The Limits of Science

For this week's spiritual thought, I'd like to touch briefly on the topic of science vs. religion. This is something I'll explore on a much larger scale when I finally get back to my "Why I'm a Latter-day Saint" book. But for today, it'll only be a quick introduction.

I love science. My father instilled in me, when I was very young, a sense of critical thinking and a love of space. He would show me things through his telescope and encourage me to read all kinds of books on math, science, and logic. And that was all before I was 5 years old.

This was further solidified when my 6th-grade science teacher, Mr. Alhadeff, introduced me to Carl Sagan. He encouraged me to watch the original COSMOS "live" on PBS, and I fell in love with all of Sagan's philosophy, instruction, and exposition. 

In hindsight, I can see that this background has given me a very strong handle on life and has helped me to prosper. In fact, the current CEO of one of the largest banks in the US told my wife a couple of years ago that I was the smartest guy at his bank. I disagree with him, but it's the impression I leave on most people who know me. (People who really are smarter than me just shake their heads -- they know I only appear to be smarter because I'm also such a friendly guy.)

And yet, I hold to my faith strongly. Most of my "smart" colleagues tend to be agnostic (not really atheists), and I am like an enigma to them ... with everything that I know, why do I believe in God?

Perhaps I blame Carl Sagan. Even though he was no friend to Christians or any organized religion, he admitted several times in his COSMOS show that there are things we just don't know. Science is limited. There is always more to learn, and science is a very useful tool. However, it can never explain questions in the "why" category. For example, science may be able to describe how the universe was created, but it could never answer WHY it was created. Most scientists are likely to throw up their hands and say, "Why are you even asking that question?"

Much science fiction imagines a world in which we outgrow religion, but I don't think it'll ever go away, because as humans, we will always ask "why?" And science will never be able to answer that question. So, there will always be room for religion. Scientists tend to call this the God of the Gaps, but I'll save that for later. You would not believe how large and engaging this discussion can become.

I'll give a little taste here. I know a napkin proof exists that it's mathematically impossible to prove or disprove God. I'm still working on it, though. I think it might include these elements: In order to prove God exists, one must prove that he (or it) is more than one's imagination, but one cannot even prove that one's view of reality exists. To disprove God, you can't overcome the "God made it look that way" argument, OR one must obtain godlike knowledge, which ends up creating God.

Yeah ... that napkin proof still needs work. But I know that God will always exist outside the realm of science, math, logic. This is why logical discussions and arguments are very weak in converting people in to or out of religion. One can only acquire spiritual matters through spiritual means. I know that God and Jesus exist, not because of my awesome analytical skills, but because of my feelings and my experiences. 

I know that ultimately there is no logic in the singularity behind what I believe, and I'm perfectly fine with this. Because, ultimately, there never was any requirement for this logic to exist. I know the limitations of logic, math, and science (Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach is also highly recommended reading), and I see exactly how both science and religion help in my life to give me fuller understanding and perspective in life.

There is so much more on this to come later ...

Give Thanks (Hashtag)

I direct this week's spiritual thoughts to all my non-Mormon friends. Well, the message is for everyone, but I thought I'd take this time to explain what all this #givethanks hashtag is all about. I suppose it speaks for itself, but here it goes anyway.

It is a challenge presented by the current prophet and leader of our church, President Russell M. Nelson. In the attached video, he expresses concerns that our world is currently going through turbulent times. It's not just the pandemic, but also political strife, and all around anger and despair everywhere threatening to tear everything apart.

And he posits that the best cure for what ails us is a healthy dose of gratitude ... just in time for Thanksgiving. So, he challenges everyone -- not just us Mormons, but everyone who hears the challenge -- to flood social media with sentiments of thanksgiving. He provides the hashtag #givethanks as a way to mark this effort. The idea is that if we can see all the good in our lives, even during turbulent times, then perhaps we may be able to start working together instead of against each other.

It makes a lot of sense. Thank back a year at all the posts you've seen on social media. How would you describe these posts? How would you characterize them? My own observation is that a good 90% of them have one thing in common: anger -- lots of anger. 

For the past few weeks I've bemoaned the "Anti-Hype" effort that is helping the spread of the virus exponentially. This is a series of posts, articles, news conferences, etc., that propagate the ideas that the virus is nothing, or that it's not dangerous, or masks are ineffective, or anything else that promotes actions that actually work to spread the virus. And all of these posts on social media have that one thing in common: anger, whether it be in the form of conspiracy theories, overblown ideas of freedoms being infringed, or other ideas scientifically engineered to get a contentious response. The idea being: get the people mad so that they will want to stand up and fight.

And the same is also true of political posts on both sides of the aisle. Practically every post contains some kind of warning: "You don't want this to happen" -- again, scientifically engineered to get a contentious response. And sure enough, we, being human, eat these posts for breakfast. We get angry. We feel like we need to do something about it, and we propagate the contentious ideas.

But reality, or "truth," is never found through contention. And often the threats and warnings are unfounded or exaggerated.

This whole #givethanks effort is the exact opposite of what we're used to on social media. If we can see our blessings, then all of a sudden, our fears and wants don't seem quite so bad. And then perhaps we may be able to listen to each other -- realize that we're not enemies, and start working together.

That would be a dream come true for me!

As Pres. Nelson says in the video: "Counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems."

So, give it a try. Watch the video, and decide for yourself. Flood social media with a week of thanks, and read everyone else's proclamations of thanks, and realize what good people we all are. Perhaps some good will come out of this, and perhaps we'll start working together and enjoy the synergy from combining ideas together. It's happened before, and it can happen again.

The Pride Cycle

Today I'd like to discuss the pride cycle, a theme that permeates the Book of Mormon. Though, it comes from Latter-day Saint scripture, this is a universal concept that all religious people can appreciate.

The cycle begins when a society is doing well. When the people are rich and prosperous, they start to become prideful. They see the success around themselves, and then decide they don't need God. People act more selfishly, cast out the poor, and even covet power.

Then God sends some kind of calamity. In the Book of Mormon, it's usually the Lamanites coming in to kill a lot of people. The people are brought down to humility and start to remember God. They pray for forgiveness. They start to treat everyone else more kindly. Then comes a period of rebuilding, and because of the peace and good intentions between everyone, it comes back to the beginning of the cycle.

It's almost funny how many times this cycle happens in the Book of Mormon -- almost always from the point of view of the Nephites. A few times it turns out that the Lamanites are more righteous than the Nephites. And the whole time I'm thinking, "You know ... wouldn't they figure it out eventually? Wouldn't they see that turning to God and helping each other is the way to peace and prosperity? Wouldn't they look at what happened 20 years ago, and not ever do that again?"

Even miracles like the sign and star of Jesus only brought peace for a few years. Then it was quickly back to pride and secret combinations. When Jesus appeared, himself, it appeared to break the cycle. It took a little more than 160 years before people started turning back to pride. Then, they got really low, and this time, they didn't come back. The Nephites stopped turning to God completely, and their sorrow was not spiritual sorrow. Shortly after that, they were wiped out by the Lamanites.

Is it possible for us humans to be rich and prosperous, while at the same time remain humble, caring, and inclusive? I emphatically say, "Yes." There's a way. In fact, I think God wants us to be prosperous. He says as much when he gave Adam the first commandment to be fruitful and multiply. He has indicated that he wants us to succeed. We just have to remember God, and then we'd live in a much happier world.

It seems we prove time and time again that when left to our devices, we screw things up royally. The fall of a society almost always comes after a time of great prosperity. And here in the United States, we have clearly been experiencing great prosperity, economic strength, and untold riches. But we also have great pride, inequities, murders, and hurtful scams. People are full of pride as they look for ways to take advantage of others -- such as buying hundreds of rolls of toilet paper during a pandemic with the hopes of selling online with exorbitant profit. 

Every year, here in the states, it seems to be getting worse, and people lose a little more faith in each other as it progresses. They are also more and more forsaking God, attributing all the riches to their own devices and cunning. As we become more prideful, divisive, uncaring, and exclusive, what could possibly happen next but our own downfall?

We can only do our best and try to help others to do their best. Remember God. Remember why we're here on earth. Be humble. Remember where all our blessings come from, and we could achieve that perfect society of a God-loving rich and prosperous people.

Peace, Be Still

 
Inspired by a post by my aunt this past week, I'm reminded to remember how God knows our fears. He knows our troubles, and our concerns. But he's got this. He knows where we're going, and what's in store for us.

This was one message we received from our church leaders last month in General Conference. Trust in God and he will take care of it.

Some people are deeply disappointed with election results this past week. For me, it's the coronavirus outbreak that is causing me a lot of my grief and stress, especially when I know we could have handled it better than we have. And I know there are yet other sources of stress -- chances are, you are suffering from some kind of storm.

But think on this. There are two types of storms. 

First, there are the external storms. In the case of the coronavirus -- it's a real event killing lots of people, and giving permanent side effects to many survivors. It's causing markets to crash, and even causing other indirect deaths. It is a storm -- not of my making, but something we all have to deal with.

Secondly, there is the internal storm. With the coronavirus -- exactly what can I do about it? I'm just one person with no power to influence anything. What is the danger to me? I could catch it, but that's about it. I may die ... I might not, who knows? So, I can do the best I can to protect myself. Perhaps I could help my friends and family protect themselves as well. But beyond that, there's nothing much more I can do.

Is it worth beating myself up over it? When it comes down to it ... not really. Doing so creates the internal storm that many of us have. In other words, this second storm is self inflicted. We can't choose our external circumstances, but we can choose how we react to them.

This is where Christ and God come in. The video above tells the story of how the artist, Howard Lyon, came to draw the story of Jesus stopping the storm on the boat. He helped his disciples in their time of need, and he can help us in our time of need. We really can have peace in the midst of our external storms. We can learn how to quell our internal storms and enjoy peace.

I invite you to try it for yourselves. Pray to God. Ask for help in quelling your personal storms, whatever they may be. Then you may come to enjoy peace during times of crisis. God has this. He will lead us where we need to go.

Enduring to the End

Enduring to the end is a fundamental principle of my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, but the concept itself comes straight from the Bible.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matthew 24:9-13)

This is something I've lived by my entire life ... or at least I try. I don't know how many times I've been surrounded by people who said, "This is impossible," only for me to take it as a challenge. Sometimes it takes an all-nighter, but I find great pleasure in the end when I deliver and people say, "How did you do that?"

Once at work, we were asked to present our data in a new format. I'm talking millions of data points and very little time to compile it for submission. To do it manually would take days. My superiors went to a professional contractor and asked how long it would take them to create an automated process. They said, "18 months, and it's going to cost you a lot of money." When my boss told me that, I said, "Are you kidding me? I could do it much faster than that." In a couple of weeks I had a fully functional system going. Of course I had people helping me, but it was my code that writes code that writes code that made it all work. There was even an all-nighter in there ... till 1AM on a Friday evening with superiors looking over my shoulder in anticipation. But we beat every single one of our competitors -- we were the only one to be able to present our data in the correct format by the Saturday meeting, while every other company was asking, "How do we do this?" I (and my partner in crime) got a personal thank you note from the CEO.

This type of persistence has helped me succeed in life. But I'll admit -- it's so easy to get tired. How many times have you gauged the amount of effort it would take and then decide to go watch TV or play video games? I think it happens to all of us. And I'm certain that every single one of you readers has had similar experiences where you've gone the extra mile to accomplish that special project. Or perhaps even when you saw how to accomplish something when no one else could.

When it comes to spiritual matters, though, sometimes I feel I fall short. I can think of a long list of tasks that I don't do. I'm not the best "ministering brother." I don't read my scriptures every day. I don't always say prayers before eating. Sometimes I wonder if I'm missing my opportunity to succeed in these matters. I really hate check lists (as I've mentioned before), but I really love challenges. In spiritual matters, I think I'm doing okay, but I could always do better. Am I "enduring to the end"?

I think the biggest lesson I've learned is simply this: Don't give up. As long as you're trying, you're "enduring." We'll always fall short in some areas. Nobody is perfect. It's only when we give up that we guarantee failure.

So, if you want to endure to the end, just don't give up. Keep on trying. And then eventually success will follow.