Discovering the Universe to Know More About the Maker of the Universe
I was reading through Mark Knoll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (IVP) this afternoon, and came across this most enlightening point:
Many times we make the mistake of thinking that learning about the universe around us is wholly separate for our own spiritual life; yet that can never be. Discovering the mysteries of the universe helps us understand more about the God who made it. David sings, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Ps. 19:1). The hosts of heaven sing, “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created” (Rev. 4:11)
Knoll’s point struck a chord, for often we simply learn about science, art, and philosophy in hopes of obtaining some pragmatic benefit. We study medicine to learn ways to keep the body healthy. We listen or play music for entertainment or creative release. We learn how to think and reason to become enlightened. Yet there is still something even more important that just the practical application, it is understanding truth, and in the ultimate sense of all things, it is discovering something about the One who made it!It is the nature of God and his loving work, not primarily the practical benefits, that requires cultivation of the mind.
For a Christian, the most important consideration is not pragmatic results, or even the weight of history, but the truth. Learning matters the world matters—the word both as material object and as the accumulated network of human institutions. For a Christian, the most important reason for exercising the life of the mind is the implicit acknowledgment that things do not exist on their own. This acknowledgment is a specifically Christian presupposition; its denial characterizes much of the scholarship that shapes our lives so decisively. But even more, we are learning about the One who made that thing (p. 50).
Many times we make the mistake of thinking that learning about the universe around us is wholly separate for our own spiritual life; yet that can never be. Discovering the mysteries of the universe helps us understand more about the God who made it. David sings, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Ps. 19:1). The hosts of heaven sing, “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created” (Rev. 4:11)
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