis that has lead to the credit problems in the world economy has been based on achieving “the American Dream.” The theory is that everyone in America is entitled to be a home owner. From 2002 to early this year, homes have been sold to many people in many ways. Unprecedented home ownership has lead to unprecedented financial problems.
Smart people bundled questionable loans, made them into securities and sold them all over the world. By keeping the prime rate low, the Federal Reserve made money cheap to obtain. Together [cheap money and securitizing bad loans] the so called “housing bubble” was created. The bubble burst and the entire world has been splashed with red ink. The stock markets have tanked, millions of investors have lost the lion’s share of their retirement investments, job losses are rapidly increasing, the government is madly printing money and increasing national debt to try and stem the tide. To date, it has had very little impact. The “American Dream” has become the “American Nightmare”.
It seems like an appropriate time to revisit this idea of home ownership as “the American Dream”. A dream is, after all, something that is not real. It may be a subconscious idea of what the dreamer wants to be real. Yet, is does not usually comport with the way it is. And, when you think about it, that is the housing crisis. Who would actually believe that non qualified individuals could actually be homeowners? No docs, no down payments, no income, variable low rates, interest only…all these ideas could only seemingly work in an artificial environment. That environment was the concept that the housing bubble would never bust. Sure you can’t own a home. But, we can get you in a home with unrealistic terms. And, when the good terms expire, you can refinance using the increased equity value that your home will gain during the time you hold the original loan.
The only problem was that values of homes plummeted. When the “good deals” expired, instead of a higher value, you had less equity than you were obligated to pay. The dream died, as dreams always do when you wake up. But, unlike dreams in your head, real life consequences ensued. And, the consequences were visited on us all. The “American Dream” lead to a “Worldwide Nightmare”.
The United States used to be called the land of opportunity, not dreams. Opportunities are based on substance—education and employment, for instance. Obtain a good education, get a job, earn money and save for a down payment, then you can buy the home of your “dreams”. The dream is achieved by taking advantage of the opportunities. Home ownership was always looked upon as a tangible achievement by industrious, hardworking folk who made a dream tangible.
In the past half dozen years, homeownership became an entitlement. Congresscreatures seeking votes, unscrupulous lenders seeking wealth, and greedy, envious people who wanted a home they could not afford, combined to concoct schemes that really were dreams.
Opportunity provides access to knowledge, self discipline and virtue that can be translated into rewards, financial and otherwise. The attempt to hand out rewards without effort equals a dream turned nightmare. It just does not work. Consider welfare payments, individual and corporate. What have they accomplished over the years? Dis-incentive and stagnation result. Recipients of the government largess rarely move on to personal responsibility and accomplishment without the need of government help.
How do we escape this mess? It all starts with the government. As a social institution, the government should promote opportunity so people can achieve their dreams. It is true; some will not take advantage of the opportunity. But, that is the individual’s failure to cultivate the opportunity. Fulfilling dreams through magical schemes that seem impossible is impossible. Trying to have dreams substitute for opportunity and hard work is a dead end process. Let us make the US the land of opportunity again. Please Uncle Sam, no more trillion dollar nightmares that our grandchildren will be paying. Give us opportunity not unrealized dreams.
Dream or Opportunity
The recent mortgage crisis that has lead to the credit problems in the world economy has been based on achieving “the American Dream.” The theory is that everyone in America is entitled to be a home owner. From 2002 to early this year, homes have been sold to many people in many ways. Unprecedented home ownership has lead to unprecedented financial problems.
Smart people bundled questionable loans, made them into securities and sold them all over the world. By keeping the prime rate low, the Federal Reserve made money cheap to obtain. Together [cheap money and securitizing bad loans] the so called “housing bubble” was created. The bubble burst and the entire world has been splashed with red ink. The stock markets have tanked, millions of investors have lost the lion’s share of their retirement investments, job losses are rapidly increasing, the government is madly printing money and increasing national debt to try and stem the tide. To date, it has had very little impact. The “American Dream” has become the “American Nightmare”.
It seems like an appropriate time to revisit this idea of home ownership as “the American Dream”. A dream is, after all, something that is not real. It may be a subconscious idea of what the dreamer wants to be real. Yet, is does not usually comport with the way it is. And, when you think about it, that is the housing crisis. Who would actually believe that non qualified individuals could actually be homeowners? No docs, no down payments, no income, variable low rates, interest only…all these ideas could only seemingly work in an artificial environment. That environment was the concept that the housing bubble would never bust. Sure you can’t own a home. But, we can get you in a home with unrealistic terms. And, when the good terms expire, you can refinance using the increased equity value that your home will gain during the time you hold the original loan.
The only problem was that values of homes plummeted. When the “good deals” expired, instead of a higher value, you had less equity than you were obligated to pay. The dream died, as dreams always do when you wake up. But, unlike dreams in your head, real life consequences ensued. And, the consequences were visited on us all. The “American Dream” lead to a “Worldwide Nightmare”.
The United States used to be called the land of opportunity, not dreams. Opportunities are based on substance—education and employment, for instance. Obtain a good education, get a job, earn money and save for a down payment, then you can buy the home of your “dreams”. The dream is achieved by taking advantage of the opportunities. Home ownership was always looked upon as a tangible achievement by industrious, hardworking folk who made a dream tangible.
In the past half dozen years, homeownership became an entitlement. Congresscreatures seeking votes, unscrupulous lenders seeking wealth, and greedy, envious people who wanted a home they could not afford, combined to concoct schemes that really were dreams.
Opportunity provides access to knowledge, self discipline and virtue that can be translated into rewards, financial and otherwise. The attempt to hand out rewards without effort equals a dream turned nightmare. It just does not work. Consider welfare payments, individual and corporate. What have they accomplished over the years? Dis-incentive and stagnation result. Recipients of the government largess rarely move on to personal responsibility and accomplishment without the need of government help.
How do we escape this mess? It all starts with the government. As a social institution, the government should promote opportunity so people can achieve their dreams. It is true; some will not take advantage of the opportunity. But, that is the individual’s failure to cultivate the opportunity. Fulfilling dreams through magical schemes that seem impossible is impossible. Trying to have dreams substitute for opportunity and hard work is a dead end process. Let us make the US the land of opportunity again. Please Uncle Sam, no more trillion dollar nightmares that our grandchildren will be paying. Give us opportunity not unrealized dreams.
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