For my “Chetitorial” this issue, I've asked the man who is like a dad to me to pinch hit in this month of Father's Day. Gene Ciliberti is an AUTHOR of several great books and can be reached at www.xanga.com/boymarine . Enjoy his offering, and I'll be back NEXT time……Lord Willing! -Chet

“God - The Creator who is a Scientist”

That doesn't sound right, does it? Ever since I was a kid there have been debates between science and those of us who have faith in our Creator. I have studied the sciences and also have a beautiful relationship with Christ and His Father. I have no difficulty in accepting both scientific thought and my belief that God created everything.

Not a day goes by when I don't hear of a new dispute over what the schools should be teaching our kids. Should it be Evolution, an accepted scientific theory or should it be Creationism, an accepted act of faith? Currently, there are debates over whether both should be taught. References to Creationism and to God are now spoken of as, "Intelligent Design". It is becoming very common to hear those in the scientific community speaking of "ID". Engineers who build complex structures know that before anything can “evolve” or adapt, a prototype must first be designed and built.

The human body itself is so incredibly complex that medical doctors and other scientists marvel at the body's miraculous ability to heal itself. The more they study the design of the human body, the more certain they become that there has to have been an intelligent designer. In order for all of the body's intricate, sophisticated and interconnected systems to work, it had to be designed in total before it could be created. Although scientists may not always refer to a “creator” or to “miracles” or to God, they have accepted the fact that they do not know. In a way, that's a kind of faith, isn't it?

When scientists can measure, observe, calculate and repeat an experiment, they will then refer to it as factual. When they get a result that cannot be explained, they will assume that further experimentation is required for the facts to be revealed. But there are many scientists whose experiments are giving them very unpredictable and curious results. If you have studied science, you probably learned Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics. Scientists in each of those disciplines are having what I call, "Holy Cow!" moments. Just when they thought that they knew and understood what they were doing, something paradoxical has happened. Some, including Einstein, have used the word, “mystical” to describe these incidents.

They have had to deal with new and unexpected situations. There is stuff that exists but they can't see it (black matter), there are sub-atomic particles that should behave as particles, but they also behave as waves (photons), and when they came upon Quantum Mechanics the very earth moved beneath their feet. In that world they found small bundles of energy that behave in a totally different, even bizarre way (quarks). At the subatomic level, these smallest objects of matter are not physical objects at all. They appear to be tiny bundles of energy. Their behavior is both paradoxical and magical. Since they are not objects, they do not follow the laws of cause and effect. They are in two or more places, even an infinite number of places, at the same time. They appear to be like ghosts. They are addable or countable, but like ghosts that you can see through, adding them up sometimes produces nothing at all! These provocative little bundles of energy escape explanation, much like our own thoughts do. Some physicists are not willing to believe in something that refuses to reveal itself. Others who look at these new paradoxical realities sense that they have reached the limits of scientific explanation. They are having to think seriously about intelligent design and of a “designer“. They have had their "Big Bang beliefs" really shaken up.

All of the sciences have had their share of paradox and “Holy Cow!“ moments. Biologists remain befuddled by a single-cell protozoan named, "Myxotricha paradoxa" that lives in the intestine of Australian termites. They have much data on this protozoan, but not enough to understand it. What makes the M. paradoxa really curious is that upon close examination, the flagella that beat in synchrony to propel the animal, are not flagella at all! They are outsiders, fully formed, perfect spirochetes that have attached themselves at regularly spaced intervals all over the surface of the protozoan. Under still higher magnification, there are visible bacteria drifting around with undigested particles of wood, living in symbiosis with the spirochetes and the protozoan. They are probably providing enzymes that break down the cellulose. All of these smaller forms of life are working together to help the protozoan. It, in turn, is doing its work in the digestive tract of the termite, who in turn is in a forest busy recycling organic matter, which in turn becomes available for other forms of life. Another perfect design provided to the living earth - a well thought out intelligent design.

Chemists are able to take two or more unique elements with completely different characteristics and somehow create a totally new substance. It almost seems magical. The chemists have much knowledge about all of the elements they know to exist on earth, and as far as they can see into the universe. They have classified and categorized their information so that their experiments can be repeated without failure. They have been able to represent the structure of the atom of each element in nature. The atomic number of each element represents the number of electrons in the outer ring of its atom. They know that for elements to be able to combine, their atoms must have satisfied the “Rule of Eight“. Atoms can combine only if the electrons in their outer rings add up to eight. When that happens, they form a new substance. Some elements have atoms that already have eight electrons in the outer ring. These never combine with any other element and are referred to as inert. Why the number eight? Who made that law? It all works so well, just as if it were all laid out by a well-organized thought process. Chemists know and respect the Rule of Eight, but rarely do they theorize or philosophize about it.

Mathematicians look at the physical universe and see that everything in nature has the same adherence to the standards of mathematical perfection. All of the organic life on earth has an extremely well thought out mathematical composition. Every leaf, every animal and insect, every human cell has been organized and assembled using the same mathematical standards. The precision with numbers that is so much a part of the mathematician's world, has been applied and is at work in every living cell.            

As scientists continue to look more deeply into the tiny subatomic realm and into the infinitely vast reaches of space they see the same design structures in everything. They begin to understand that what they have learned about their particular science has been in existence for a long time. Mathematics, chemistry and biology were there for them to find. It is He who first used mathematics in the universal design, It is He who designed the Rule of Eight which He applied to the entire universe, and it is He who designed our ability to think of all these magnificent things. God - The master mathematician, the master architect, the master Chemist, and the master mind of it all.