Science, Art, and Religion

Many people are quick to realize that when it comes to religious claims, we (as in humanity) believe something simply because other people lead us to. Maybe I could, at this point, draw your attention to your parents or your siblings ... who have "encouraged" you to believe all the good Christian things that we do believe (like drinking that Cranberry stuff jordo likes ... should be a sin). But maybe your parents or your siblings or your friends are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to other people trying to tell you what is authoritative concerning belief and action. It goes deeper...it goes all the way back to the Council at Nicea ... where a group of people decided that this book should be left in and this book should be left out, and they called their end result the Bible ... The Word of God (or did we make up that name?). Authoritative.

But I think the question of authority should be taken further back than Nicea ... the question should be taken to the authors themselves.

Even if ... the Council at Nicea was correct in its assessment of what should be left in and what should be left out ... one must still consider that ... here is Paul, talking about what is "good" and "right." Here is the author of Isaiah talking about what is "perilous" and what is "purposeful." Pick any book, any author ... and what you wind up with is still some person talking about what is worth belief (and along with that ... how one should or should not act). So how is it then, that we (this time, as in Christians) can trust these authors (some of whom we know almost nothing about) to be authoritative.

I'd like to consider this question from the perspective of science, to begin with. Many people would agree that the scientific way to discern truth is often implied to be... by experimenting, observing, testing, seeing for yourself, etc. etc. However, sadly, many people are very good at fooling themselves. Imagine the scientific student...maybe like that Junior in college ... who is studying electricity (I admit, I have recently become fascinated with how electricity works ... and I cannot seem to wrap my brain around it no matter how much I read)... and he learns about the ideas of Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday, and Georg Ohm. But because he is just a student, with great financial need, he does not have the equipment to test their ideas ... and even if he did have the equipment ... he would not have the experience to know where to start in testing their ideas. So instead, he turns the page and reads on, accepting the perspective that they knew and understood more than he does. People are quick to develop problems with religious authority ... because at the root of religious authority, there is a person telling you what is worthy of belief or action ... and the Christian just takes him at his word, without being able to verify any of it for himself.

Considering the Arts was most helpful to me in thinking about this. Have you ever listened to an entire whatcha-call-it of Beethoven's or Bach's (Bach was a musician, right?)? (I obviously, have not). Could you name me 5 works of DaVinci's? Yet, if I was standing alone in a room, and there were two pictures on the wall, and one of them was some obscure name I did not know, and the other name was Michaelangelo, or DaVinci, or Monet ... can you imagine my reaction (or yours). We would be prone to walk over to the Michaelangelo, DaVinci, or Monet ... and tilt our heads and pay it attention. We would be inclined to try to see what other people find so interesting about Michaelangelo's or DaVinci's or Monet's painting. Why? Because someone (in this case, a lot of people) who understand and experience the Arts more fully than I do ... those people have agreed that Michaelangelo or DaVinci or Monet were geniuses. Someone who knows and experiences music a lot more fully than I do ... has obtained the perspective that Beethoven was a master of music. And so I tilt my head and look closely, or I close my eyes and listen ... and I try to see or hear or feel whatever it is that others have felt that have made them regard this person and their work so highly. I do not need to verify first that Beethoven is actually a master ... I do not need to study chord progressions and the history of music and learn that he was a pioneer of his time. I just accept that he is regarded as a master ... and that is enough to make me close my eyes and listen.

The Bible writers were godly geniuses (at least, the more I read the more it seems that way). They were people who were masters of godliness in their own times ... and when people wonder if Job is "outdated" ... it is very similar to wondering if Beethoven is no longer pleasant to listen to. The Bible writers were geniuses who knew God and godliness closely and personally (again, at least the more I read, the more it seems). Even the authors that we know next to nothing about, we still read their work and marvel at their insight (consider Hebrews, and its unknown author...take almost any part of that book, and you can hardly help but marvel at that author's insight). We do not need to verify the literal truth in their every claim to know that they can be trusted ... Rather, we just yield, accepting that Paul knew more about godliness than I do, and that the gospel writers walked with Jesus and that the author of Job was a mastermind of his age.

The comparison between Science, Art, and Religion is not intended to "prove" the authority of the Bible ... and I don't think that it does. What it does accomplish is that it shows that the way that we treat Religious authority is not all that different from the way that we treat authority in any other field of study. The comparison helps to understand that it is very much ok, normal, and human to yield, accepting the perspective that these authors, or painters, or musicians, or researchers understood things that are ... as of now ... far beyond us, and we profit greatly by just tilting our head or closing our eyes (or reading) and trying to understand what they were trying to get across.

Plus - it is kinda a fun comparison.