We All Hope in Something

I read this Guardian interview with Stephen Hawking, and decided to address it in my sermon yesterday at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church. Here's some prominent excerpts from the interview:

You've said there is no reason to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper. Is our existence all down to luck?

Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.

So here we are. What should we do?

We should seek the greatest value of our action.

You had a health scare and spent time in hospital in 2009. What, if anything, do you fear about death?

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.

When I ruminated upon Hawking's thoughts, I came to a series of conclusions.

First, I believe Hawking is mostly right about fairy stories. I think most of what humans put their faith and hope in really are fairy stories. Most of the things we use to comfort us are fleeting. But not all of those things.

Second, notice that Hawking is not a careful philosopher. In rapid succession, he says that the universe is created from chance and that we should seek the greatest value of our action. But, in a universe created by chance, in which there is no plan or purpose, there cannot be an eternal, outside-of-time value system that makes one action filled with more or less value than any other. In other words, the idea of chance and value do not go together. Hawking's worldview is internally inconsistent.

Lastly, the charge that Hawking levels against people who believe in an afterlife is a remarkably short-sighted one. Why? Because we all hope in something. Atheistic thought, in which the world is here by accident, truly permits a do-what-you-want kind of lifestyle. It isn't that all atheists are completely selfish people, but atheism permits it. If there is no God, and there is no ultimate moral reckoning, then we can do what we want. In other words, atheism is it's own sort of fairy story, allowing for one's entire hope to be put into sensual desires. We all hope in something.

As a brief aside, despite the fact that many of the new atheists (see here for example) attempt to construct a reasonable universal morality from sociology and brain chemistry, they can only tell us that we have a moral system. They still cannot answer the question why certain things must always be right and certain things must always be wrong. Survival of the fittest and evolutionary biology does not answer for altruism, or completely selfless actions that harm self.

Returning to the matter at hand, I began to muse upon the fact that we really do all hope in something. Even the hopeless hope in a world without pain, or sadly, a world without themselves. But we all place our hope in something beyond ourselves. It's a truly human thing to do.

The trick, then, is to hope in the right thing. Or to hope in the right person.

The Kingdoms of this World Shall Become the Kingdom of our Lord

The kingdom of this world
Is become the kingdom of our Lord,
And of His Christ, and of His Christ;
And He shall reign for ever and ever,
For ever and ever, forever and ever.

Those words are taken from the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. Though regularly sung in high school choirs across the country, it's galling words are rarely reflected upon anymore. And an interesting juxtaposition of our kingdoms versus Jesus' kingdom was given a few weeks ago, in a Philadelphia Macy's store.

What on earth happened on Oct. 30? Over 600 singers from over two dozen music singing groups planned a "spontaneous" or "random" act of "culture." The Macy's contains a large organ, and they planned to surprise many of those Saturday shoppers with a powerful moment of beauty. It seems their simple goal was to provoke others- going viral with youtube of course- to explore the depths of high culture.

The first irony shouldn't be lost on us. You see, these fine singers were trying to promote the beauty of high western art and culture. Even their viral youtube video is called a "Random Act of Culture," which belies their true intention. Beauty is to be exalted. But undoubtedly, many in the high culture camp have atheistic views. They don't care for Handel's words but they love his art.

But how can a person experience beauty if we are simply more evolved animals who are pre-conditioned to respond to stimuli? What in atheism gives license for the hearer to have a powerful emotional experience with art? In atheism, it's perfectly natural for the strong to eat the weak. In atheism, it's perfectly natural for self-interest to reign. What in Handel sparks self-interest? What in Handel accounts for these complex and profound human experiences? As irrational as it may seem, the human heart was meant to be raptured by beauty. What acounts for this?

The second irony. Jesus Christ himself is the ultimate beauty. And so in the middle of a Macy's store in Philadelphia in 21st century America, the kingdom of our world- commercialism- is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. In a center of American worship- the mall- Jesus Christ was being exalted. And forever will he be exalted by his people. It's the beauty our heart needs, and the beauty we were made for.

Miracles and the Psychosomatic

One of my best friend's is my cousin who shares my name, David. He experienced a miracle recently, and I want to tell his story. But before I do, some introduction is in order.

There are ultimately only two views on miracles: either they happen or they don't. Those who think miracles cannot happen are typically atheistic in their theology, materialistic in their philosophy, and naturalistic in their view of the mind and body (as well as other biological processes). "Materialism" or "naturalism" is ultimately the view that claims that matter is all there is. It's a denial of anything supernatural at all.

And yet biological oddities happen all the time. Seeming "miracles" do happen in hospitals. And even still, people interpret the facts differently. Supernaturalists (admittedly a huge camp of people) say that miracles can happen and why be so surprised? Supernaturalists that are Christians actually pray for these things all the time. Naturalists, on the other hand, tell us that many diseases and biological issues are psycho-somatic (ie the mind can convince the body it's sick or that it's healed). If a person believes in miracles, his or her body can heal them, so they say. To the naturalist, a miracle is merely an unknown scientific explanation that is probably the result of somebody's body healing on it's own because they believed it would happen.

Counter-example to the naturalists: my cousin David's son. David's son was born last week. They didn't know it at the time, but this little boy had severe complications. He had severe lung fluid and other major issues. Doctors ran lots of tests. They found out that they boy had a major blood vessel pushing on his esophagus and other things in his throat. They also found out that the baby's heart was located severely to the right, an unnatural location. And even still, they had no idea why the lungs were being filled with fluid. The more they found out, the worse it got for this little boy. The more tests that were run, the scarier the surgery the boy was facing. In all, the baby saw 15 doctors, and one of the leading specialists in the country on internal baby surgery (forgive me, I don't know the term) who has been doing his job for 38 years.

My cousin David is a Christian. Our family is a Christian. I'm a Christian. We all believe that Jesus hears and answers prayer. Sometimes tragedy happens, but it's no reason to stop asking for a miracle.

And such a thing happened. A few days ago, the doctor was doing some re-evaluations just to make sure the baby was going to be ready for surgery. More tests were going to be run as well. Then the doctor realized something. That enlarged blood vessel was gone and in it's normal location. He did some other tests; the heart was back to normal. Some other tests; no fluid in the lungs and no more fluid coming into the lungs. The baby was completely healed, and was ready to go home the next day.

And everyone in the hospital was dumbfounded. Nurses started calling him the "miracle baby." 15 doctors, who were unsure of what was wrong but knew the symptoms were severe, had no explanation. The experienced doctor of 38 years? "I've never seen anything like this in my career." In case you are wondering, my cousin has the before and after pictures that prove the radical nature of this bodily miracle.

As I understand it, the medical complications were so extreme that a simple overnight fix is virtually impossible. And as I understand it, one-week-old's don't have developed critical thinking, capacity for understanding, ability to speak or comprehend, the ability to see very far, or most other normal human functions that develop later on. Remember the naturalistic explanation from earlier? A miracle is merely an unknown scientific explanation that is probably the result of somebody's body healing on it's own because they believed it would happen. In this case, that possibility is ruled out. Here was no psycho-somatic healing. Here was no possible known explanation for something being radically fixed overnight.

Here was a miracle.

And Jesus answered them, 'I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me...'