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Pondering God's ways
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I don't know if it's age or what, but I really love to ponder God's ways. God often displays spiritual things through what we discover in the physical world. So when I learn something new with our kids, I enjoy pondering in spare moments, how what we've learned in nature might apply spiritually. Here's an example, from something we're learning in a Bible Study called "The Truth Project."
One of the arguments used to refute evolution is the idea of "irreducible complexity", the fact that there are some things in nature, such as within a cell, that simply cannot function if even one tiny component is missing. The argument goes that any past variation of a component of an irreducibly complex unit would have meant a non-functioning unit. So these components could not have evolved through successive modifications. They had to be created specifically for their functions. A common and simple example of an irreducibly complex unit is the mouse trap. Every piece of the trap is important, from the wooden frame to the little spring and the lethal bar. It can't be reduced any further. Take any of these components away and the mouse trap ceases to function as a mouse trap. No one would call it a mouse trap if one of the components was not quite "evolved" enough to perform its duty. The unit would simply not be a mouse trap. So, in nature too, there are significant cellular features that could not have existed if the cell had to wait for a specific component to "evolve" into the exact shape and location to perform its function. So the conclusion for those using this argument is that the components had to be designed specifically for their given functions. We know the Designer.
I didn't take physics in school, but I'm taking it now with my kids, and this stuff fascinates me, especially as I then ponder how it applies spiritually. Is God irreducibly complex? I believe so! We know Him to be God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Remove any one of those and we do not have the God revealed in scripture. The Trinity is irreducibly complex. What about the Bible? We've been taught so. Every book is there for a purpose. There are no vestigial verses. Take out the Old Testament and we can't understand the New Testament. Remove the New Testament and we are a hopeless people indeed, left without the whole story. God's Word is irreducibly complex.
And these are just the top layers of thought. The next layer is "So what difference does God's irreducible complexity make in the big scheme of things?" That's my next level of pondering. And the fact that God's nature can be pondered eternally just blows me away! I love that about God.
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