Can a Physicist Learn Faith?
Written by Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. ”
I have been reading books recently that address the mutual relationship between science and religion. I just started reading a book entitled, Believing is Seeing by a physicist who evolved from atheist to person of faith. One of the exciting descriptions the author, Dr. Michael Guillen, made was his previous belief in the “adage that ‘seeing is believing.’” Those who believe science and religion are antithetical claim science is the only truth because it is always verifiable. Those who claim to only believe in the verifiable falsely believe science is understood through our five senses.
Dr. Guillen began questioning science’s ability to be proven. Guillen said, “…if I insisted that ‘seeing is believing-then I’d be turning a blind eye to 95 percent of what’s out there in the universe. Clearly, my worldview was too narrow-minded for the cosmos.” Guillen realized that one could not prove the universe’s dark matter. Instead, one had to accept dark matter on faith based on intellectual experience.
If science requires faith, then faith in God isn’t farfetched. It started Dr. Guillen on an intellectual and religious pilgrimage that brought together science and religion within his heart and mind. I look forward to other revelations Dr. Guillen finds and applies to his faith life if a Ph.D. physicist and mathematician can recognize the inconsistencies of rationalism as verifiable truth.
Today, pray for God to provide each of us the wisdom to understand our lack of understanding. The more we learn, the more we recognize the universe is too complex for our human mind to comprehend without belief. As we continue to learn and grow intellectually, pray we will also acknowledge our need for the spiritual. The spiritual and the scientific are both a belief-system worth our time and attention.
