Revelation vs. Science

This is an extract of a mail I wrote to an old friend, who confronted me with my current life style. It turned out that my life style was not the subject of my reply, rather the (constructed) faith-science divide.

I post this for the sake of feedback: am I wrong? Am I missing something?

Here goes:

"I think it is self-contradictory to write the line "believe the Bible is the litteral Word of God ... it can be easily proven... beyond any shadow of doubt." Belief is not proven as they address two different spheres of existence. I have no doubt that God can interfere with the physical and natural laws of nature but to despise scientists because they do not operate on the basis of belief in God is ludicrous! Observation > hypothesis > experimentation > thesis is the only way to do science! How can you do maths if you do not assume (on the basis of observation) that 2+2=4 because of some archaic notion that God will always provide 5000 loaves and fish from 12 of each. At some point, charismatic Christians are going to have to accept that description is not contrary to revelation because it never claims to be (except some fanatics in the other ditch). I really don't see why God would create a world only to contradict it, in other words: if nature is God's handiwork, of course we can describe it to discover the recurring patterns and underlying dynamics. Consequently, I doubt that Genesis' intention was a detailed description of creation, but rather a poetic rendition of God's insanely awesome power of structure and imagination!

I've found that there is no contradiction between faith and science. Science's only goal is to describe and hypothesise about the physical - to describe. Faith's role is not to explain that which is left unexplained, but rather to describe that which cannot be described, explain the inexplicable, fantasize about the unfathomable, poetically describe the indescribable God and His works. There is a grander, greater reality behind warring science and knowledge. Don't shun opportunities to realize God's Kingdom in all of your social relations as they are always a choice between Love and Hate, closeness and distance!

..whoa, this really is a big "can of worms" ;) I won't pretend to have answers but I'm in a process and in this process I find it almost crazy to shun knowledge and explanations because of the fear of doubt. Albeit banal, I liken it to growing up being seasoned into the belief that Earth is flat and not accepting knowledge or explanation in fear of it being wrong. Banal, yes, but still fear of explanations seems.. -yes, dumbing!"

Journey to Love

I seldom realise that I have been on a journey until I look back and realise that I moved. It is good to be on a journey. We are not meant to stand still. We are meant to move - ourselves and others. But if you have never moved, you cannot move others. How good it is, then, that we all move.

But for some reason moving frightens us. I guess we attach ourselves to our familiar surroundings, routines and most of all fears. I do not think that we fully realise how much of what we do and do not do is determined through our fear. Then we abandon natural friendship with our dream and trusting naïvety for a constant, never alarming cohesion with fear, thus keeping our enemy too close.

The inconveniently (for us who have befriended fear) convenient (for those of us seeking freedom) reality of fear is that it is a very fragile thing. Actually, its not even "a thing". Well, actually fear is nothing. We just don't know it. If this were an American movie the old man guiding the main character would say, that "fear's only in your head."

The only thing keeping fear alive is us. It is, so to speak, a man-made construction. To make it worse, its a construction based on linear time. (I'm not really sure what I'm getting myself into here, but I've thought about it for a long time - might still be wrong, but if no one tells me, I'll probably never know.) If we didn't ascribe value to our past "hurts", we wouldn't fear their being repeated in the future. Which would leave us engaged only in our present.

If we were only engaged in our present, there would be nothing holding us back from: Love. Unity.

And finally I arrive at the thought which sparked this long mental exercise: Love is not an effort or will to unify. Love is to not dis-unite in the first place.

Challenge

I haven't been challenged on my person, my character, for a long time. Tonight, though, is one of those challenges. And it isn't fun, growing. I stand between the choice of dwelling in the pain, turning my frustration onto that which is outside my control or dealing with my reaction, my frustration, inside myself.

In these situations I find it helpful to map out which areas within a relationship is my responsibility and which is not. The area within my sphere of control, my responsibility area, must be dealt with by myself, must be addressed by me. If I don't assume control of this area, it assumes control of me by turning into an area of bitterness, darkness. And so, when coming across this area, I will always feel pain (and eventually numbness) if I don't assume control of it.

The areas outside of my control are interesting as well, as they are the actions of others. This is essentially the same as the circumstances which I find myself in. I can't control these - only react to them! It is this reaction which is within my control and this I must control.

But its hard as it isn't solely a mental exercise ("don't think about pink elephants!") but a searching of the soul, not allowing the soul to dwell on the pain or in the darkness but continually bending my entire being, my entire perception of 'reality', towards Good - maintaining an intent focus on Beauty, Truth and Life. Letting myself be infuriated with my weakness and then letting go of Past and Future and letting myself exist now: I am the Ivan of the Present. Past is what I allow it to be, Future is never Present: I am Now. I am never Ivan the (past/future) Failure for I cannot cease to exist outside of this naked and time-independent Present.