Who Runs the Universe?
We attribute the rise of Darwinism to the split between science and religion. There is no conflict on earth more unnecessary, more ridiculous, and more confusing that the conflict between science and religion. Here are two aphorisms that can never be contradicted.
1. Truth never contradicts truth.
2. Law never contradicts law.
We often erroneously assume that the laws of science and the laws of nature are the same thing. It is a catastrophic assumption. It gives science far too much power. It allows science to enter the social arena and affect public opinion, giving authority in matters where it has no authority.
Let me just burst the bubble by saying that not every scientific opinion is a law of nature. Evolution, for example, may in part be a fact of nature, but not every opinion about evolution is a law of nature. Critical thinkers know how loosely politicians and other opinion makers use the terms fact, inference, and judgment. Not all inferences based on science are fact and not all judgments attributed to science are valid. In our gullible age we completely ignore that. Vested interest is the cancer of science.
There are three classes of laws:
1. Spiritual laws, or laws of God
2. Temporal laws, or laws of nature.
3. Civil laws and other government laws or laws of man.
Only two of those are absolute, the laws of God and the laws of nature. Those laws do not change. The laws of man aren’t true laws for they are not absolute. They change with the tides of opinion. Laws of man that are not in harmony with the laws of God or the laws of nature are generally destructive, but that is the subject of another day. In this podcast, I only want to deal with absolute laws.
Let me introduce another aphorism that defines another absolute truth.
3. God is the author of all spiritual laws and all natural laws.
In the realm of God, all laws are spiritual because all laws are eternal. Natural laws are a convenient classification because they distinguish between that which is subject to entropy and that which is not subject to entropy.
Science only deals with that which is subject to entropy. Entropy is the natural law that things move from order to disorder. In the biological kingdom things move from life to death. In the physical world, or the world of inanimate matter (if there is such a thing) things move from an organized state to an unorganized state, or a state of maximum equilibrium.
That leads to an important fourth aphorism.
4. Law alone gives order to the universe.
In other words, without law there would be no order. Everything would be as dead. Without law all matter would float aimlessly in the universe. There would be no stars, no suns, no moons, no planets, no galaxies, no gravity, no black holes, no comets, no life as we know it, nothing.
That leads to a fifth aphorism.
5. All laws, temporal or spiritual, are organized to perform a specific function.
Since time immemorial science has invariably proven that every particle, no matter how small, every object, no matter how large, and every system, no matter how complex, is governed by a complete set of laws giving them independence. Without law there can be no creation. Without creation there can be no science and no religion.
