Thoughts Behind "Declaring"

I have always loved science—just not enough. Here I am, writing Christian songs and studies, but once upon a time, I sought to be a biochemist. The molecular workings of our cells and how they produce functional body organs and all of earth's lifeforms will always be a fascination for me. In graduate school, though, I found that doing science research wasn't a sufficient passion. I switched into a Master's program for teaching chemistry and math. To finance the switch, I began an assistantship to write about science—which has had lasting effects. Now, years of writing have produced, not just science material, but children's books, poetry, studies, and songs. Even so, I love science. The one magazine I have always paid to receive is Science News, and the Internet lets me access scientific papers when I'm curious about the nuts and bolts of something. So, for me to write a hymn relating science and faith is not groundless. Here’s partly why I did it: We find ourselves today with a perceived gap between faith and science, especially about Creation. Many faiths say that God created our universe. Science appears to say it was the Big Bang. I'm okay with both statements, because they aren't really "either-or." Lines of evidence do point to a tiny, explosive start to the universe, and it's impressive how various kinds of telescopes lead us to that theoretical beginning. But, science has very little to suggest about what could have caused, or come before, any Big Bang. And, because the Big Bang is the start of all we see and measure, it's hard to imagine how we'd ever get scientific data from beforehand. For me, accepting the Big Bang doesn't preclude the idea of a Creator who caused it. For some scientists, in fact, science even suggests God's existence. They look at the various physical parameters of our universe and see that "if such-and-such were just a little different," we wouldn't have a universe conducive to life as we know it. (Now that's a new and relevant approach to Psalm 19:1!) For me, coming from a biochemistry background, I'm thoroughly amazed how tiny bags of water and chemicals (our cells) can produce organisms that think, move, and reproduce with both consistency and variety! It's absolutely brilliant! (Psalm 139:13-14) The idea of evolution doesn’t bother me either, because we could consider that God came up with it. I think that, in the same way God transcends sizes (He knows everything from quarks to galactic clusters), He also transcends our limited sense of time (See 2 Peter 3:8). It wouldn’t surprise me if evolution was part of Creation. The important issue, for my life, is less of "how" creation worked, and more of "who" worked creation. God intended us to be creative and manage the earth, but sometimes we get so in love with, say, our electronics, that we forget whose electricity makes it all possible. Can’t we live a bit more humbly before God (Micah 6:8)? Also, human knowledge isn’t always as sure about things as we may be led to believe. Over time, many widely-held “facts” about our physical world have come and gone. Now awe (different from knowledge) is regarded by some as an actual need for humans. Science, actually, can feed that awe, both on cosmic scales and molecular ones. Look at the Hubble telescope's Deep Field photos of all the galaxies! Look at Saturn's rings! Look at the diversity of the gas giants' moons! Look at the simplicity of DNA's four building blocks and then, a 3-D model of a self-folding enzyme produced by that basic, linear sequence! Consider chloroplasts and photosynthesis! My God!!!! (This is a recognition!) That's why my spirit cries out, and I want to shake any science-saturated person who doesn't see it—or thinks they’re not allowed to. My point is also, sort of, my testimony: Take science for what it is, and isn’t. Take God for your life.