Order from Chaos

Monday 1/27/2014 5:04 AM

Lately I have been reading books about math and science.  I am currently reading the book SYNC: How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life.  I have only read the first couple of chapters but the author, Steven Strogatz, is attempting to explain phenomena like fireflies blinking in unison, flocks of birds or fish that move in unison, the rhythmic beating of the heart muscles and brain waves, the tendency of women’s menstrual cycles to coincide when they live together in the same house, and the like.  He has used mathematical equations to model the behaviors and then seeks the solutions to the equations to see if they align with reality.  It is a fascinating process and, thus far in the book, he has some interesting results.  Like most scientists, he is attempting to find natural explanations for what seem to be supernatural processes.

As a Christian I acknowledge that God designed the universe and everything in it so I am by no means surprised that there is order and precision nearly everywhere you look.  I am not surprised that order emerges from chaos or that DNA contains millions of pieces of information any more than I am surprised that a computer program contains lines of organized code which enables it to function.  In fact I would be surprised to find it otherwise.  I believe a Christian scientist should also seek to find the mechanisms by which our universe operates rather that simply saying, “God made it and that is enough for me.”  The Christian community should embrace science and its efforts to explain the universe as we know it rather than constantly fight against it.  If we believe God made it then his fingerprints should be all over it and the more we discover about how it works the more it will point to God.

My psalm for the week is Psalm 28.  Verse 5 says, “Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again.”  I believe that any attempt to explain the mechanisms of how the universe operates or how it came to be that does not acknowledge God will fall like a house of cards or will require much more faith to believe than by simply believing in God.  If I keep in mind that God has made everything and that he sustains it all, I have nothing to worry about if I attempt to discover how it operates or how it came to be.