A Modest Look at Twins Separated at Birth

Genesis 1:14, Psalm 8

A sermon in duet by Kevin Fleming and John Roy

Kevin’s words are in black. John’s words are in red

One of my favorite times of the day is lunchtime. Not for the obvious reasons, although I do think there are few things that can beat a Cajun Filet biscuit from Bojangle’s. Since I was in college, more than 10 years or so, I have always read the newspaper with my lunch. I am a USA Today man…and I read it all. Not just the sports, but all of it. Reading my newspaper is another man’s morning cup of coffee…it is a daily ritual that I really can’t stand to miss.

So, given my history with this paper, I’ve come to expect certain things from certain sections. And, for the last year or so, one of the columns I look forward to most is one that appears every Monday called Focus on Faith. It presents different perspectives about current issues, and always seems to do a good job of presenting all sides of a question, thought, or discussion.

A couple of months ago, the column was written by a professor of biology from Harvard.

The title of the article was “Let’s accept the fault line between faith and science”. Interesting, indeed. Dr. Wilson went on to summarize his discussion by saying this – “science based explanations and faith-based religions cannot be reconciled.” From the moment I read that line, I knew exactly what I wanted to speak about the next time that John and I did a sermon in duet.

Now, while we must respect anyone who is a professor emeritus at Harvard, I think it very worthwhile to examine some science and our faith, and see whether or not we think his statement is true.

We know that, first and foremost, God created us all. But what does that mean? He created not just all of us, but everything. Everything we can see and everything we can’t. Near, far, large, small. And while for the past centuries man has tried desperately to find out all he can, we are still just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to trying to understand how not only we are made, but how the universe is put together, and how are we all supposed to serve a purpose in His grand creation.

Well, looking to science after taking what it is that we all know, I found that there are some very clear ingredients to everything that God created. Everyday, it seems we realize more and more just how spectacularly created everything truly is.

I want you to think about life here on Earth. When we think of life on Earth, we naturally think of ourselves. But, have you ever thought about what has to be around us for this life we know to take place? I want to tell you some of the rather amazing things that have been put into numbers in the last decade or so…I want you all to understand what a miracle this world we live in is.

I want us all to think about gravity. Pretty boring concept…what goes up must go down, right? Newton and the apple falling…what does that have to do with perfection and God? Well, one thing that all scientists agree on and that even the author of that article put it best… all biological elements and processes are ultimately obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry. Have you ever thought about that…there are a lot of laws that we will never be able to break…let’s think about just one – this idea of gravity. 

There is a picture I want you to think of. Imagine a ruler that stretches across the entire universe. With every inch you move, you increase or decrease gravity. If Earth’s gravity was changed just an amount equivalent to moving one inch across the universe, life on Earth would be nearly impossible. The margin for error, or perfection – depending on how you look at it, is amazing. This one constant – this scientific given that no one can disprove – is perfectly made for us to survive. 

And there are other things that we know as constant…The ratio by which stars produce carbon and oxygen…a 1 percent change would have a thousand fold impact n the production of oxygen. The ration in mass between neutrons and protons…an increase in the mass of a neutron in the amount of 1/700 would stop fusion in the stars. They would all go out. 

Do you see, just in these examples, how improbable our world and our universe is. It has been stated that the odds of just 2 of these long-shots occurring randomly on their own are quite small. In fact, you have a better chance of flipping a coin 50 times and getting the same side each time. Now…if that is the odds of just of a couple of nature’s exact laws being just right…think about how many of them there are. How many things went right for us to be here today? The ingredients of our life and our world are many, and they are perfection.

As a child I heard this jingle, “Two all beef patties special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, onion, on a sesame seed bun.” I might not know my password for my YAHOO account but I can remember this jingle from 35 years ago. When you see a Big Mac you know where it is from. Other fast food chains have sandwiches with two patties, but no one puts it all together with special sauce and a sesame seed bun. The Big Mac is unmistakable. It is McDonald’s signature.

If we ordered a Big Mac on Haywood Road or ordered one from Hudson Corner they would taste the same. Further still if we ordered one in Greenville, Toronto, and Hong Kong they would all taste the same.  When you see a Big Mac you know where it comes from.

Likewise we have a signature on us. God’s fingerprints are all over the creation. A sunset could be practical, a light that goes out but God made it breathtaking. A baby’s skin could be as rough as an adults but the creator made soft enough to hold.  God paints with bold strokes the Grand Canyon and with subtle hues like the smell of spring. God’s signature is even on us, “Created in the image of God.”

When we see a rainbow or snow fall, or even human kindness we know what we have seen. Religion is one way this likeness is expressed, yet so is science. The baby may have your eyes and his nose but they need them both to have a face. In a similar fashion religion may tell us why and science may tell us how, but each is equally important in understanding the creator.  Religion without science is blind and science without religion is lame. Thus to be complete both must be respected.

We are God’s signature work and we are more than one dimensional. Thus we have to be studied from several angles anthropology and psychology are only a couple of the angles. Yet we are in “the image of God” created not to be studied alone but to relate. Thus we pursue God; we study theology to learn more about our maker. Science and Religion tell us the same thing we look a lot like our creator.

Created by God…we are one of his signature works. Just like the Big Mac, we are each overflowing with evidence of the perfect ingredients. 

I want you to imagine a factory…this factory has its own lingo and language… a communication system. There are information storage and retrieval systems; elegant controls that regulate the automated assembly of parts and components. Like any factory, there is quality control…error fail-safes. The assemble processes involve the principles of modular construction and prefabrication. Sounds pretty elaborate. In fact, it has over ten million  different parts that are needed to make it run. And it can completely replicate itself in about 3 hours.

The human body, and the cells that make it up are amazing. And, again, the perfection present in our design is something we have a hard time grasping, much less imagining. Our DNA and the 4 simple proteins that make us each the way we are amaze even the most well-known creative minds. Bill Gates once said…”DNA is like a software program, only more complex than anything a human could ever design.

I hope you’re all beginning to see what we’re getting at today. We know the story of the creation. We are wonderfully made. We are His creations. And we are each so rare and so precious. Just as perfect as the law of gravity, just as exact as the elemental ratio of the stars, just as complex as the human body…we are created by a God who saw fit not just to make us, but to make everything around us in a way that would enrich our lives. 

Now, the other side of the argument will say some other things. We are here by chance, you see. Over time, we randomly have come to this place we are today. Our bodies, this universe…it all is in constant random motion where there really is no purpose. Dr. Wilson argues that, since you cannot prove the existence of faith’s Creator scientifically, there is no purpose in believing in it. Some will, but he just wants to agree to disagree.

But, I don’t think so. I think that divisive train of thought doesn’t hold up. Would it make sense that a universe with no purpose whatsoever created people so driven to find a purpose? 

I think that God brought us into this world of a mind-boggling convergence of long-shots to give us evidence every day of his hand and his omnipresence…those days where we can’t feel him, we can always see him. And science has given us new evidence every day…this world we are in longs to be explored, measured, investigated, and appreciated. And we should be inspired…because we can find Him through it.

If he made all of these amazing, awe-inspiring things…and we are his most wonderful creation? What a humbling thought…what an amazing heritage…what an awesome feeling to be able to find out how much we are loved in the creation that surrounds us.

The “fault line” in Dr. Wilson’s article…it can be bridged. The creator’s purpose for me is to be another example of his image. Yes, by many respects, an oddity…but one carefully and spectacularly made.

Of all the questions science and its friends can answer the one apparently beyond their reach is, What is our purpose? Of course faith and religion also struggle with the answer. The beaver finds its purpose in building dams. The wind discovers its purpose in moving. The oceans purpose is to sustain life for its inhabitants. Yet what is our purpose? The Psalmist looked for answers and the result was this Psalm.

    LORD, our Lord,
    how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!
    You have covered the heavens with Your majesty.

    Because of Your adversaries,
    You have established a stronghold
    from the mouths of children and nursing infants,
    to silence the enemy and the avenger.

    When I observe Your heavens,
    the work of Your fingers,
    the moon and the stars,
    which You set in place, 

   what is man that You remember him,
    the son of man that You look after him?

    You made him little less than God
    and crowned him with glory and honor.

    You made him lord over the works of Your hands;
    You put everything under his feet:

    all the sheep and oxen,
    as well as animals in the wild,

    birds of the sky,
    and fish of the sea
    passing through the currents of the seas.

    LORD, our Lord,
    how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!

God has made us rulers over the works of his hands. Rulers might be a strong word, although it is quiet biblical. Stewards or managers of the things made by his hands is our purpose. If God’s purpose for us is oversee his creation  maybe we should consider global warming. Further maybe we should consider alternatives to the gasoline engine. Maybe God has given us the responsibility to look for answers to cancer or to consider how to use plants as medicines. Maybe science is not the opposite or religion but complimentary to religion. Maybe instead of viewing science as being dominated by Newton,  Freud, and Darwin we should view it as a creation of God. A discipline formed to study the works of God’s hands

You may have thought this message would be about opponents, in this corner we have creationism and that corner evolution. Here we have scientific reasons for stem-cell research and there we have faith reasons to oppose stem-cell research.

   You made him lord over the works of Your hands;
    You put everything under his feet:

    all the sheep and oxen,
    as well as animals in the wild,

    birds of the sky,
    and fish of the sea
    passing through the currents of the seas.

This however, does not sound like opposites it sounds like we are on the same team. It is written “let them (the light and dark) be signs” it appears the writer is trying to communicate that the natural word is a sign of the creator. Signs point to someone. So to ignore the signs is to miss an opportunity. So the more we study earth sciences or astronomy or biology the more we see the signs that instead of being in a struggle with science, faith and science are two different eyes to see the Almighty.