There seems to be a lot of anger on Facebook. Week after week, I see the same people venting their anger – from both left and right. It must be a heavy burden to have to go through life seething with such resentment. I’ve seen it eat away at people’s character until it becomes their character. This raises an interesting question doesn’t it: How do you have a passion for justice, but maintain a sweet spirit? Perhaps the secret is in being able to “love one’s enemies” – a shocking idea that Jesus left us with.

I write this because I got a bit grumpy this weekend. A journalist writing in one of the weekend papers contrasted “those with (religious) faith”, with “those of us who are rationalist.”

It was a mincingly self-righteous comment that I found difficult to be gracious about. Sadly, sentiments like this are popping up with increasing regularity in the media, penned by journalists whose theological ignorance apparently presents no impediment to them speaking about Christian belief.

The truth is, of course, everyone has faith – particularly atheists. An atheist believes that everything can come from nothing, as a result of nothing, via a mechanism that has never been discovered (and for which there is no precedent) – an idea that fractures the law of “cause and effect” that underpins all of science. They believe this despite the outrageously unlikely “fine tuning” of the universe that has allowed life to develop. So, theirs is an extraordinary faith. It is one that all too often has led to absurdities. It has led to some calling science “god” (which is rather dodging the issue). It has led to others, such as the atheist, Francis Crick (of DNA fame), proposing that aliens caused the order we find on Earth. Other atheists have simply replaced God with “infinity”. They have sought to erase the significance of our ordered universe by postulating the existence of an infinite number of universes. This prompts the rather obvious question that if the existence of one universe was hard to explain, the existence of an infinite number of them is even harder!

So, I got grumpy at another atheistic journalist throwing up the false dichotomy of “scientific rationalism”… or “faith in God”. The truth is: my scientific rationalism invites me to investigate a rational God who is responsible for the rational order I see in the universe. 

And I am by no means alone in this. The apostle Paul appealed to the “natural world” as something that pointed to the existence of God (Romans 1:19-20). He said that the order of creation was designed to encourage people to ‘reach out and find him’ (Acts 17:26-27). Science can therefore start you on the road to knowing God. And this makes logical sense. If God exists, then both scientific truth and theological truth has its origins in God. As such, the two disciplines should never fight. 

To promote the myth that Christians are irrational is wilful perversity – a fondly held fiction designed to bolster a sense of academic superiority. It is odious, and it is a lie.

So, I invite you to allow science to begin you on your journey toward God… and then allow a personal encounter with Jesus to continue it.

(For free Christian resources that might help, go to http://nickhawkes.net)