Rejoinder: Religion And Science - A Query Of Quotations

by Kwasi Kumi Opare

In another treatise on the above topic, quotations from the world’s leading scientists were made in support of the position that the Holy God does not exist. It is noteworthy that these were mere perceptions of a few famous scientists. Their usefulness is contingent on their palpable denial of the undeniable - existence of the Eternal God. Though these quotations were mere perceptions, once they were made by famous scientists, they were considered an endorsement of a supposedly scientific discovery that God is non-existent; and rather the science espoused by these famous scientists, is supreme. One strange observation is that the quotations, coming from scientists whose stock and trade lie in using scientific approaches to discover universally applicable laws, are only based on perceptions. They are not premised on the deductive, evidence yielding approaches that had hitherto been employed to make numerous but unfortunately, at times conflicting, discoveries. Hence, sad to say, they are not the scientific verification that one expected from scientists but measly, ordinary perceptions that might be based on mere guess work. It is indeed a rather pathetic recourse, by believers and worshippers of science, to an unscientific approach to proving the non-existence of the Everlasting God. Do the scientists rely on unscientific methods to justify their stand? This approach shares similarity to a gynaecologist who with all the scientific training cannot deliver a woman in labour at the hospital and had to call upon a traditional birth attendant to do so. Quotations based on perceptions cannot be propounded as universally truthful statements that disprove the existence of the Everlasting God who so evidently exists and is worshipped by millions who seek and find Him.

The reality is that scientific approaches to discoveries conducted in closed system laboratories, some in offices using mathematical calculations, are inapplicable to the simple task of case of discovering the Eternal God. On the other hand fishermen like St. Peter and St. John the Divine, the simple impoverished country girl Bernadette (of Lourdes in France), the three shepherd girls Lucia Santos, Jacinta and Francisco Marto of Fatima in Portugal and the pious and compassionate lady Veronica (who used her veil to wipe away blood from Jesus’s face as He was carrying His Cross to Golgotha) did find the Everlasting God and bestowed worshipping reverence upon Him. These, and millions of others still living, without any scientific training, had and continue to have daily encounters with the Everlasting God. Scientific approaches are so far below the mysteries of the throne of the Eternal, Everlasting God such that they cannot be reliable channels for finding Him. Some scientists do not even make any attempt to find Him using their scientific skills out of the realization that the task of where is God lies so far above their level of enquiry and is therefore beyond their reach. But there are other humble scientists, the poor in spirit, babies, the tax collectors, the lepers, the harlots, fishermen and the like who do find the Everlasting God because of their humility and their willingness to acknowledge the reality of the unseen Spiritual Seat at which all will give account of their stewardship at the appointed time.

Another difficulty confronts scientists - the physical world (ordinary matter such as the earth we live in, the moon, other planets, the sun, other stars etc) about which scientists undertake research and make calculations on covers only 4.6% to 5% of the universe we live in. The rest of the universe is composed of Dark Matter and Dark Energy both of which are non-physical and invisible to scientists. Indeed, scientists infer their existence only from their pulling effects on visible objects (ordinary matter) in our universe. Dark matter is approximately 25% of the universe and Dark Energy is about 70% of our universe. Indeed, scientists are now struggling to discover details of our physical world that is made up of solids, liquids and gases and that make up a small, at most only 5% of our massive universe using various experiments. If scientific efforts are now tottering with regard to what essentially the Dark Matter and Dark Energy that compose the remaining 75% of our universe are made up of, it is no wonder they cannot ever get near to knowing the Maker of these many other universes. They therefore erroneously conclude He does not exist! Even the complex variations of Dark Matter (the 25% of our universe) such as Hot Dark Matter, Warm Dark Matter, Cold Dark Matter, and Mixed Dark Matter remain elusive to scientists. We are yet to go into more complex details of Dark Energy (the 70% of our universe)! If scientists are still piteously struggling to study these elements of this universe of ours, and have not yet fathomed how the other universes are, it is no wonder they seem so much out of their elements when it comes to the spiritual world. The spiritual world is even more complex for scientists to discover but is simple to the humble and meek in the society. However, it must be noted that there are scientists who are humble enough to realize the limitations of their advanced calculations and experiments. When in their humility when they turn to seek the Holy God, they find Him welcoming, forgiving and fulfilling.

Since the latest thesis of Kwaku ba or Kwabena Ofosu or both is premised on quotations, it might be out of place not to cite a few quotations before signing off. However, in this rejoinder, there is no recourse to quotations of mere perceptions that he relied on. Instead I quote spiritual insights of the Holy Bible as they relate to some scientific discoveries, and then quotations based on actual observations by the early Christians.

Though biblical focus was on spiritual teachings, there are a number of references to physical realities that scientists discovered thousands of years later, long after they had been stated in the Bible. This is astounding to say the least. They are just a few instances of how men of God who had no ‘scientific training’ had such revelations and were able to write them thousands of years before scientists were able to use their instruments and calculations to discover them. These are:

Quotation 1: Isaiah 40:22 ‘It is he who sits above the circle of the earth…’ This is the first ever statement that the earth is spherical which was discovered thousands of years later by scientists.

Quotation 2: Job 26:7 … and hangs the earth upon nothing…” The statement thus indicates that earth hangs in space as discovered by astronomers thousands of years later.

Quotation 3: Psalms 139:14-16 ‘I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me well; my frame was not hidden from these, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth, thy eyes beheld my unformed substance, in their book were written, everyone of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them’ The DNA which was discovered later, indeed thousands of years later, confirms this, that our parts are written down. Strange but amazing!

Quotation 4: First Corinthians 15:41: ‘There is one glory for the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory’ Astronomers agree each star differs from another each star had a different six, density, temperature, amount of light emitted and other characteristics as stated clearly in the New Testament!

Quite apart from Biblical statements, there are a few other quotations that can be recalled which are not mere perceptions but are based on observed situations that occurred during the hard times of incessant persecutions of the early Christians. There is the recorded statement by Polycarp (AD 69-156), Bishop of Smyrna, who was arrested on the orders of the Emperor, was brought before the Governor and offered his freedom if he denounced the Lord Jesus Christ. In his old age, there was the perception that he would be so afraid of violent, painful death that he would deny His Lord and Saviour but he said and I quote ‘Eighty and six years have I served Christ and He has done me nothing but good; how then could I curse Him, my lord and Saviour’ And Polycarp was thereafter burnt alive.

Tertullian (AD 160-220) of Carthage who met and received divine information directly from The Lord Jesus Christ’s apostles stated in his book ‘Against Heretics” thus, and I quote: ‘Visit the Apostolic Churches in which the very chairs of the apostles still preside in their places, in which their very authentic Epistles are read. Is Achaia near you? You have Corinth. If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Phillipi and Thessalonica. If you can go to Asia, you have Ephesus. If you are near Italy, you have Rome”

Ignatius (AD 67-110), the second Bishop of Antioch who was a pupil of St John the Divine, was taken to Rome on the orders of Emperor Trojan when the emperor visited the town and personally presided over his trial. Ignatius’s only crime was being a Christian and a bishop. After the trial, the emperor ordered that he should be thrown to wild beasts. When told of the fearful death the emperor had decreed for him, Ignatius pleaded with friends not to intercede for him, saying and I quote: “May the wild beasts be eager to rush upon me. If they be unwilling I will compel them. Come crowds of wild beasts, come, tearings and manglings, wrecking of bones and hacking of limbs; come cruel tortures of the devil; only let me attain unto Christ”! Accordingly, this punishment was meted out to Ignatius in AD 110 when the animals cruelly tore him into pieces before eating him.

I would recommend to Kwabena Ofosu and others these books: ‘Summa Contra Theologiae’ and ‘Summa Contra Gentiles’ by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1273) who was a professor at both the University of Paris and University of Naples at the age of 31 years. Both books were written between 1259 (when he was 31 years) and 1273 and answer most of the questions that are found in the quotations Kwabena Ofosu picked in his latest thesis against religion. Additional reading could be Professor Anselm’s ‘Monologian, Proslogion’, ‘On the Grammarian, On Truth, and On Free Will’ and lastly ‘Cur Deus Homo’. Anselm has been described as ‘probably the most impressive philosopher of the early Middle Ages (page 19, of Andrew Bailey’s edited book ‘First Philosophy’, published in 2004). These will enlighten the worshippers of mere science as to the basic religious teachings.

A last comment – was it Sir Isaac Newton whose quotation on God Kwaku or Kwabena liked so much? For we read in Newtons’s book ‘Optics,’ 3dr edition (published 1721, page 344) that, and I quote: ‘Whence it is that nature does nothing in vain, and whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world? How came the bodies of animals (to be contrived with so much art, and for what ends were their several parts? Wast the eye contrived without skill to optics? … Does it not appear from phenomena that there is a being incorporeal, living, intelligent..?’ A BEING INCORPOREAL, LIVING, INTELLIGENT! We say to this statement by the great Newton Amen! Amen! Amen!