Pastor Don Wolan

Pastor Donald Wolan
Downriver Christian Community Church
Melvindale, Michigan

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

It's "Fairy" Obvious!

Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. - Romans 1:19-20

Let us begin this morning service with a reading from the scriptures. Let us now bow our heads and turn to the book of Hawkins, chapter 12, verses 10-12! Please read along with me from the "holy book"...
"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
Chapter 20 verse 3 says...."There is no God and that humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth."

Our "sermon" today by Hawkins sets forth for us some simple truths. There is no God, no heaven, no afterlife, no sin, no purpose to our existence here on earth, no soul that lives on past the death of the body, no need for a savior or any other religious figure except Hawkins. He alone know the "truths" of life and death. When he speaks, he speaks ex cathedra without error and fallibly. His views, and his views alone, should be regarded as absolute truth! All on the side of scientific truth listen to him!

I could go on and on with this comedic nonsense, but I think I have fully illustrated my point. Over the past weekend, Yahoo columnist Liz Goodwin did a story on Stephen Hawkins, focusing on some comments he made about life, death, God, and the origin of the universe. If you are not familiar with who Stephen Hawkins is, I would suggest you go to Wikipedia. Hawkins is famously known as a theoretical physicist and a former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for over 30 years. He is also well-known as the author of the New York Times best selling book, A Brief History of Time. His other accomplishments are so numerous and well-documented to the point that I would hardly have the space in this blog to list them. He is world famous and, like E. F. Hutton, when he speaks people listen!

In spite of all his incredible accomplishments, Hawkins is most widely known for for his physically disabling condition. Hawkins has a progressive, debilitating disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. This horrible disease affects the central nervous system and leaves its victims completely paralyzed or dead. Stephen Hawkins has suffered with this disease for many years but has accomplished more in his lifetime than many of us would accomplish in ten lifetimes! Despite his physically limiting condition, Stephen Hawkins possesses one of the greatest minds of the 21st century. Fortunately for Hawkins, modern science has made it possible for him to communicate with the world and has allowed us a small glimpse at his incredible mind.

Stephen Hawkins, despite all his many accomplishments and awards, has wandered off the scientific reservation and has trespassed into the strange domain of fairyland himself. Priding himself as a man who is "led by the evidence," "convinced by the scientific method," or "trusting in the faculties of reason," Stephen Hawkins has boldly gone where few others have dared to go. He has been an outspoken critic of God and has replaced scriptural truths with some of his own. Here are a few of his "true" "fairyland" beliefs.
  • "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist."" 
  • "It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going,"
  • "We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star."
  • "For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened that unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk."
  • "There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe."

Many other similar and foolishly incredible quotes could be added to the above list, but I think you get the point. Stephen Hawkins has just "revealed" to us the answers to all of life's toughest questions. How does a man who is trained in and deals with advanced mathematics, logic, and careful and critical investigation make absolute pronouncements about metaphysical questions? How does Stephen Hawkins KNOW the universe can and will create itself from nothing? Has he ever observed this before in a laboratory? Has he ever SEEN something create itself spontaneously from nothing? ALL science is based on a cause and effect relationship. What caused nothing to become something? HOW does Mr. Hawkins KNOW that it is not necessary to invoke God to get the universe going? How did it get going if there was NOTHING to get it going in the first place? What kind of explanation is "SOMETHING HAPPENED" that unleashed the power of our imagination? What kind of SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION is that?

The world ridicules Christians for invoking God as the creator and sustainer of all things, but then posits NOTHING as the creator and GRAVITY as its sustainer! Who is kidding whom? Romans 1:19-20 tells us that all of creation itself testifies to the the existence of God and that mankind is without excuse when it comes to acknowledging the reality of a God. When one of the world's most brilliant men throws all sensibilities and reason out the window, it's "fairy" obvious to me who is telling and believing a fairy story!

Pastor Don

2 comments:

  1. Earlier humans, before science revealed some of the facts about the universe, saw gods in everything, only the existence of gods could explain such mysteries as the birth of a child or the stars in the sky or the cycle of the seasons. Now we know what they are -- but to a human living in a jungle, an airplane is evidence of the existence of a god.
    So, how can you seriously quote Romans about "everything" being proof of the existence of god? Maybe the ""everything" at the time Romas was written, but that was long ago!! And who is to say that what still seems mysterious today will not be explained scientifically tomorrow?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Sara,

    Thank you for your comments in regard to my blog entitled "It's Fairy Obvious." I'm always glad to receive comments or questions from those outside my church.

    Your observation about earlier humans seeing gods in everything because they did not understand the real workings of the world is point on! There was an exception, however, to this type of thinking. The Jews of the Old Testament time period, as well as the Christians of the New Testament, recognized that there was only one God and all of creation was his handiwork. They were commanded by their scriptures NOT to worship the things of the natural order because they were not God! The Jews in the Old Testament many times forsook this commandment and fell into idolatry and ultimately captivity and destruction.

    Without a Biblical worldview and the assumptions it provides, modern science would have stagnated and dissolved into superstitious nonsense!

    The passage in the book of Romans was used to illustrate that all of mankind inherently recognizes from the creation itself, that there must have been a powerful and intelligent source behind its creation. Science, reason, logic, and philosophy all posit a starting point for the creation. The Bible reveals who this "starting point" is, what his character is like, why he created all things, what their purpose is, and what the relationship is between the creator and the creation. Many other questions like these are answered by the Biblical revelation.

    As far as science being able to answer mysteries in the future, there are many things that science will NEVER answer. Questions such as why are we here, what is our purpose in life, and how should we live are just some of the questions that science is unqualified to answer. Although science is a great tool to be used by mankind, it can not provide answers to those type of questions.

    If I can be of any further assistance to you, please feel free to contact me at the church office.

    Thanks,

    Pastor Don

    ReplyDelete

Readers - I'd love to hear your comments! - Pastor Don