Friday, May 09, 2008

• Sarah 8:18

  Currently Listening Exile in Guyville By Liz Phair see related

  “Do you, like, go to church?” she asked after she took a big lick off the top of her soft-serve ice cream cone.

  It was a brisk spring night in the Valley.  It was late on a Thursday, and I had already gone back home to Cerritos after work.  But I made the 45-minute drive back to the 818 to hang out with Sarah and, apparently, eat soft-serve ice cream in my car in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Sherman Oaks.  I probably should have stayed home considering that it was a work night and I needed to wake up at 5:30 am, but, like most unintelligent men in love (which is redundant, I suppose), I lose all sensibility whenever anyone calls and says,“I miss you.”

  “Nah.  Do you?”

  “Not so much.  My dad is Buddhist and my mom is Christian.  I go to church sometimes, but I’m not hardcore or anything.  I don’t quote Bible verses or anything like that.”

  At this point I realized that Sarah was probably the first girl I really liked who was not hardcore religious.  I’m not a religious person, but I’ve always seemed to date women who were religious and made me go to church.  I once dated a girl in college who was so religious (Christian) that she believed that science was the work of the devil.She did not believe in evolution or the advancement of technology because“anything that tampers with God’s work is evil.”  This struck me as hypocritical (and insanely stupid) because she was a science major, although she claimed she was only a science major because she wanted to go to medical school.  I don’t really know why I went out with this girl.  She wasn’t even that pretty.  In retrospect, I think I kind of hated that bitch.

  Sarah continued: “I just believe in whatever makes sense, you know?”

  I absolutely knew.  As a student taught under the discipline of science, I can’t help but think logically.  Ever since my high school biology classes, and all the way through my upper division biochemistry courses and health professional school training, my mind has been groomed to think about the world in a scientific and logical sense. I can only believe in what makes sense, and if it doesn’t make sense, I have to figure it out.  My entire livelihood depends on my ability to think this way.

  This might not have anything to do with why I rejected the Catholic Church (or Christianity, in general), but I suspect that it does.  I suppose I can believe that the Earth was created in seven days, and I suppose I can believe that God had it in forJob, and I suppose I can believe that Jesus turned water into wine.  I can believe in all of that stuff in the same way that I can believe that I will one day win the lottery.  I can believe that anything is possible, but in the face of science, anything isn’t probable.  Jesus Christ probably did not feed 5,000 people with two loaves of bread, but I suppose it’s possible.  The bottom line is that science and Christianity contradict each other.  If you believe in one you can’t believe in the other.  It’s just not possible to fully believe in both.   And since I’m a logically thinking kind of guy, I suppose I would be on the science side.  (Although I cannot logically understand why I like Avril Lavigne.)

  Science is the only thing that we know to be true in the world. In fact, the whole purpose of the scientific method is to prove or disprove one hypothesis after another. Science is the truth, so why not believe in something that is true?  The fact that science is the truth shouldn’t cause Christians to slit their wrists and downplay their existence.  While it is true that science contradicts religion, it does not contradict the existence of God.  If the human race is ever going to prove that God exists, we’re not going to do it by burning candles or going to Bible study.  We’re going to do it through science.

  Think about this: We already have the technology to make robots.  Now, I understand that robots today aren’t too sophisticated, and they’re not as witty and cute as C-3PO and R2-D2.  But, as technology advances,robots will become more highly sophisticated, independent, and self-sufficient.  Keep in mind that technology advances at an exponential rate.  (Fifteen years ago,did you think you would have had any idea what an iPod was?  When you saw Zach Morris’ cell phone, did you ever think that you would have your Razr?) It’s very believable that one day we will create robots that are so life-like in every single way; they may even have the ability to reproduce.  In the future, our technology will be so advanced that we will have the scientific knowledge to create life.  And one day we will dump off two of these robots on a green planet and call them Adam and Eve and make fun of them from afar as they philosophize their existence.  Does that sound too far-fetched?  It really shouldn’t.  We have already cloned animals, and I’m certain that a human clone is just around the corner. It’s very possible that we will create a whole new species of life.  And if, one day, we do create life, this will greatly increase the likelihood that we, ourselves, were created, too, either by God or another species more advanced than us.  Perhaps the only way to prove God’s existence is to do God’s work and create life.  Christians will call this blasphemy, but do they believe in God or do they believe in Christianity? 

  Perhaps science is the true religion of God and the Universe.  That makes sense to me. 

  And so does Sarah.

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