When Jesus’s disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables, “He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” (Matthew 13:11-13). The truth as revealed by the Lord can only be understood by the Spirit. It is supremely foolish to try to use logical reasoning or the scientific method or rhetorical debate to prove or disprove the existence of God or His infinite compassion and mercy for His children. Obversely, the truths that God has communicated to His children through His righteous servants will only ever appear as foolish and nonsensical to the scientific mind. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14). The expansion of knowledge and understanding over the last few hundred years thanks to breakthroughs in science and technology is nothing short of breathtaking. One hundred and thirty years ago the working theory of the atom was that it was a vague positively charged blob with negatively charged electrons embedded in it like raisins in a plum pudding. Since then we’ve developed atomic bombs and nuclear reactors and supercolliders that can briefly achieve temperatures not seen since the Big Bang, and besides electrons there are now dozens of increasingly unpronounceable subatomic particles. I have to imagine that it brings God great joy to see His children exercise their talents and their ingenuity to devise and carry out experiments to tease out the mysteries of the universe. But just because we have made impressive strides in our understanding of the material world, we would be fools to leave out another parallel source of knowledge and understanding. Spiritual truths may seem incompatible with scientific knowledge, but that is only because we either have not yet attained a sufficiently advanced scientific understanding of the universe, or we have not developed a sufficiently advanced level of faith to understand the mind and the will of the Lord. I have no doubt that there will come a time when all of the knowledge both spiritual and temporal will be able to fit together and coexist in perfect harmony, especially because we will eventually see that both branches spring from the same source and the division is only a temporary and artificial one. Until then, let us not be foolish and instead try to embrace knowledge wherever we can find it and seek understanding through both logical reasoning and spiritual discernment.
