Coming Clean

So, one thing that was kind of stirring just before Lent started (and that I continued to see during Lent) was this very stressful tension between science and religion. The way I see it, you’ve got 3 groups in this mess. On the one side, you’ve got the ultra-scientific (aka The Atheists). On the other side, you’ve got the ultra-Biblical (aka The Truly Christian). And in the middle you’ve got everybody else.

Really, though, this mess isn’t a new fight or new tension. It’s hang-over from the days of Galileo. The days where Galileo was able to amass a wealth of evidence that, indeed, the Earth was not the center of the universe. However, he was not able to demonstrate or disprove a number of theorems that said if the Earth were NOT the center of the universe, then we should be able to observe a number of phenomenon.

So Galileo had it half-right during his time - he was on the right track, he had enough evidence to demonstrate some level of skepticism against the prevailing theories, but he quite admittedly didn’t have all the evidence needed to disprove the prevailing theories. So, why did Galileo get in trouble? Well, essentially, because he wanted to. He wanted to force the Church to give assent to his theory that the earth was not the center of the universe. The Church had no real reason to do so. And it became demagoguery from there on out, and, of course, the person with the bigger stick wins in demagoguery.

Now, if you’re paying attention at home lately, we see something of this kind of religion/science battle going on right now in our own backyards. Namely, Intelligent Design vs Evolution. In this case, Evolution is the prevailing theory. It’s the prevailing theory because it’s (1) to some degree observable (2) to some degree demonstratable (3) simple and unifying (i.e. explains a lot of things based on simple rules with few to no exceptions) and most importantly (4) useful - a lot has been done based on our understanding of genetic development based on an evolutionary model. Intelligent Design on the other hand (1) may be forensically observable (2) but is not demonstratable (3) is not unifying (i.e. there’s no telling what has been designed, what has evolved, and how the two interplay) and (4) so far not very useful. And until such a time that Intelligent Design becomes demonstratable, unifying, and useful, it doesn’t deserve the street credential it’s asking for from the scientific community just like Galileo didn’t deserve the kind of affirmation he was seeking during his time.

But the Ultra-Scientific and the Ultra-Biblical will not stop long enough to give this any kind of serious attention or reasonable answer. Instead, they will march on in their demagoguery, trying to swade each of us to their side.

Me, I’m just glad I’m Catholic. The Church made it’s boo-boo with Galileo. Science isn’t to be considered the enemy of the Church, whatever it may explain or expose. Nor should theology be used to explain the detailed workings of the physical world and vice versa. Rather, the Church should be influencing Science, helping to establish the moral boundaries of where mankind should venture and experiment. And, of course, the Church always marvels at the creative power of God that Science reveals.

God bless the resting soul of Galileo, king of night vision, king of insight.

So, the whole goal of Lent is to, in part, suffer with Jesus. Suffer as He spent 40 days in the desert with Satan tempting Him. Suffer as He made His way to the Cross. And the way we do that is through prayer/reflection/meditation, fast, and alms giving.

Well, let it be known that (1) I am no good at all of the above (but, hey, there’s got to be some virtue of trying to make a good run at it) and (2) I am really no good at suffering.

Looking back over my Lent, I can see the stuff I gave up for my fast really didn’t matter, and the things that did matter, that were real opportunities to suffer and learn virtue, passed me by without me noticing much at the time.

What I have come to see as my real Lenten Cross for the past 8 weeks didn’t take the shape of abstaining from material or passtime. It didn’t involve me trying to be positive for myself. It involved, simply, (1) me trying to do the right thing - which I think, to some degree, I by and large did and (2) being content with the outcome, whatever that might be. Point 2, here, is where I failed, miserably.

My Lent would be kinda like Jesus, coming down from Heaven, growing up with all the crap the rest of us put up with and don’t deal with so gracefully, preaching the Good News, performing miracles, raising people from the dead, and then start whining before the Sanhedrin that they want to put Him up on the Cross. What an odd turn of a story that would have made. “Look, I’ve done everything by the Book. I’ve done everything in everyone’s best interest. But you’re just too stubborn and too proud to listen to me, to trust me, take my advice, and let me take the lead here. Well, poo on you! This is just stupid. Why couldn’t Father have given me another Sanhedrin??!!”

Yeah, that’s kinda what my Lent was like: getting up to the point where it’s going to matter most and falling to pieces. Worse yet, I was so bitter with what happened to me, that I began to conspire with others to bring down what I saw as my enemy. So, that’d be like Jesus orchestrating with the disciples a coup to take over the Sanhedrin.

Thing is, I’m still not out of the desert yet. Perhaps this is the sign I’ve been kind of expecting to tell me to move on. Find something else. I dunno. There’s a few more things I probably should let happen first.

On another note, much to my dismay, I’m putting off applying for the Diaconate for another year. Lisa has, with some good reason, become uncomfortable with the notion of our home life having to become compatible with the time formation will take let alone the time that Ministry would require. So, we’re going to try to apply next year, and hopefully by then we’ll be read such that she’ll be comfortable moving forward. If I don’t have her support, I know I will fail.

So here I am, back in blog land. Not a stellar return, but then, I don’t have much time lately, so this will have to do.

On some upbeat notes, Josh has taken to singing his prayers. It’s kinda cool. Tonight, we sang the Our Father together - that was very cool. William has graduated from commando crawling to crawling on all fours and has become very baby-chatty — which is very, very cute. Godparents, you should come and see your young babbling babe.