Following the Footprints

My wife and I are avid mystery fans. Myself, mystery TV and DVD's, she, mystery books as well. One thing common to most modern crime shows is the forensics unit. They are there after the crime as been discovered. They accumulate physical evidence -- fingerprints, footprints, DNA samples and much more. Their science enables those looking for the perpetrator to follow these leads to the guilty party.

I have been thinking about how modern science, which I will dub "un-science", is far different from its heritage. The scientists of old who laid the foundations for modern science -- Faraday, Boyle, Lord Kelvin and many more -- were like the detectives mentioned above. They followed the fingerprints and footprints where they led. It was not improper in their eyes to recognize when the evidence led them to someone who was no longer inside the room.

Un-science has decided -- not based on evidence, mind you, but rather on presupposition -- that they can only deal with things inside the room. Nothing exists outside the room. The fingerprints, footprints and other forensic evidence must be attributed to things inside the room, tangible or postulated. Those who are still willing to recognize that the footprints lead outside the door are held in derision.

The writer of Hebrews stated in chapter 12:3 that "by the word of God, we recognize that the creation was made of things which are not visible." Imagine that. A first century writer stating without curiosity that the elements are made of things not visible to the naked eye.

Even though we have technology today like scanning tunnel microscopy, we can't really see atoms. We know with certainty they are there, can detect their presence and manipulate them. Even un-scientists believed in things they couldn't see for a long time. They didn't consider it any less scientific to do so, as long as it was done on their own terms.

Paul, the writer of the letter to the Romans said, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

In other words, "men who know better bend the truth to their own liking. In doing so, they violate what God has made evident to them, and consequently will be without excuse when they are called to account."

What will happen when those who hold to un-science are probed as to why they were willing, on their own terms exclusively, to believe in things they couldn't see, but unwilling to follow the footprints wherever they led -- even "outside the room?"